# Members and permissions

Members are managed in two stages: an invitation to the workspace, and joining a project.

![PM on Rails members. Roles and permissions in one list. Before: who could change what was vague. After: the viewer / editor boundary stays written.](https://pmonrails.com/docs-img/members.png)

## Workspace roles

| Role | What it covers |
| --- | --- |
| owner | Final authority over the workspace. At least one is required (the last owner cannot be demoted or removed; hand ownership over to swap) |
| admin | Administrator. Can view every project, and can invite people and change roles |
| member | Internal member. Can view and edit only the projects they have joined |
| guest | Contractors and the like. Can work in the projects they have joined |

> **Only owner / admin can create or delete workspaces and projects** (a member can edit existing projects, but cannot create or delete them).

## Project roles

Once someone has joined a project, you assign them a role for that project.

| Role | What it covers |
| --- | --- |
| maintainer | Project administration (adding and removing members, changing roles, generating requirement cards for the whole project in bulk, and so on) |
| editor | Can view and edit the working screens (intended for contractors who do the work) |
| viewer | Read-only by default; can append comments, test results, and bug reports linked to an acceptance scenario (for stakeholders) |

> **The default is editor.** Workspace members (member and above) are treated as editor in the projects they join unless a role is specified explicitly. **viewer is only for "people you explicitly marked as viewer, i.e. stakeholders"** and is read-only by default. Viewers can append comments, test results, and bug reports linked to an acceptance scenario, but cannot approve or reject, change existing records, or edit specifications or planning fields. Project members are managed by maintainers (which includes owner / admin).

## What a viewer (stakeholder) can see

viewer is a role for looking at what has been decided, so the working screens are hidden.

- **Hidden screens** — Kanban / Sprints / AI assistant / Processing status and history / Video and audio import / Stakeholders / Design decisions (ADR) / [Design docs](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/basic-design.md).
- **Visible but read-only by default** — Requirement cards, scope decisions, the roadmap, user stories, tests and so on. Viewers can append comments and, from tests, results and bug reports linked to the test target. They cannot change existing records, edit specifications or planning fields, generate, or export.
- editor and above also see the working screens above, and can edit them.

## Project visibility (protecting confidential work)

- **owner / admin** — Can view every project in the workspace.
- **member / guest** — Can only see **the projects they have been added to as a project member**. Until they are added explicitly, no other project is visible at all (a safe default).

## How inviting works

1. Invite people **by email address** from Members. An invitation decides **the workspace role only**.
2. Joining a project, and the project role, are assigned afterwards on the Project members screen.
3. Invitations for the same email address in the same workspace are collapsed into one (resending issues a new token), and re-inviting someone who has already joined shows "already joined".

For stakeholders who mainly need to view progress, invite them to the workspace and then set their role in the target project to viewer. A workspace guest and a project viewer are separate settings ([Stakeholders](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/stakeholders.md)).

## First steps for invited members

Choosing a role when you join (PM / managing on your own, engineer, reviewer) tailors the first three steps to it. Read-only members (viewers) are not asked and get the reviewer guidance. After login the AI assistant opens (viewers land on the dashboard). After joining, use "Getting started for members" to check your project membership, profile and first assigned task. If the project is not visible, ask an administrator to add you to it.

- **Profile** — check your display name and language.
- **Personal integrations and notifications** — configure only the Slack, Figma, PAT, MCP and notification options you need. You do not need to complete every integration to start.
- **First piece of work** — open one assigned task or question and check its background and how the team works.

Workspace administrators configure shared integrations such as the Slack Bot. See [Settings](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/settings.md) for where each setting belongs, and [Progress you can see](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/progress.md) for checking daily work.

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https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/members