Work requirements

A work is either a content file alink renders for you — markdown, PDF, video, audio, image, or a script animation — or a static web bundle: an index.html plus the files it references, served exactly as uploaded, with no build step and no server-side code.

Content works

Upload one content file at the root, plus any assets it uses: paper.md with its images, film.mp4 with a .vtt caption track, thesis.pdf, poster.png, main.js for a canvas animation. alink writes the page that presents it. A bundle holding two candidates (two .md files, two PDFs) is rejected rather than guessed at.

A script work is loaded as an ES module and gets a full-viewport canvas at #stage, already sized for devicePixelRatio; window.AlinkStage holds { canvas, shell, size }. Import libraries from the allowed CDNs below, or ship them in the bundle.

Bundle format

A web bundle needs index.html at its root; the other kinds must not have one (that is what makes a bundle a web page).
Reference all other files by relative path: ./app.js, assets/hero.png. Absolute paths are not supported — each upload is served from a new address, and a leading / resolves outside the bundle.
Path segments may contain letters, digits, dot, underscore and hyphen, may not start with a dot, and may be at most 5 directories deep.
Allowed file types: HTML, CSS, JS, JSON, images, video, audio, fonts, WebAssembly. Upload a single .html file, a directory, or a zip; zip archives are unpacked in the browser.

Script tags require crossorigin or type="module"

A work is served into a sandbox with an opaque origin, so requests for its own files are cross-origin. A plain <script src="./app.js"> is fetched in no-cors mode, which leaves the script without a base URL: any dynamic import("./other.js") inside it resolves against about:blank and fails.

✗ Dynamic import() fails

<script src="./app.js"></script>

✓ Both of these work

<script src="./app.js" crossorigin></script>
<script type="module" src="./app.js"></script>

Not affected: scripts inlined in a single HTML file, and scripts that never call import(). Generated prototypes typically emit a plain <script src> and need this change.

Allowed requests

Files inside the bundle, plus these static CDNs: cdnjs, jsDelivr, unpkg, esm.sh, Google Fonts. All other origins are blocked.
fetch() for bundled files is allowed, including Range requests for video. Requests to any other origin fail.

Sandbox limits

These limits are fixed. They are not configurable, on any plan:

No visitor identity is available: no name, no account, no address.
No network access outside the bundle: no third-party requests, no form submissions, no beacons. Visitor input never leaves the work.
No storage, no cookies, and no shared state with the rest of alink.

Optional: sdk

The sdk is optional. Outside the shell, connect() returns null and the work runs unchanged. Inside the shell, five calls are available:

<script type="module" src="https://works.al.ink/-/sdk/v1.js"></script>
<script>
  const alink = await AlinkWork.connect({ timeoutMs: 800 })
  if (alink) {
    alink.context            // { work, owner, viewer: { signedIn, locale, theme } }
    alink.on('themechange', (theme) => { /* 'light' | 'night' */ })
    alink.requestFullscreen()
    alink.openDoor()         // takes the visitor to your requests room
    alink.share()
  }
</script>

context — the work title and address, the publisher’s public name, and the viewer’s signed-in state, language and theme.
requestFullscreen() / exitFullscreen() — the shell toggles fullscreen for the stage. Esc always exits.
openDoor() — navigates the visitor to the publisher’s requests room, tagged with the originating work.
share() — opens the share sheet for this work’s address.
on("themechange") — fires when the viewer switches between light and dark.

Current sdk version is v1, served from works.al.ink/-/sdk/v1.js. A future v2 will use a new address; existing references keep working.