# Introducing Collaborative Editing: Work Together Without Chaos **URL:** \ **Category:** Announcements\ **Tags:** extensions, features, releases\ **Created:** [June 27, 2025, 3:39pm UTC](https://community.directus.com/t/introducing-collaborative-editing-work-together-without-chaos/668 "2025-06-27T15:39:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mattatdirectus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.directus.com/mattatdirectus/32/58_2.png) [@mattatdirectus](https://community.directus.com/u/mattatdirectus)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 3:39pm UTC](https://community.directus.com/t/introducing-collaborative-editing-work-together-without-chaos/668/1 "2025-06-27T15:39:31Z")
Hi everyone! One of our most requested features has arrived: Collaborative Editing lets your team work on the same content simultaneously. You know the situation. Marketing needs that landing page updated by 3 PM. Sarah’s working on the hero copy, Mike’s updating the product features, and someone needs to swap out those images. In most systems, this means coordinating who’s editing what and when, hoping nobody overwrites someone else’s work. **Collaborative Editing solves this.** [![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/directus/original/1X/2b7060382434bea4e23221c3a96b5e036f370e88.jpeg "Our most requested feature. Coming soon! 🤝") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jemxmJuF1_g) ## How It Works When multiple people open the same content item, everyone can clearly see who else is there. More importantly, when someone starts editing a specific field, it locks for everyone else until they’re done. You’ll see user avatars showing who’s active on the page, and any field someone is currently editing gets locked with a clear indicator of who’s working on it. No more mystery edits or lost changes. The best part? It works across all your content relationships too. Building complex pages with linked content blocks, product relationships, or any of the dynamic structures Directus makes easy? Your whole team can work on different pieces simultaneously. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/directus/original/1X/3ff8de576ad6039323f85c0e428b53c17b5b19d2.jpeg) ## What Makes This Different 1. **Field-Level Protection.** Other systems might lock entire pages or sections. We lock individual fields, so your team can work on the same content item without getting in each other’s way. 2. **Clear Visibility.** See exactly who’s editing what in real time. No guessing if someone else is working on something. 3. **Works Everywhere.** Whether you’re editing a simple blog post or a complex page with multiple content relationships, collaborative editing works the same way. 4. **Your Choice When to Use It.** This is [an extension](https://github.com/directus-labs/extensions/tree/main/packages/collaborative-editing), not a forced feature. Enable it globally or just for specific collections where your team needs it most. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/directus/original/1X/3acf60486d2691fda5ad7200f9fcee012faa4d68.jpeg) ## A Practical Example Let’s say your team is updating a product launch page that includes hero content, feature sections, testimonials, and pricing tables (all stored as separate content relationships). ### **❌ Without Collaborative Editing** Your team has to coordinate who edits what and when. Someone calls dibs on the hero section, another person waits to update pricing, and the designer can’t swap images until everyone else is done. One person accidentally overwrites the testimonials someone else just updated. ### **✅ With Collaborative Editing** Everyone opens the same page. Charlie immediately starts editing the hero headline, and that field locks with her avatar. Mac jumps into the pricing table while Dennis swaps images in the feature section. The testimonials editor, Dee, sees exactly which sections are being worked on and updates the customer quotes. All changes happen simultaneously, safely, and everyone can see the page coming together. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/directus/original/1X/8d578a3afde6483f12cc92140d7ad7f036c3e89a.jpeg) ## Getting Started Since Collaborative Editing is an extension, you’ll need to install it first. Here’s a step-by-step on how to add it from our Directus Labs instance: [![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/directus/original/1X/c83f668d655b876e4a281d70edd0c4334d6f24ac.jpeg "How to Add Collaborative Editing To Your Directus Instance") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEylJunuwJA) Once installed, you have two ways to enable it: **Global Approach:** Go to Project Settings \> Module Bar and check “Real Time Collaboration.” This adds collaborative editing to all your collections and is the easiest way to get started. **Selective Approach:** If you prefer more control, enable collaborative editing only for specific collections. Go to any collection’s settings, add the “Collaboration Interface,” and it’ll only work for that collection. Perfect if you have sensitive data that doesn’t need collaborative editing. ## Collaborative Editing is Available Now! This extension is [ready to install](https://github.com/directus-labs/extensions/tree/main/packages/collaborative-editing) and use in your Directus projects. And as always, we’re curious to see how this changes your team’s workflow. Let us know how collaborative editing works for your projects! ---
**Author:** ![mattatdirectus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.directus.com/mattatdirectus/32/58_2.png) [@mattatdirectus](https://community.directus.com/u/mattatdirectus)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 3:40pm UTC](https://community.directus.com/t/introducing-collaborative-editing-work-together-without-chaos/668/2 "2025-06-27T15:40:19Z")
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**Author:** ![Burvs](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.directus.com/burvs/32/242_2.png) [@Burvs](https://community.directus.com/u/Burvs)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 4:05pm UTC](https://community.directus.com/t/introducing-collaborative-editing-work-together-without-chaos/668/3 "2025-06-27T16:05:53Z")
This looks amazing. Great work team! I have a question though… if data gets updated via the api (ie outside of the Data Studio app), will those changes still show up live for anyone watching the relevant item from within Data Studio? ---
**Author:** ![Burvs](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.directus.com/burvs/32/242_2.png) [@Burvs](https://community.directus.com/u/Burvs)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2025, 12:06pm UTC](https://community.directus.com/t/introducing-collaborative-editing-work-together-without-chaos/668/4 "2025-07-18T12:06:18Z")
To answer my own question (having tried it out now): yes, updates via the API do show up in realtime to anyone viewing the item in question. It’s not ideal though as it immediately forces a reload of the page and any user currently working on the item will lose any unsaved changes. Also, collaborative-editing appears to make use of “Save and Stay” painfully slow as it forces a whole page reload. Have raised a couple of issues related to these: > > > \### Extension > > Collaborative Editing > > \### Describe the Bug > > Having given the new… Collaborative Editing feature a trial run, I've found two scenarios that can result in accidental data loss / unintentional saving of data: > > \*\*Scenario 1\*\* > \- User1 and User2 are both editing the same Item containing Field1 and Field2. > \- User1 makes a change to Field1 but doesn’t save it just yet. > \- User2 makes a change to Field2 and DOES save it. > \- This causes the page to reload for both users, and User1’s edit on Field1 gets automatically saved even though they did not choose to save it. > > \*\*Scenario2\*\* > \- User1 is busy editing an item and types a bunch of text into a field but has not saved yet. > \- The same item gets updated via a patch request on the api. > \- This causes the page to get refreshed and User1 loses their unsaved edits. > > > \### To Reproduce > > Follow the steps described above. > > \### Directus Version > > v11.9.3 > > \### Hosting Strategy > > Self-Hosted (Docker Image) > > > \### Extension > > Collaborative Editing > > \### Describe the Bug > > When viewing an item… on which live collaborating is enabled (even if no other user is currently connected), then using “Save and Stay” after making any change on the page results in a complete reload of the page. This makes Directus significantly slower to use with collaborative editing enabled. Our users (for our internal app) tend to use Save and Stay all the time when working on items. In our opinion, Save and Stay should be the default behaviour but that’s another conversation. Point is, I doubt we would want to take such a hit on saving performance to benefit from the collab feature. > > \### To Reproduce > > Make some edits to an item with collaborative-editing enabled. > Choose "Save and Stay" (or press cmd+s). > Observe how the entire page reloads. Compare this to the behaviour when using Save and Stay without collaborative-editing installed and notice the significant performance difference. > > \### Directus Version > > v11.9.3 > > \### Hosting Strategy > > Self-Hosted (Docker Image) ---
**Author:** ![Burvs](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.directus.com/burvs/32/242_2.png) [@Burvs](https://community.directus.com/u/Burvs)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 9:39am UTC](https://community.directus.com/t/introducing-collaborative-editing-work-together-without-chaos/668/5 "2025-10-03T09:39:02Z")
Hey @mattatdirectus , it would be great to know if there’s any plans to develop this feature further and address the above issues. It would be such an awesome feature to have. 🙏