Private and public Things (the open-source rule)

This is the one rule in Solid Vibes that deserves a slow read, because it affects who can see your work.

The rule in one paragraph

Every plan has a total number of Things and a smaller number that can be private. A private Thing is visible only to you and the people you choose to share it with. Everything beyond your private limit is public, which means it is published as open source. Higher plans raise both numbers.

(Defaults at the time of writing. Admins manage these numbers, and your Billing page shows yours.)

Why this model exists

Solid Vibes treats physical things like open-source software: a design that one person improves can help everyone. A public Thing is a contribution to a shared library, where others can use it, learn from it, and build on it. Private slots exist for work that needs to stay yours.

Public Things you publish become listings in the Marketplace, a browsable library where others can find, rate and remix them (copy them with full history and credit to you). See Publish a Thing to the Marketplace. You can also use a listing as a linked, versioned part inside your own Thing: see Use parts from the Marketplace in your Things.

What "public" means in practice

Treat a public Thing as visible to everyone:

• Its geometry, parameters and history can be seen, and can be remixed, with attribution to you.
• It carries an open hardware license. By default that is CERN-OHL-P 2.0 (permissive open hardware: anyone may make, change and sell it with credit). See Licenses for public Things.
• Higher plans (Pro) can choose other licenses, such as share-alike or non-commercial.
• The license is shown clearly and carried into any remix.

What "private" means

A private Thing is visible only to you and to the people you share it with, through a link or, on team plans, workspace roles. Private is the default posture for IP protection, as long as you have private slots available.

Making sure what you want private stays private

1. Check each Thing's visibility before you start working on something sensitive. Every Thing is either private or public.
2. Keep an eye on your private count. Your account shows how many private slots you have used.
3. Use private slots for client work, unreleased products and anything with proprietary details.
4. Use public slots for things you are happy to share: hobby projects, helpers, parts like brackets and hinges.
5. Upgrade if you need more private Things. Pro has 100.

When your private slots are full

You have three options, and none of them delete anything:

• Upgrade to a plan with more private slots.
• Publish an existing private Thing as public, which frees a private slot (only do this for something you are comfortable sharing).
• Free a slot by deleting a Thing you no longer need.

Until you do, new Things beyond your limits wait, and your existing work remains fully available.

Changing your mind

Changing a Thing's visibility is something you do deliberately, from the Thing's visibility setting. Be especially careful about switching from private to public. Once a Thing has been public, others may have remixed it, and those copies continue to exist under the license the Thing was published with.

Sharing a private Thing without making it public

Private does not mean alone. You can share a private Thing through a share link with a permission level (view, comment, edit or remix, depending on your plan), an expiry, and a password. See Workspaces, projects and sharing.

Using other people's Things

Remixing a Marketplace Thing creates a new Thing you own, with attribution kept, so it counts toward your limits. Using a public Thing as a linked part (for example a standard screw or a hinge) does not count toward your Things limit: only the Things you own do. If you unlink a part to edit it, it becomes part of your Thing like any other piece.

Common questions

Is my private Thing used to train AI? No. Designs are never used to train models without explicit opt-in. See Privacy and your designs.

Do trial users have private Things? Yes, 10. When the trial ends, Free has no private Things: you choose to subscribe (they stay private) or to make them public. Nothing is published until you confirm. See What happens when your trial ends.

What about new Things on Free? They are created public. Making a Thing private needs a subscription.

What if I forget which Thing is public? Check its visibility before you share a link or add sensitive details.

Can I choose which Things are private? Yes, within your private limit. Choose carefully when you create each Thing.

Try it

Open Projects and check the visibility of each of your Things. Then ask yourself, for each one: "Would I be comfortable if a stranger could see and copy this?" If not, make sure it is within your private slots.