User Roles

Guide

Every user in the workspace has a role: Admin, Member, Observer, or Guest. The role affects what access a user can receive and if their seat costs money:

Role	Requires paid seat	Can get access to edit	Can get access to Spaces and Databases
Admin	✅	✅	✅
Member	✅	✅	✅
Observer	➖	➖	✅
Guest	➖	✅	➖

To see how to change user's role, check out User Management.

What roles there are

Admins

Admins are the people who configure the workspace and manage users.

Admins always have the maximum possible Architect access in all Spaces so they can see and edit all shared data. The only thing Admins cannot access is Private Space of other users.

Admins count toward your paid seats.

As Admins are almighty, we recommend having no more than three of them.

Members

Members are your core users. Typically, these are the people who use Fibery as their primary work platform on a daily basis. Usually, these are employees of your org, but Members might also include partners and clients whenever you collaborate closely.

Member is the most versatile role: you can share anything with Members granting any level of access from Viewer to Architect. A Member might be someone simply updating the tasks they are assigned to, but can also be a leader managing an entire Space for their department.

Members count toward your paid seats.

Observers

Observers are people who just need to stay in the loop. Often, it's your colleagues from the departments that haven't adopted Fibery as their primary work platform (yet 😈).

You can share Spaces, Databases, and Entities with Observers but only with either Viewer or Commenter access. Observers cannot edit anything.

To encourage transparency, we provide an unlimited number of Observers free of charge on all paid plans. Please don't be shy about inviting everyone from your org into Fibery.

If an Observer gets more involved, promote them to a Member.

Guests

Guests are people outside your organization — clients, partners, and contractors — that you invite to collaborate on specific projects and tasks.

Guests cannot receive access to entire Spaces or Databases but you can share specific Entities with them. For example, you can share a Project together with its Tasks and Allocations using a custom access template. Unlike with Observers, you can grant Guests the permission to update things.

You can invite any number of Guests free of charge on any paid plan. Depending on your plan, there's a maximum number of Entities that a Guest can have access to.

If a Guest becomes a regular collaborator, promote them to Member.

How to choose user role

Initial setup

Create a workspace — and you automatically become an Admin.
Invite everyone who'll be using Fibery as the primary work platform as Members.
Invite everyone else in your org as Observers.
Share specific Entities (e.g., Projects together with their Tasks) with your clients and contractors to implicitly add them as Guests.

Evolution

If someone else needs to manage users, create Spaces, or write automation scripts, add them as an Admin.
If someone who's currently an Observer gets more involved or even fully transitions to Fibery, promote them to a Member.
If a Guest becomes a regular collaborator and you get tired of manually sharing things with them, promote them to a Member.

What each role can and cannot do

Now that you get the gist of what every role represents, here are the detailed comparison tables.

Billing

	Admin	Member	Observer	Guest
Requires paid seat	✅	✅	➖	➖

Some services — AI, automations, integrations — are capped depending on the number of paid seats in your workspace. The more Admins and Members you have, the more monthly AI credits and automations runs you get.

Access & permissions

	Admin	Member	Observer	Guest
Can manage workspace settings	✅	➖	➖	➖
Can manage users	✅	➖	➖	➖
Can belong to User Groups	✅	✅	✅	➖
Can see other users' profiles	✅	✅	✅	🤏 Excluding other Guests
Can receive access to Space	✅🔒	✅	🤏 Read and comment only	➖
Can receive access to Database	✅	✅	🤏 Read and comment only	➖
Can receive access to Entity…
…manually	✅	✅	✅	✅
…automatically	✅	✅	✅	➖
…using custom access templates	✅	✅	✅	✅

Guests cannot share Entities publicly or revoke other users' access.

Sidebar

	Admin	Member	Observer	Guest
Workspace
Spaces shared with them	✅	✅	✅	➖
Default Space	✅	✅	✅	➖
Top-level Smart Folders	✅	✅	✅	✅
Personal
Favorites	✅	✅	✅	✅
Private Space	✅	✅	✅	✅
`Shared with Me`	✅	✅	✅	✅

Collaboration

	Admin	Member	Observer	Guest
Assign to Entities	✅	✅	✅	✅
Tag in rich text via `@mention`	✅	✅	✅	✅

FAQ

How are Observers different from Guests?

Observers are for people who need to see a lot but don't need to edit. Guests are for those who need access to a very specific thing — whether just to view or to edit.

Invite your employees who need visibility and are not yet Members as Observers. Add external collaborators as Guests by sharing specific Entities with them.

Before the introduction of the actual Guests in October 2024, we used to call Observers "Guests". We are sorry for the confusion.

Can I grant an Observer the permission to update a single Entity?

Nope. An Observer is truly read & comment only. Promote them to a Member for the full versatility or consider switching to a Guest if they don't need the visibility.

Can I grant an Observer the permission to create Entities?

Nope. An Observer is truly read & comment only. There are two ways out:

Promote to a Member;
Use publicly shared Forms to create Entities.

What if an Observer belongs to a User Group that has edit access?

Even in this case, an Observer won't get edit access. Their Member peers will enjoy the full set of capabilities, while the Observer will still be limited to read & comment functionalities.

However, if you promote them to a Member, they will immediately receive the full power.

How can I invite a Guest?

Unlike other user roles, you don't explicitly invite Guests into your workspace. Rather, you share an Entity by typing the external user's email address — and they get added to the workspace automatically.

Can I convert a Member/Observer to Guest?

Not without our help, unfortunately. Reach out via customer support and let us know the user's public ID.

Can a Guest create Entities (e.g., Tasks in the shared Project)?

Not at the moment. Since the permission to create Entities is currently tied to Share Database, and since Guest cannot have Database-level access, they cannot be granted the capability to create Entities.

If that's what you're missing, please let us know your use case in the community or reach out via customer support.

We hope we can unlock some form of parent-restricted Entity creation someday.