Discussions

If you design schemas with a team, you know the questions. Why is this column a varchar? Should orders point at users or customers? Who decided soft deletes were a good idea?

The answers are usually buried in old Slack threads and closed PRs, which is to say: gone.

Discussions keeps those conversations on the diagram itself. Right-click a table, start a thread, hash it out, and click Resolve when it's settled. The reasoning stays anchored to the table it's about — where the next person will actually find it.

Starting a thread

Right-click any table, group, or sticky note and choose Discuss (or select it and press Cmd+Shift+;, or Ctrl+Shift+; on Windows and Linux). Type your first message and you've got a thread, pinned to that node so anyone looking at it sees the conversation attached.

Some topics are bigger than any one table — like "should we namespace these tables?" Open the panel with the Discussions button in the toolbar, then click New thread. Threads started this way aren't anchored to anything, so they're the home for diagram-wide questions.

Finding and resolving threads

A node with open threads shows a numbered badge — click it to jump straight to the conversation. Or open the Discussions panel to see every thread in one list.

Open a thread to read it and reply at the bottom. When the question's settled, click Resolve and it moves to the Resolved tab — out of your way, but never gone. If someone replies to a resolved thread later, it reopens on its own, so a late answer never slips through the cracks.

Moving a thread

Anchored to the wrong node? Open the thread and use the anchor chip in its header to Reselect node (pick a different one on the canvas) or Detach from node (turn it into a diagram-wide thread).

Deleting a table doesn't delete its discussions. The thread sticks around with a Deleted table chip, ready to re-anchor somewhere else. And if the deletion was a mistake, undo brings the table and its badge right back.

Who can see and reply

Discussions follow your diagram's sharing settings, with one extra level of access in between:

• Can view: read every thread.

• Can comment: start threads, reply, resolve, and re-anchor — but never touch the schema.

• Can edit (and admins): everything above, plus delete any thread or message.

Can comment is the one to hand a PM, data analyst, or anyone who should weigh in on the design without editing it. Grant it from the Share modal, including to guests outside your team.

Threads are visible only to people the diagram is shared with. Anonymous visitors to a public diagram never see them.

Not sure when a thread beats a sticky note or a table comment? See Sticky notes, comments, or discussions?