Working state and published state
The editor has a working state and a published state. They can be different until you publish.
Working state
The working state is what you currently see and edit. It includes the diagram source, type, renderer options, presentation settings, title, and description.
Source and Details use separate editor tabs. Details is a JSON document that contains the title, description, and presentation settings.
Invalid Details JSON remains in the local draft. The editor keeps the last valid preview and blocks file export, publishing, sharing, privacy, and type changes until it is valid.
When you edit a published diagram, the working state changes first. The published diagram does not change until you choose Publish.
For an open diagram, diagram.zip stores the working state as a local browser draft. This draft supports recovery on the same browser. It is not a published diagram and other people cannot read it.
The launcher stores a small metadata-only recent index. Local document source, Details text, file-save state, and parked per-format drafts live in separate device-only bodies. Published aliases have no body in the recent index and are refetched when opened.
Anonymous drafts default to local work. Save as File exports the working state as an editable enriched SVG. The file remains useful as a visible SVG image and contains a versioned Diagram.zip document for later import.
Importing an editable SVG creates a local draft. The input can come from a file, drag and drop, pasted SVG text, or an HTTP(S) or data URL. The importer rejects ordinary, ambiguous, unsupported, or lossy SVG instead of guessing. Imported input has a 5 MiB limit.
The launcher can reopen and duplicate local documents. Removing a local-only document requires confirmation because it cannot be recovered from a server.
When a published link opens with a different local draft, the editor marks that draft as a device-only overlay. Choose Restore published to discard the overlay and return to the alias revision, or Make a copy to preserve it under a new alias. Neither action silently changes the original share link.
For a locked diagram, the editor does not store the working state as plaintext in browser storage. Publish a locked diagram explicitly to persist it.
Zoom and pan are preview session state, not published diagram state. Appearance changes and Edit or Preview tab switches preserve the current view position.
Published state
The published state is the last version that you published successfully. It has an alias, a revision, and a stable read link.
The Share dialog uses the published state. If the working state has changes, the dialog tells you to publish before you share. This prevents you from sharing an older version by mistake.
Persistent data
After a successful Publish or Encrypt & Publish, diagram.zip persists the diagram content and its metadata. It can also persist SVG and PNG renders for that published revision.
Open content is stored as readable diagram data. Locked content and locked renders are stored as encrypted data. See Password encryption for the locked diagram rules.
The persisted data belongs to the alias and its current revision. A local draft does not replace the persisted data.
Publish flow
The normal flow is:
- Edit the working state.
- Choose Publish or Encrypt & Publish.
- diagram.zip stores a new revision.
- The published state becomes the working state.
Publishing a new diagram creates an alias and an edit capability. Publishing an open diagram with an edit capability updates its alias. Publishing a read-only diagram creates a new alias instead.
Conflicts
The editor publishes against the revision that it last loaded. If that revision is no longer current, another person published the alias first.
The editor then offers Reload published or Publish as new. Reload replaces the working state with the current published state. Publish as new preserves the working state in a new alias. diagram.zip does not silently overwrite the other person's published version.