Set a file's status

Last updated: October 29, 2026

Mark where a file is in your pipeline, one file from its tile or many at once, so your team sees what is in review, approved or on hold.

Before you start

  • Your role must let you edit the workspace's files. Everyone in the workspace can see statuses.
  • The statuses you can choose are your workspace's own list. See File statuses for what each one means and which ones Layer sets for you.

Steps

  1. In the sidebar, click Asset Library. Each file that has a status shows its icon in the top corner of its tile; hover it to read the status.

  2. Click the status icon on a tile and pick a status from the list. On a file with no status yet, hover the tile and click Set status. Type in Change status to find one in a long list.

  3. To set several files at once, select them: click the first, then hold Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) and click the rest.

  4. In the selection bar, click the status button (Set status) and pick a status. A tick shows a status every selected file holds; a dash shows one that only some of them hold.

  5. Open a file to check it. The viewer's sidebar shows its Status, and its activity lists every change: who made it, from what to what, and when.

To clear a status, open the same list and choose No status.

Result

The status is saved on the file, so it shows wherever the file does: the library, every session board and gallery that holds it, and the viewer. The change is recorded in the file's activity.

Sessions

Tiles on a session board and in its gallery carry the same status icon, and it works the same way: click it to change the status. Select several files on the board and use the selection bar's Set status to change them together.

Production tips

  • Agree on what each status means. Give every status a description on the File Statuses settings page; it shows under the name, so a new artist reads the same rule as the lead. See Customize your workspace's file statuses.
  • Review in one pass. Filter the library to In Review, open each file in the viewer, and set it Approved or back to Work In Progress as you go. See Find files by status.
  • Park instead of deleting. On Hold and Omitted keep a file out of the review queue and out of exports' Mark as Published, and you can bring it back later.
  • Let the agent's results arrive in review. When the agent finishes, Layer sets what it made to In Review and the steps along the way to Intermediate, so your queue already holds its results.
  • Set statuses from an assistant. An AI assistant connected to Layer through MCP can set the status of many files from a sentence; see Connect an AI assistant to Layer.

If something goes wrong

  • There is no Set status button. Your role does not let you edit files. Ask an admin for a role that does.
  • The status you want is not in the list. It was deleted, or your workspace never had it. An admin can add it on the File Statuses settings page.
  • A file changed status without anyone setting it. One of Layer's automatic rules set it, for example an export with Mark as Published ticked. The file's activity names what changed it.
  • The selection bar shows a dash, not a tick. The selected files hold different statuses. Picking one sets it on all of them.

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