Managing Members

Members are the heart of Patchwork. Each member of your system gets their own profile with names, pronouns, an optional photo, and any additional details you want to record.

The Member List

The Members screen shows all members of your system in a scrollable list. Each entry shows the member’s name, pronouns, and avatar (if set). Members who are currently fronting are highlighted.

The list can be filtered by category or searched by name. If you have a large system, categories and the search bar are your main tools for navigating quickly.

Adding a Member

Tap the + button on the Members screen to open the new member form.

Required fields

Name Required
The member’s name as it appears in the app. Can include emoji.

Optional fields

Pronouns
Free text. Examples: she/her, they/them, he/him, any pronouns.
Profile Image
Local file path or a URL to a remote image. Cropped to square automatically.
Category
Assign to one or more categories. See the Categories section.
Hidden
Hides the member from the default list view. Useful for privacy in shared spaces.
Notifications Allowed
Whether fronting notifications are sent to friends when this member is active.

Emoji in names: Patchwork fully supports emoji in member names and pronouns. The emoji input toolbar is available in all text fields.

Profile Images

Each member can have a profile image, shown as a square avatar throughout the app.

Local file

Enter a file path to an image on your computer. Supported formats: JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP. The image is displayed from its original location — Patchwork doesn’t copy it.

Remote URL

Enter a URL (https://...) to load an image from the web. Patchwork fetches it once and caches it. If the URL becomes unavailable later, the last cached version is shown.

Tip: Images are automatically center-cropped to a square, so portrait or landscape photos work fine.

Editing and Deleting Members

Tap on any member in the list to open their profile. From the profile screen, use the Edit button (pencil icon) to modify any of their details, or Delete (trash icon) to remove them permanently.

Note: Deleting a member also removes them from fronting history. This action cannot be undone. If you want to keep history but remove someone from the active list, use the Hidden toggle instead.

Hidden Members

Members marked as Hidden don’t appear in the main member list by default. They still exist in the system and can be found by toggling the “Show hidden” option.

Hidden members can still front, and their fronting is recorded in history. Their identity is not shared with friends even if fronting notifications are enabled globally.

Use case: Hide members who are rarely active, members who prefer more privacy, or members who aren’t comfortable being listed in a shared-device context.

Categories

Categories let you group members into a hierarchy. A category can contain both members and sub-categories, so you can build as much structure as your system needs.

Creating a category

From the Members screen, open the Categories panel and tap +. Give the category a name and optionally an emoji label.

Nesting categories

When creating or editing a category, you can set a Parent Category. There is no limit to nesting depth. Example structure:

📁 Core
    🧩 Alice
    🧩 River
📁 Subsystem
    📁 Trauma Holders
        🧩 Wren
📁 Dormant
    🧩 Sage

Filtering by category

Tap a category in the sidebar to filter the member list to only that category and its subcategories.

Emoji in categories: Category names support emoji. A single emoji at the start of the name is displayed as the category icon in the sidebar.