Inviting People to a Session

Not everyone in a coordination meeting has a ClashWise account — and not everyone with an account is at their desk when the meeting starts. While a session is live you can bring people in with a link: a personal invite link for each named attendee, or one shared session link anyone can use. Both open in a browser, with no account and nothing to install.

This is the whole-meeting counterpart to Inviting a Guest to a Lane, which hands one person one lane of a split room. A session invite brings someone into the meeting itself.

Session invites are part of Divide-and-conquer rooms, switched on per organization — see Sessions Hub and Defaults.

The access brief

Every guest sees a session brief after their link and identity have been accepted, but before ClashWise loads the scene, joins the live room, or records them as present. It shows who they are joining as, the session timing, and a server-issued summary of exactly what this pass can see and do:

A lane pass names the one lane the guest can see and work.
A personal attendee pass either shows that attendee's contact scope, when their email matches a responsible contact, or the full session without clash-editing controls.
A shared session link shows the full session without clash-editing controls.

The capability list covers workflow updates, review, comments and markup, flags, and room navigation only when the pass allows them. It does not grant anything new. The guest chooses Enter live session to begin loading and become present. The acknowledgement is remembered for that session on that browser, and the always-visible Your access control opens the brief again.

Personal invite links

Every attendee on the session's roster who has an email address can be sent their own link.

Adding an attendee sends the invite. Add someone with an email to the roster of a running session and ClashWise mints their personal link and emails it to them. The message you see after saving tells you exactly what happened — sent, failed, or skipped — and the roster's invited chip appears only once the email has actually gone out. A chip is never wishful: no chip, no email.
Or send it yourself. Hover an attendee who hasn't joined and click Invite link. The link is copied to your clipboard and emailed to them — if the email can't be sent, the message says so and you still have the link to share in whatever chat the meeting is already using.
One current link per person. Inviting the same attendee again mints a fresh link and revokes the previous one. If a link went astray, re-invite — the old link stops working immediately.

What a personal link opens

The attendee joins the live session under their rostered name: they appear on the roster as joined live, show up in the room, and can follow the driver, take the wheel, point at the model, flag clashes for discussion, and add comments, notes and markup captures — all recorded to the session under their name.

What they can edit depends on who they are:

If their email matches a responsible contact in your clash matrix, they can update their own clashes — priority, status, reviewed — exactly like a guest invited to a contact lane.
Otherwise they participate without editing clashes: they see the session's model and can flag, comment and mark up, but the clash-editing controls are not offered.

When the room is split, a personal-link guest who is present can Take this lane on an open row or be assigned one by the coordinator. Taking another lane releases their previous one, so each person owns at most one lane in the current deal.

The shared session link

Sometimes you just want to say "here's the link" to the whole call. On a live session's detail view, the coordinator — or whoever holds the wheel — clicks Copy session link.

Anyone with the link can join while the session runs. They're asked for their email first, then their name. If the email is on the attendee roster, ClashWise recognises them — their recorded name is prefilled and their join lands on their existing roster row rather than creating a duplicate.
Joiners participate, but don't edit clashes. They see the session's model, follow along, flag clashes, and add comments, notes and markups. Status, priority and the other clash edits stay with members and invited contacts.
Joiners can take a lane during a split. The lane filters their viewer to that slice of the meeting; switching to another open lane releases the first. This does not widen their clash-editing rights.
One link per session. Copying it again gives you the same link. The reset button beside it revokes the current link and puts a fresh one on your clipboard — use it if the link escaped to somewhere it shouldn't be.

How long links live

Every session invite — personal or shared — works only while its session is Active. Ending the session cuts every guest off immediately. An unused link also expires on its own in case a meeting is abandoned rather than ended — personal links after twelve hours, the shared link after a day.

A link is a credential: anyone holding it can use it. Send personal links to the person they name, keep the shared link inside the meeting, and reset or re-invite the moment one goes astray.

Attendance takes care of itself

Everyone who joins — member or guest, by invite link or session link — is recorded on the session's attendee roster automatically and marked joined live. The minutes and PDF report note who joined live, who was invited but did not join, and who was listed but never joined. See Minutes and Session Reports.

Limits

Personal invite links draw on the same monthly guest-pass allowance as lane invites — you'll be warned as your organization approaches it. The shared session link is one link per session, not a pass per joiner. These monthly allowances remain separate from the live people limit.

Pro sessions support 15 people and Business sessions support 25, counting the host, members, and every kind of guest together. Guests are not seats: no invite consumes a paid editor licence, and a guest cannot substitute for a member. Sending a link does not reserve a place; the capacity check happens when the guest chooses Enter live session. If the room is full, they see a refusal and can retry after a place becomes available.

Tips

Add attendees with emails before or at the start of the meeting — the invite goes out the moment you save, and a guest who arrives early has the whole session to contribute to.
Use personal links for the people the meeting is about — matched contacts can work their own clashes. Use the session link for observers and late additions.
Reset the session link at the point you'd have wished you could un-send it. It's one click and nobody already in the room is affected.

Troubleshooting

The chip still says "not joined" after I added someone. The roster chip turns to invited only when the invite email is actually sent. Check the message shown when you saved — it says whether invites went out, failed, or were skipped (for example when the session isn't running or the monthly guest allowance is used up).
A guest's link opens a refusal page. The session has ended, the link was reset or re-invited, or it has expired. Send a fresh one from the running session.
The link "just spins" for someone signed into ClashWise. Guest links are for browsers that aren't signed into a ClashWise account. If you're testing a link yourself, open it in a private/incognito window.
There's no Copy session link button. The session isn't Active, or your organization hasn't switched on Divide-and-conquer rooms.

FAQs

Do invited people need an account or an install? No. The link opens in a browser; they review their access and choose Enter live session.

Someone typed a colleague's email into the shared link. Whose name is on the record? The roster row that email belongs to. The shared link takes the joiner's word for who they are — that's what makes it shareable in one paste. If that matters for your record, use personal invite links instead: those are minted for a specific attendee and emailed directly to them.

Can a session guest take the wheel? Yes — guests are participants. Driving, following and pointing all work for them.

What happens to a guest's contributions when the session ends? They stay. Flags, comments, notes and markups belong to the session record; any clash edits a matched contact made belong to the clash set, exactly like a member's.