In Seed, there are two ways to share a document in multiple places: Republishing and Branching. When you add a document to a new location, you gain access to a different community. This community may be significantly larger or have a distinct knowledge mission.

While republishing is still under development, it's designed to preserve the identity, versions, and permissions of the original document — like a live mirror.

This guide focuses on branching, which works differently: it creates a new copy of the document with its own identity, timeline, and permissions.

Branching vs. Republishing

Republishing (in development)

Same document ID and history.

Any updates to the original document automatically sync to all republished locations.

Permissions remain the same: if someone can edit the original, they can edit the republished version too.

Use republishing when you want the same document in multiple places with shared control.

Branching (fully supported)

Copies all versions of a document to a new location:

Another site.

A different directory.

Or a new path within the same site.

Creates a new, independent timeline:

Future edits to the original document will not affect the branch.

Permissions are reset to match the destination:

Even the original author may lose edit rights.

Use branching when you want to diverge — create a variant of a document with different collaborators, goals, or governance.

How to Branch a Document

Create and publish your original document.

(Optional) Add collaborators in the Collaborators tab to observe permission behavior.

Open the Options menu (top bar) and select Create Document Branch.

Choose a new location (site, directory or path) for the branch.

Visit the Versions tab:

The full authorship and edit history are preserved.

Check the Collaborators tab:

Permissions reflect the new location.

You may no longer have edit rights, depending on access rules.

What’s Next

In future versions of Seed, you'll be able to:

Rebase a branch with updates from the original.

Merge changes between branches.

Revert edits or full versions.

Use Republishing as a stable, permission-preserving alternative to branching.