sharedrop

A disappearing link is a separate link to one of your pages. It stops working after a time limit, a number of views, or whichever of the two comes first. Disappearing links are available on Pro and Team.

Creating, using, or expiring a disappearing link never changes the page itself. The page keeps its own visibility (private, shared, or public) and its own share list. You can create a link on a page of any visibility, including one you already share with specific people.

KindWho can open itSign-in
Anyone with the linkAnyone holding the linkNot needed
Specific peopleOnly the email addresses you add to the linkRequired, with one of those emails

Anyone with the link is the quick option: paste it into a chat or an email and whoever has it can open the page until the link runs out.

Specific people is for when you want to name who may look. A viewer has to sign in to Sharedrop with one of the listed email addresses. Anyone else holding the link is turned away, and so is a signed-out visitor until they sign in. The people on a link get access through that link only: they are not added to the page's share list, and they cannot open the page at its normal address. When the link expires or you revoke it, their access ends with it.

When you create a "specific people" link, Sharedrop emails each person on it. The email comes from the same address as other Sharedrop share emails and tells them:

  • the page title and who shared it,
  • the link itself,
  • that they need to sign in with that email address to open it,
  • the limits, in plain words, for example "This link is open for 3 days, until 29 September 2026 (UTC), and is limited to 10 views in total, shared with everyone on the link."

People you add later with Manage people get the same email; people already on the link are not emailed again. To send the link yourself instead, tick Don't email these people (or pass notify: false in the API and MCP, or --no-email in the CLI).

Nobody is emailed about their own link, and the email respects the usual share-email rules: your account setting for emailing people you share with, anyone who has unsubscribed from Sharedrop share emails, and the daily share-email limit. "Anyone with the link" links never send email.

The daily limit is 10 share emails on Free, 500 on Pro and 2000 on Team, counted together with the emails for pages you share by email. If it cannot cover everyone, the link is still created and works for everyone on it; Sharedrop tells you how many people were not emailed (the dashboard shows a message, the API and MCP return email_warning, the CLI prints a line), so you can send the link to them yourself.

Limits

Every link has one view limit and one time limit (you can set either or both). Both count from the moment the link is created.

  • View limit: one total for the whole link. Every view through the link counts, whoever opens it, so on a "specific people" link the views are shared across everyone on the list.
  • Time limit: Pro links can last up to 7 days, Team links up to 30 days.

When either limit is reached the link stops working and shows an "expired link" page. Nothing else about the page changes. Link previews in chat apps and email do not count as views.

What the page's normal address does

The page's normal address follows the page's own settings and nothing else. Holding a disappearing link, or being named on one, never opens the page there. People you shared the page with the normal way keep their access as before.

Changing the page's own visibility does not affect its disappearing links. They keep working until they reach their own limits or you revoke them.

Dashboard

Open the page and find the Disappearing link card on the Overview tab.

  1. Choose Anyone with the link or Specific people. For specific people, type each email address and press Add (you can paste several at once). They are emailed the link unless you tick Don't email these people.
  2. Pick a time limit and a view limit.
  3. Click Create disappearing link and copy the link it shows you.

The card lists your active links with their views so far, time left, and the people on each one. Use Manage people on a "specific people" link to add or remove someone, and Revoke to stop a link straight away. People you add are emailed the link unless you tick Don't email these people. Someone you remove cannot open the link again.

API

All four endpoints need an API key with the pages:write scope (listing needs pages:read).

POST /api/v1/pages/:id/ephemeral-links
FieldTypeRequiredDescription
audiencestringNo"anyone" (default) or "people"
emailsstring[]With "people"1 to 50 email addresses. Rejected on an "anyone" link
notifybooleanNo"people" links: email each person the link (default true)
expires_in_secondsnumberOne of these twoTime limit (Pro 7 days, Team 30 days at most)
max_viewsnumberOne of these twoTotal views allowed across everyone
present_onlybooleanNoSlide decks only: open straight into fullscreen Present mode
curl -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sd_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"audience": "people", "emails": ["board@example.com"], "expires_in_seconds": 86400, "max_views": 5}' \
  https://sharedrop.cloud/api/v1/pages/550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000/ephemeral-links

Response 201:

{
  "data": {
    "id": "link-uuid",
    "url": "https://sharedrop.cloud/alice/k3m9x2?e=...",
    "token": "...",
    "audience": "people",
    "emails": ["board@example.com"],
    "emailed": true,
    "email_warning": null,
    "expires_at": "2026-09-27T00:00:00.000Z",
    "max_views": 5,
    "view_count": 0,
    "present_only": false,
    "status": "active",
    "summary": "Expires in 24 hours or after 5 views, whichever comes first."
  }
}

emailed is true when at least one person on the link will be emailed, and false otherwise (for example with "notify": false, or when the daily limit refused everyone; email_warning then says how many were not emailed).

Hand out the url exactly as returned. An "anyone" link uses your custom domain when you have one; a "specific people" link always uses the standard Sharedrop address, because the sign-in happens there.

GET /api/v1/pages/:id/ephemeral-links

Returns { "data": { "links": [...] } }, newest first. Each link has the fields above plus revoked_at and created_at. status is active, expired (time or views used up) or revoked.

Add or remove people

PATCH /api/v1/pages/:id/ephemeral-links/:linkId
FieldTypeDescription
add_emailsstring[]Emails to add
remove_emailsstring[]Emails to remove
notifybooleanEmail the newly added people the link (default true)

Works on active "specific people" links only. Returns the link's emails, how many were added and removed, the newly added people who will be emailed (emailed, which leaves out anyone not emailed, such as yourself or people over the daily limit), email_warning (set when the daily share-email limit cannot cover them all, otherwise null), and its current view_count, max_views, expires_at and status.

DELETE /api/v1/pages/:id/ephemeral-links/:linkId

Returns { "data": { "revoked": true, "link_id": "..." } }. The page itself is not changed.

Errors

  • 400 VALIDATION_ERROR: no limit set, a bad email, emails on an "anyone" link, a "people" link with no emails, more than 50 people, a time limit over your plan's cap, a present-only link on a page that is not a slide deck, or an archive.
  • 402 TIER_LIMIT: disappearing links need Pro or Team.
  • 402 PAYMENT_REQUIRED: the account is read only after a failed payment. Links that already exist keep working.
  • 404: the page or link does not exist or you cannot change it.
  • 409: adding or removing people on a link that has been revoked.

MCP

ToolWhat it does
create_ephemeral_linkCreate a link. Takes page_id, audience, emails, notify, expires_in_seconds, max_views, present_only
list_ephemeral_linksList a page's links with status, views, limits and people
update_ephemeral_linkAdd or remove people: page_id, link_id, add_emails, remove_emails, notify
revoke_ephemeral_linkRevoke a link now
// create_ephemeral_link
{ "page_id": "...", "audience": "people", "emails": ["board@example.com"], "max_views": 5 }

CLI

# Anyone with the link, 12 hours or 5 views
sharedrop link create <id> --expires-in 12h --max-views 5

# Only these people, after they sign in (they are emailed the link)
sharedrop link create <id> --people board@example.com,cfo@example.com --expires-in 7d

# Same, but send the link yourself
sharedrop link create <id> --people board@example.com --expires-in 7d --no-email

sharedrop link list <id>
sharedrop link people <id> <link-id> --add new@example.com --remove old@example.com
sharedrop link revoke <id> <link-id>

<id> is the page id, its slug, or its full URL. Durations take m, h or d. See the CLI reference for every flag.

Disappearing links created before this change made the page itself public while the link was live. Those pages have been put back to the visibility they had before the link was created, and the links carry on working as Anyone with the link links until they reach their limits.

Archives

Store large files as download-only archives, from a few MB up to 10 GB, over the CLI, API, MCP, or dashboard.

Slide decks

Publish an HTML slide deck and present it fullscreen on a TV or projector, straight from the dashboard, CLI, API, or MCP.

On this page

Two kinds of linkEmails to the people on a linkLimitsWhat the page's normal address doesDashboardAPICreate a linkList a page's linksAdd or remove peopleRevoke a linkErrorsMCPCLIOlder disappearing links