Visibility and Access Control

Every published document has one of three visibility levels. You set visibility in the Publish tab of the share modal, or via the visibility parameter in the API.

Public documents are indexed by search engines and shown on your author profile page. This is the most visible option.

• Anyone can view the page without an account
• The document appears on your public profile page at /u/[username]
• Search engines can index the page (included in sitemap)
• Open Graph and Twitter Card metadata are fully active
• JSON-LD Article schema is included for rich search results

Anyone who has the direct URL can view the document, but it is not discoverable through search engines or your profile page. This is the default visibility for all plans.

• Anyone with the URL can view the page without an account
• The document is hidden from your profile page
• A noindex meta tag tells search engines not to index the page
• Not included in the sitemap
• Available on both Free and Pro plans

Only users you explicitly invite can view the published page. Everyone else sees an access denied message. Invited viewers need an Unmarkdown account to access the page.

• Only invited users can view the page (must be signed in)
• The document is hidden from your profile page
• Search engines cannot access or index the page
• Free plan: up to 3 people per document
• Pro plan: unlimited people per document

You can add a password gate to any published document, regardless of its visibility level. Visitors must enter the correct password before the document content is shown.

• Passwords are hashed with bcrypt before storage
• Verification sets an httpOnly cookie so visitors do not need to re-enter the password on each page load
• Password-protected documents automatically receive a noindex meta tag
• Works with all three visibility levels

Set or remove a password in the publish settings panel. Changing the password invalidates all existing verification cookies.

You can set an optional expiration date on any published document. After the expiration timestamp, the document returns a 410 Gone response and is no longer accessible to visitors.

Expiration is useful for time-limited content like event invitations, temporary guides, or promotional materials. The document and all its settings are preserved after expiry. You can clear the expiration date or set a new one to restore access.

Control how wide your published document renders. This setting affects the maximum content width on the published page:

• Standard (1280px): Default width, comfortable reading for most content
• Wide (1920px): Full desktop width, good for tables, diagrams, and data-heavy documents
• Full (unconstrained): Content expands to fill the browser window

Page width is set per document in the publish settings and also syncs with the editor's preview width. All plans have access to all three width options.

You can change a document's visibility at any time through the publish settings panel. Visibility changes take effect immediately.

Switching from public to link-only removes the document from your profile page and adds the noindex tag. Switching to specific-people immediately blocks access for non-invited users. Switching back to public restores full visibility and profile listing.

Visibility settings apply to the published page only. They do not affect editor sharing. Collaborators with edit access can always open the document in the editor, regardless of the published page's visibility setting.