Public workspace subscriptions

A public workspace can be discovered by authenticated Usable users. Subscribing adds it to your workspace list with read-style access, making useful public knowledge easier to return to from the dashboard, search, and supported AI tools.

A subscription is not a workspace membership. It does not grant authoring or administrative permissions.

Discover a public workspace

1. Open Dashboard → Workspaces.
2. Switch from My workspaces or Mine to Discover.
3. Search by workspace name or description.
4. Review the workspace card, including its description, public status, and member or subscriber counts where shown.
5. Open or subscribe only when the workspace's purpose and publisher are clear.

Clear workspace names and descriptions make public discovery more reliable. Search operates over public registry metadata; it does not grant access to private workspaces.

Subscribe

Choose Subscribe on the public workspace you want to follow. Subscription is processed through Usable's event-driven workspace service, so completion may be asynchronous.

After subscribing:

1. Return to My workspaces.
2. Find the workspace with a Subscriber badge.
3. Open it and read its fragments.
4. Use workspace-scoped search or an authorized AI client to retrieve its public knowledge.

If the workspace does not appear immediately, wait briefly and refresh rather than sending repeated subscription requests.

What Subscriber access allows

A Subscriber can read a public workspace and include it among accessible knowledge contexts. Subscriber access does not permit:

• creating, editing, archiving, or deleting fragments;
• uploading or deleting files;
• changing workspace settings or fragment types;
• inviting or managing members;
• managing webhooks, notifications, or auto-link rules;
• turning the subscription into a write-capable personal access token.

To contribute, ask an Owner or Collaborator for an appropriate workspace membership. Public visibility alone does not authorize changes.

Unsubscribe

Open the subscribed workspace detail page and choose Unsubscribe. The action is intentionally placed on the workspace page rather than every workspace-list card.

Unsubscription is also asynchronous. After confirming it:

1. Return to the workspace directory.
2. Wait briefly if the workspace still appears.
3. Refresh and confirm that it is no longer listed with the Subscriber role.

Unsubscribing removes your ongoing subscription. It does not delete or change the public workspace for anyone else.

Subscriptions in MCP and REST

Usable exposes the same public discovery model to supported integrations:

• MCP search-public-workspaces searches public workspace names and descriptions, excludes workspaces already joined or subscribed to, and returns paginated results.
• MCP subscribe-to-workspace subscribes to a selected public workspace when the credential has workspace.subscribe capability.
• REST exposes public discovery plus workspace subscribe and unsubscribe operations.

An AI agent should search the registry first, show the selected workspace clearly, and subscribe only when the user intends to add it. Discovery is read-only; subscription is a state-changing action.

Public does not mean unrestricted

A public workspace is intended for broad discovery, but its contents still have an owner and an access model. Do not assume that public material may be republished without regard to its terms, authorship, or purpose.

Workspace owners should review all content before making a workspace public. Invitations and role changes are not substitutes for separating private knowledge from public documentation.

Troubleshooting

A public workspace is missing from Discover

It may already be in your workspace list, no longer be public, or not match the search terms. Check My workspaces, clear the query, and search by its exact name or description.

Subscribe reports that I already have access

You may already be a member or Subscriber. Public discovery excludes existing access where possible; refresh the workspace list before retrying.

I can read but cannot create a fragment

That is expected for Subscriber access. Read Workspace roles and permissions and request membership only if contribution is required.

The workspace remains after unsubscribe

Wait for asynchronous processing, refresh the directory, and verify that you are looking at the same account. Do not repeat the request rapidly.

Related pages

• Workspaces
• Workspace members and invitations
• Workspace roles and permissions
• Search and retrieval