Guide
In addition to manually sharing an Entity (see Share Entity), you can configure automatic access for assignees, owners, reviewers, etc.
When to use automatic sharing
These are the typical use cases:
A freelancer should only see and edit the Tasks they are assigned to.
Every person should be able to see everything related to their Employee Entity.
A sales manager should only see their Leads and their Contacts and Deals.
A requester should be able to see and update the Tickets they create.
If you find yourself repeatedly providing access to someone who is already assigned to an Entity, consider automatic sharing. Once configured, it will save you and your teammates hundreds of clicks and will prevent awkward situations when an assignee can't access their task.
Guests won't receive access via automatic sharing.
How to configure automatic sharing
Instead of manually sharing every Entity, you provide access to all users that are somehow linked to an Entity.
To configure automatic access, navigate to the corresponding Database (e.g. by typing its name in search) and select Share option in the context menu:
Automatic sharing is configured per Field: for example, if Task DB has Assignees and Reviewer, you can grant less permissions to assignees and more to the reviewer. Automatic sharing works via any user relation, including Created By:
Moreover, to ensure people who create entities can edit them straight away, automatic Editor access via Created By is enabled by default for all new Databases. You can customize it or switch it off, though.
Customizing access is exclusive to the Pro Plan. When on Standard, you have a choice between no access and Editor access.
You can also manage automatic access in the People Field's settings:
How to extend automatic access
You can share not only an Entity itself (e.g. Project) but also all the Entities linked to it (e.g. Tasks and Time Logs). If you are not familiar with the access templates yet, check out Share Entity and Custom Access Templates for Sharing Entities.
While all other relations support custom access templates, Created By does not. If that's what you need, please let us know.
Automatic access works independently of Space access (see Share Space): even with access to assignees disabled, Space Contributors will still be able to edit the Entities they are assigned to. Eventually, we are looking to deprecate Contributor Space access to simplify things.
What changes with automatic sharing
Everyone assigning people gets a heads-up to prevent accidental sharing. If automatic sharing is enabled for a Field, a hint appears in the user dropdown:
Unlike with manual sharing, we don't check if the person assigning someone has enough access to share the Entity. If they have edit access, they can assign => they can automatically provide access.
Who can configure automatic sharing
To configure automatic access via User relations, one has to be a Architect in the Space and have all the capabilities of the selected access template.
For example, to enable Editor automatic access for Features DB, one has to have the following capabilities:
Template-independent
configure the Features DB itself;
revoke access to all Features;
see all Users in the workspace.
Template-specific
see all Features;
comment on all Features;
update all Features;
delete all Features.
If you are having trouble configuring automatic access due to permissions, consider asking an Admin for help.
Revoke access via Created By
It's almost always desirable for the person who has just created an entity to be able to update or delete it - even just to correct a typo or undo a misclick. That's why we recommend to turn the Editor automatic access via Created By field on by default for all Databases.
The problem is that it's sometimes not desirable for this author access to be permanent. If someone created an entity two years ago and they don't have any other access to it, they likely shouldn't be able to edit.
Luckily, the access via Created By is revokable. However, it's just not feasible to revoke it manually for hundreds of entities. That's why we have an automation action:
So this would be our advice:
Turn the automatic access via Created By field on, especially if you have Submitters in a Database.
If people who create entities shouldn't have this access forever, configure a scheduled Rule to revoke it (see the screenshot above).
🎞️ Example: automatically sharing everything related to an Employee with them
Grant every employee access to their own performance reviews, vacations, and sick leaves without touching the Share button:
FAQ
If we change automatic access from Owner to Viewer, will it affect the existing assignees or only the future ones?
Both the existing and the future ones.
Are the items shared via automatic access visible in the Shared with Me section of the sidebar?
They are not since there can be too many of them.
What if we disable or delete a custom access template used in automatic access?
Disabling won't affect automatic access that's already been configured while deleting will stop it from working.
Can we use automatic access via Formula or Lookup user relation?
You can!
What happens if I delete a user relation that has automatic access enabled and later restore it?
Automatic access will be turned off because of the potential security vulnerabilities.