Who can see and edit a project: assignee, participants and roles

Every project or service has one or more people as its Assignees and, if your account has it turned on, other people who participate in it. Those two relationships, together with your role, decide what you can do inside the project.

The general rule

Any user can open any project and view it read-only (except private projects, which only their manager and participants can see: read "Private projects"). What you can do inside depends on your level in that project:

• Owner and people with Technical administration permissions — can do everything in any project.
• The project's assignee (if it has several, each of them) — edits the header (title, status, type, date and "depends on") and the content, adds tasks, documents, notes and contacts, and uploads attachments. They cannot change the assignee or the participants, link or unlink companies, touch the Service tab, or rename or delete attachments.
• Participant — sees the project, opens all its tasks and uploads attachments, but cannot edit its settings or content, nor add tasks, documents, notes or contacts.
• Any other user — sees it read-only. They open any task of the project, also read-only; they edit it according to their level in it (see "Who can edit a task").

| Tab or action | Owner / Technical administration permissions | Assignee | Participant | Other user | |---|---|---|---|---| | Header and Content | Edits | Edits | Reads | Reads | | Assignee, participants and companies | Edits | Reads | Reads | Reads | | Service | Edits | Reads | Reads | Reads | | Tasks (list, Kanban, completed and calendar) | Sees, opens and adds | Sees, opens and adds | Sees and opens; cannot add | Sees and opens read-only | | Meetings and messages | Yes | Yes | Yes | Tabs hidden | | Documents | Sees and creates (with commercial capture) | Sees and creates | Sees | Sees the ones they are entitled to | | Notes | Sees and links | Sees and links | Sees | Sees | | Attachments | Sees, uploads, renames and deletes | Sees and uploads | Sees and uploads | Sees | | Subprojects | Sees and creates | Sees; creates only if the administrator lets Supervisors create projects | Sees | Sees | | Contacts | Sees and links | Sees and links | Sees | Sees |

In Messages received and sent you only see your own emails, and the Compose email button only appears if you have an email account assigned to your user.

Being a Supervisor does not give edit access to the projects of the people who report to them: a Supervisor edits a project only if they are its assignee. Kairos and the Claude or ChatGPT connector follow the same rules, because they always act with your permissions.

Setting the assignee and participants

From the project's detail page:

• Assignees — the people in charge. They show up as chips; the Owner and people with Technical administration permissions click + Add assignee to add someone (there is a search box) and remove the chip to take them out. A project can have several assignees, and all of them have the same permissions, for example creating tasks in it.
• Other participants — the rest of the people involved. They show up as chips: click + Add participant to add someone, and remove the chip to take them out. This section only appears if your account has it set up.

Only the Owner, people with Technical administration permissions and the Supervisors can be the assignee of a project. A Member is never the assignee: they can only participate in projects. Who can set the assignee depends on your role:

• Owner and people with Technical administration permissions: any of those people.
• Supervisor: only themselves. They cannot assign projects to the people who report to them.
• Member: cannot create projects or reassign them.

Only the Owner and people with Technical administration permissions can leave a project without an assignee. A private project must always keep at least one, and only the person who marked it private changes its team.

The scopes in Projects

Above the listing you choose which projects you want to see:

• My projects — the projects you are the assignee of and the ones you participate in. This is the scope that opens by default. Every card carries a label with the assignee's name (with "+1", "+2"… when there are more; hover to see them all): teal if you are one of them, grey if not. If you are a Member, here you will see the projects you participate in.
• From others — other people's projects that you do not take part in. Only the Owner and people with Technical administration permissions see it.
• Board — a grid for distributing projects among the people on the team. Only the Owner and people with Technical administration permissions see it, and only if your account uses the Team database in Projects. The article "The Board: assigning projects to team members" has the details.

The search box, Kanban and List all respect the scope you have active.

Showing or hiding the projects you only participate in

Next to the settings button there is a switch button with a people icon. It decides whether, in My projects, you also want to see the projects you are not the assignee of:

• With the switch on (the normal setting), you see your own projects and the ones you participate in.
• With the switch off, you only see the projects you are the assignee of, and the counter at the top adjusts.

This button only appears if your account has the participants relation turned on, and your choice is remembered in that browser.

Projects without an assignee

Projects with no assignee do not show up in My projects or in From others. The Owner and people with Technical administration permissions see them in the first column of the Board, No owner, where they can be assigned by dragging them. For the rest of the team, a project without an assignee is not visible.

If you don't see the projects you expect

WorkOS identifies you inside Settings → Team through the link to your person or, if there is none, through your email: your sign-in email must match the one on your Team record. If your user isn't linked to anyone in Team, WorkOS can't tell which projects you are assigned to or participate in and shows you none as yours (nor does it inherit another person's). It's not a bug: ask someone with Technical administration permissions or the Owner to check the link. Settings → Team shows the notice "Users not linked to Team" with the list of people in that situation. The Owner and people with Technical administration permissions can still open any project from From others.

Opening a project that isn't yours

You can open it from a company's page, from a link or from a linked task. You see it read-only and WorkOS tells you with a message at the top. If you attempt a change your level does not allow, it is rejected with the message "You do not have permission to make this change in this project".

Projects that appear on a company's or contact's page

Projects linked to a company or a CRM contact always show on its page (with name, type and status) and can be opened. Only the Owner and people with Technical administration permissions can unlink a company from a project; the project's assignee can also unlink a contact.

How to let someone edit a project

If you want a colleague to edit a project, make them its assignee (the Owner and people with Technical administration permissions can do that). Adding them as a participant lets them see the project in their My projects scope, open its tasks and upload attachments, but not edit it.

Who can create projects

Not everyone can create projects. The article "How to create a project or a subproject" explains it.

Tip: the scopes in Tasks and Agenda work in a similar way, although there Where I participate does exist as its own tab. See the article "What \"My tasks\", \"Where I participate\" and \"From others\" mean".