Overview
A well-governed Walnut workspace makes it easy to build, manage, and scale demos consistently across your organization. Use the following best practices — grouped into Governance, Organization, and Content — to keep your library clean, protected, and ready for growth.
The most reliable way to maintain order is to manage things upstream with roles and permissions. Combine strong governance with proactive workspace management to ensure your library stays organized and aligned as your team grows.
In this guide:
Workspace Best Practices At-a-Glance
Governance Best Practices
- Assign Admin roles selectively.
- Use Editor/Presenter/Viewer as your default roles.
- Revert Editors to Presenters after builds are complete.
- Review collaborators regularly and clean up access.
- Use Groups to manage access in bulk.
- Protect critical assets with restricted permissions.
- Tag and label assets (e.g., DNE, LOCK, Official, LIVE, In Progress, Archived, etc.).
Organization Best Practices
- Maintain a centralized screens hub template.
- Organize folders by product, feature, team, or demo type.
- Use build phase folders (e.g., Active Build, In Review, Official, Archive, Spring Roadshow, etc.).
- Use content-specific tags to highlight product, version, or audience.
- Archive outdated assets regularly.
- Set and lock Brand Style under Company Settings.
Content Best Practices
- Use preset screen sizes for consistent captures.
- Use screen sections and guides (guide chapters) to structure demos.
- Name screens descriptively and consistently.
- Enable cookie compliance in Company Settings.
- Use Update demos to push changes at scale.
Governance Best Practices
Governance focuses on roles, permissions, and controls that prevent misalignment and protect your workspace from accidental changes.
- Assign Admin Roles Selectively >
- Use Appropriate Default Roles >
- Adjust Roles After Build Phases >
- Limit Collaborator Access >
- Use Groups for Bulk Access Management >
- Protect Critical Assets with Permissions >
- Tag & Label Assets for Governance >
Assign Admin Roles Selectively
Admin access allows users to control high-impact settings across your entire Walnut workspace — including branding, integrations, permissions, and overall workspace structure. Because these settings affect every team and every asset, the Admin role should be reserved for users who actively manage branding, workspace organization, integrations, or content governance.
Limit Admin access to only those responsible for these areas. Users who simply need to present, share, or view demos and playlists should be assigned the Presenter or Editor role instead. Keeping Admin permissions tightly scoped helps prevent accidental changes, maintains stability, and ensures that only the right people can make organization-wide updates.
👉 Learn more about roles: Manage Roles & Permissions
Use Appropriate Default Roles
Walnut includes two core non-admin roles designed to support different levels of collaboration:
- Editor – For teammates who actively build, edit, or update templates and demos.
- Presenter – For teammates who primarily need to share or present demos without making any changes.
Keep Editor and Presenter as your baseline roles to prevent unnecessary editing access and maintain a stable, well-governed workspace.
👉 Learn more about roles: Manage Roles & Permissions
Adjust Roles After Build Phases
If your team builds in sprints or defined project phases, adjust roles to match the level of access needed at each stage.
- During active build phases: Assign Editor to collaborators who are creating or refining templates.
- After a build is complete: Revert those collaborators back to Presenter so finalized content is protected from accidental edits.
This workflow keeps your workspace secure while allowing teams the flexibility they need during development.
👉 Learn more about roles: Manage Roles & Permissions
Limit Collaborator Access
Review your Collaborators lists on a regular basis and remove anyone who no longer needs access to specific templates or demos. This helps keep your workspace secure and reduces the risk of unintended edits.
Be mindful of inherited permissions, especially in older templates. As team structures evolve or ownership changes, clean up outdated collaborator access to maintain clarity and control across your library.
👉 Learn more about collaborators: Set Access Permissions For Collaborators
Use Groups for Bulk Access Management
Simplify permission management by creating Groups based on your internal teams—for example, Sales, Customer Success, Solutions Engineering, or Product Marketing.
Grant or remove access at the Group level rather than updating permissions user-by-user. This saves time, reduces errors, and keeps access aligned with team responsibilities.
Using Groups also helps maintain consistent governance as new teammates join, roles change, or departments restructure.
Where to Find Groups:
Navigate to Company Settings → Groups to create, edit, or manage team-based access controls.
Protect Critical Assets with Permissions
Safeguard business-critical or high-impact templates by placing them in a dedicated Protected or Official folder. This creates a clear separation between approved content and work-in-progress assets.
Set the folder’s sharing permissions to Only collaborators can access to ensure that only authorized users can view or edit these templates.
This approach prevents accidental changes, maintains content quality, and ensures that your most important assets remain secure and controlled.
👉 Learn more: Set Access Permissions For Collaborators
Tag & Label Assets for Governance
Use tags to quickly signal an asset’s governance status and help teams understand how each template should be used. Clear tagging makes it easier to filter, audit, and maintain your library over time.
Tags can be created, edited, or removed in Company Settings → Account Settings → Manage Tags, or directly within the Library when managing assets.
For example:
- Do Not Edit
- Official
- Live
- In Progress
- Archived
Combine tags with short labels at the beginning of asset titles:
- DNE – Do Not Edit
- LOCK – Protected asset
- UPDATE – Pending refresh
Placing labels first ensures they remain visible and are not truncated in lists, search results, or previews, so collaborators can clearly see which assets should remain unchanged.
Organization Best Practices
Organization focuses on how you structure your workspace so teams can find, maintain, and scale content efficiently.
- Build a Clear Folder Structure >
- Use Build Phase Folders >
- Use Tags to Indicate Build Phase or Intent >
- Archive Outdated Assets Regularly >
- Centralize Official Screens & Steps with a Screen Hub Template(s) >
Build a Clear Folder Structure
Organize your workspace using a consistent, intuitive folder and subfolder hierarchy so teams always know where to find and place assets.
- Create folders and subfolders by product line, feature area, team ownership, or demo type (for example, External, Internal Training, Partner, Mobile App, etc.).
- Group related templates, demos, and screens within their respective folders.
- Use consistent naming conventions for folders to make navigation easier and reduce duplication.
Use Build Phase Folders
Manage your build lifecycle by separating content based on its current phase. For example:
- Active Build – In-progress templates and assets
- In Review – Content pending stakeholder review
- Official / Final – Approved, ready-to-use content
- Archive – Retired or legacy versions
Move templates and demos through these folders as work progresses to keep the status of each asset clear.
Use Tags to Indicate Build Phase or Intent
Content-specific tags help teammates quickly understand how an asset should be used and where it fits within your workspace. Clear tagging improves discoverability and makes it easier to locate, audit, or refresh content based on product, audience, or use case.
Tags can be created, edited, or removed in Company Settings → Account Settings → Manage Tags, or directly within the Library when managing assets.
Examples of intent-based tags include:
- Product A Hub
- New Feature Update
- Partner Demo
- Training
Using consistent tags ensures teams can easily filter and identify assets across different workflows, build phases, and initiatives.
Archive Outdated Assets Regularly
Periodically review your library for outdated or unused assets and move them into an Archive folder. This helps separate legacy content from active work and keeps your workspace clean and easy to navigate.
You can quickly access archived items at any time using the Filter By → Archived option in the Library. This makes it easy to review past versions, restore assets if needed, or confirm whether something has already been retired—without cluttering your active workspace.
Regular archiving ensures collaborators can quickly find the most current demos and templates, reducing confusion—especially for new teammates who may not yet know which assets are still in use.
Centralize Official Screens & Steps with a Screen Hub Template(s)
Create one or more screen hub templates to store official, up-to-date versions of your most important product screens and guide sequences. This becomes your team’s single source of truth for all approved visuals and flows.
- Store approved screens and guide steps in the hub.
- Import screens from the hub into other templates to maintain structural and visual consistency across all demos.
- When updates are needed, update the hub once, then re-import or update linked assets to instantly propagate changes across dependent demos.
Using a screen hub ensures every team is working from the same trusted, up-to-date assets and reduces duplicate work when product UI or messaging evolves.
Content Best Practices
Content best practices focus on how you structure demos and screens so they are easy to maintain, analyze, and update at scale.
Use Preset Screen Sizes
Standardize every screen capture by selecting a preset screen size in the Walnut Chrome Extension—Desktop, Laptop, or Mobile. Using a consistent preset keeps your captures aligned and ensures your demos look professional and uniform across teams.
- Ensures consistent resolution and proportions across all screens
- Keeps templates looking polished, stable, and visually aligned
- Reduces resizing issues when importing screens into other templates
- Helps maintain consistency when multiple teams build in parallel
👉 Learn more:
- Create Demos – Part 1: Chrome Extension Capabilities & Best Practices
- Guide to Screen Display Settings (Dynamic, Proportional, Fixed Width, Fixed Size, and View On Mobile)
Use Template Sections & Guides
Break demos into clear, logical parts by organizing them with screen sections and guides (guide chapters). Structuring your demos this way makes them easier to build, maintain, and analyze.
Using screen sections and guides helps you :
- Quickly identify which part of a demo needs updates or revisions
- Maintain a consistent narrative structure across multiple templates
- Improve analytics visibility by understanding engagement at the section or chapter level
- Provide a clearer experience for viewers: Guides (guide chapters) appear in the Guides Toolbar during guided demos, making navigation easier and helping viewers understand the flow and value of the demo
Organized demos not only create a smoother viewer experience—they also make ongoing maintenance and optimization significantly easier for your team.
Name Screens Descriptively
Use a descriptive naming convention for your screens. This structure simplifies updates, makes importing smoother, and improves reporting clarity.
For example:
- Dashboard – Main
- Settings – Billing
- New Customer Workflow – Step 1
Renaming screens consistently across templates ensures clarity for your team, improves search results, and supports clean governance practices.
You can rename a screen from two places:
-
From the screen tile:
- Hover over the screen
- Click the three-dot menu (•••)
- Select Rename
-
From the Screens panel:
- Open the Screens panel on the right
- Click the screen you want to rename
- Edit the name directly in the name field below the thumbnail
Enable Cookie Compliance at the Workspace Level
To meet regulatory or legal requirements such as GDPR, CCPA, and other global privacy frameworks, enable cookie compliance at the workspace level. When this setting is activated, demo viewers are prompted to provide consent before any tracking cookies are used.
Enabling cookie compliance ensures:
- Viewers are informed about how cookies are used
- Analytics and tracking remain compliant with privacy laws
- Your organization maintains proper consent records for demo interactions
- A consistent, privacy-aligned experience across all demos and playlists
You can toggle cookie compliance under Company Settings → Account Settings → Access Control, ensuring all published demos respect your organization’s compliance policies.
👉 Learn more: Enabling Cookie Consent
Lock Brand Style at the Workspace Level
Ensure consistency across all demos by configuring Brand Style at the workspace level.
- Go to Company Settings → Brand Style.
- Set your organization’s approved colors, fonts, and logos.
- Disable “Allow users to modify these brand style settings within the editor” to prevent template-level overrides.
This keeps your visual identity cohesive across templates, demos, and playlists, even as different teams build and update content.
Use "Update demos" for Scalable Changes
Keep demos accurate and aligned across your workspace by using the Update demos bulk update feature to push template changes to all connected demos instantly. This is one of the most efficient ways to maintain accuracy and brand alignment at scale.
- Use Update demos to propagate those changes across every demo built from that template.
- Ensure your entire library stays consistent whenever product screens, flows, or messaging evolve.
Where to Find It:
You can access Update demos from the Demo Launcher:
- Open any template.
- Click Create & Share Demo.
- In the Existing Demos list, click the Update demos button.