External Clients

Ileen lets you share the Architect panel of a Design project with people outside your organization — clients, stakeholders, or reviewers — who do not have (and do not need) a full Ileen account.

They sign in with an email address and a personal access token, and land directly in a read-only view of the project’s Architect workspace. You keep full control: you can revoke or rotate their access at any time.

This is different from collaborating with team members, where invited users get a full Ileen account and broad project access. External clients get a narrow, review-only experience.

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What external clients can do

An external client with a valid token can:

• Chat with the AI Architect about the project.
• Attach files to their messages (images, PDFs, text files, and more) — these are saved as project documents just like the owner’s uploads.
• Read the project summary with all its sections (requirements, target users, constraints, stakeholders, and more).
• View shared project documents (read-only).
• Open the frontend mockup (read-only, if one exists).

Everything they do is billed to the project owner — external clients never need their own credits or billing setup.

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What external clients cannot do

To keep the shared workspace focused and safe, external clients cannot:

• Generate or regenerate the architecture plan.
• See the generated plan or the side navigation column.
• Switch between the other agents (Tech Leader, Team Leader, Development).
• Create, rename, or delete projects.
• Delete project documents.
• Regenerate the mockup.
• Access the owner’s billing, usage, team management, or account settings.

Note

The external client view contains only the project chat, the summary, the documents, and the mockup — nothing else.

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Granting access (for project owners)

1. Open the user menu in the sidebar footer and choose External Clients.
2. Select the Project from the dropdown.
3. Enter the client’s email address and, optionally, a display name.
4. Click Grant access.

Ileen then:

• Creates a unique access token for that client.
• Emails the token to the client, together with a short guide explaining how to sign in and start using the Architect.

Tip

The token is shown on screen once after you grant access — copy it if you want to share it through another channel (Slack, a message, etc.). The client always has it in the email they received.

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What the client receives

The email sent to the client contains:

• The name of the person who granted access and the project name.
• Their access token.
• A step-by-step guide on how to log in and start using the Architect.
• A note that they can review and discuss the project, but cannot generate the plan.

The access token does not expire. It stays valid until you revoke it or regenerate it.

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Logging in (for external clients)

1. Open the link in the email, or go to the Ileen External Clients sign-in page.
2. Enter the email address the access was granted to.
3. Enter the access token from the email.
4. You land directly in the Architect panel of the shared project.

Use Log out (top-right) when you are done.

Note

The token and the email are both required. If the email does not match the one the owner granted access to, sign-in will be refused.

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Managing access

Open user menu → External Clients and select the project. For each client you can:

Action	What it does
Regenerate	Invalidates the current token and emails a brand-new one to the client.
Revoke	Immediately removes the client’s access. Their next action is rejected.

Regenerating a token invalidates the old one instantly. If a token has been shared inappropriately, regenerate it so the previous token stops working.

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One email, multiple projects

The same email address can hold separate access to several projects. Each grant has its own token, so you can activate or revoke access to each project independently.

When a client signs in, they see a dropdown listing every project shared with their email and can switch between them.

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FAQ

Do external clients need to pay or add a payment method?
No. All usage is billed to the project owner.

Can an external client see my other projects?
No. They only see the specific project (or projects) you granted them access to.

What happens when I revoke access?
The client loses access immediately. Their next attempt to load or interact with the project is refused.

Does the token expire?
No — it remains valid until you revoke it or regenerate it.

Can I re-share the same project with the same email?
Yes, but only if the existing access has been revoked. An email cannot hold two active grants for the same project.