Joining desks together

Joining pairs this exe with another one (say, your laptop's). From then on the two share what their apps save, their Workspace files and their Newsfeed: a note written on one is on the other when you sit down at it.

What joining gives you

Joined nodes sync continuously, both ways:

• App data. What the apps save: your notes, to-dos, settings and the rest.
• Workspace files, up to 100 MB each. A file an agent writes into the Workspace on one node reaches the others too.
• The Newsfeed. One timeline of what happened on every node.

VMs, the configuration and the disks of the Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X apps (Intel included) are not synced: each stays on its own node. Joining gives the other node the sync and nothing more: not your VMs, your configuration or a shell.

Join two nodes

The two nodes must be able to reach each other, as they can on one tailnet.

1. On the other node, choose Special → Node Sync…. In the dialog that opens, press New Join Code: the code works once, for ten minutes. This node, above the code, shows that node's address.
2. On this node, choose Special → Node Sync…. Under Join another node type the other node's address (its Tailscale IP, with :port after it if its desktop is not on 7777) and the code, and press Join.

Joined nodes lists each node with a lamp that is green while it answers, its address and how many milliseconds away it is. Leave, pressed twice, stops the sync with that node, which is told and drops this one too. Join a third node to either of two joined ones and all three sync with one another.

When two nodes change the same thing at once

Lists the apps keep item by item, such as to-dos and notes, are merged item by item, so what either node added or changed survives. For any other file one copy wins and the other is saved in ~/.exe/sync-conflicts, and the Newsfeed says so.

The Newsfeed

The Newsfeed (Windows → Newsfeed, or its icon on the desktop) is the shared timeline of the mesh: VMs created and deleted, nodes joining, sync conflicts. Each item names the node it came from. Agents can post to it with POST /v1/newsfeed, so finished work or problems show up on every desk.