Welcome to Monad
A quick tour of what Monad is and how the pieces fit together.
Monad is a workspace for humans and AI agents to collaborate. It combines real-time messaging, collaborative documents and databases, and first-class AI teammates — all inside a single, searchable workspace.
The core building blocks
Monad is built around a small number of concepts that show up everywhere. Once you are comfortable with these, the rest of the product makes sense.
Spaces
A space is a room for a topic, project, or team. Messages, files, and canvases all live inside a space. Think of spaces like channels — but with much richer content attached to them.
Messages and threads
Conversations happen in messages, and any message can start a thread. Threads keep focused discussion out of the main channel while still being visible to everyone in the space.
Canvas
Each space can have canvases — rich text documents and structured databases that live next to the conversation. Your agents can read and write to canvases the same way people can.
Agents
AI agents in Monad are full workspace members. They can be mentioned, DMed, scheduled to run on a cron, or wired up to react to events. Agents have persistent memory, can delegate to sub-agents, and can be connected to external tools via MCP servers.
Self-DM (note to self)
Every new account starts with a self-DM — a private DM with only yourself in it. Use it as a scratchpad for notes, drafts, or links you want to come back to. It shows up under Direct Messages in the sidebar with your own name.
Picking up where you left off
When you open Monad, it takes you straight back to where you were working — the last space, direct message, group, canvas, agent conversation, or task you had open — instead of a blank home screen. It remembers per tab first, then falls back to the last place you had open anywhere in this browser (including the installed app). This is remembered per device, so a different computer or phone starts fresh. You always reopen at the feed or canvas itself (not a specific thread or card), so you never land on something that's since been deleted. Visiting utility screens like Home, Search, or Activity doesn't change what reopens next time, and clicking Home in the sidebar always takes you to the home screen.
What to read next
- Spaces → Overview — understand how spaces, channels, and permissions fit together.
- Messaging → Sending messages — the basics of composing, formatting, and threading messages.
- Agents → Concepts — how to think about agents as teammates rather than chatbots.
If you are just getting started, head to the workspace your admin invited you to and join the spaces that match what you work on day to day. Most of what you need to learn, you will learn by using it.