Roles & Permissions

Obvious uses four project-level roles to control who can view, edit, and manage a project: Owner, Admin, Editor, and Viewer. Each role has a specific set of capabilities. Every project has exactly one Owner.

Permission Levels

Owner

The Owner is the person who created the project. Every project has exactly one Owner, and the role can't be removed — only transferred. Think of it like owning a shared Google Drive folder: you can do everything, including hand the keys to someone else.

Owners can:

Do everything Admins can do
Transfer project ownership to another person
Delete the project

Only Owners can:

Transfer ownership

The Owner role exists to ensure every project has a single accountable person. If the Owner leaves the team, transfer ownership first — otherwise the project becomes harder to manage.

Admin

An Admin has full control over a project's settings, members, and sharing. Admins can do almost everything the Owner can — except transfer ownership.

Admins can:

Do everything Editors can do
Change project settings (name, description, visibility)
Share the project and manage sharing links
Change anyone's permission level
Delete the project

Admins cannot:

Transfer project ownership

One or two Admins per project is typical — usually a team lead or project manager. Admins handle the structural decisions: who has access, what the project is called, and how it's shared.

Note: A Project Admin is different from a Workspace Admin. Project Admins manage a single project's settings and members. Workspace Admins manage workspace-wide settings like billing, members, and defaults. Someone can be a Project Admin without being a Workspace Admin, and vice versa.

Editor

An Editor can view and modify everything inside a project — artifacts, sheets, data, tasks, and views. This is the standard working role for team members who actively contribute.

Editors can:

Create and edit all artifacts (documents, workbooks, slides, and more)
Add, modify, and delete sheet data
Create and edit fields, validation rules, and formulas
Create, edit, and run tasks
Create views (Kanban, Calendar, Timeline)
Comment on documents and threads
Export data
Delete artifacts and projects

Editors cannot:

Share the project or manage sharing links
Change project settings (name, description, visibility)
Change someone else's permission level
Transfer project ownership

Editor is the right role for anyone doing active work — data entry, analysis, document writing, building automations.

Viewer

A Viewer can see everything in a project but can't make changes. Think of it like view-only access in Google Docs — you can read and comment, but you can't edit the document itself.

Viewers can:

View all artifacts (documents, workbooks, slides, and more)
View all sheets and data
Comment on documents and threads

Viewers cannot:

Create or edit artifacts
Modify sheet data, fields, or validation rules
Create or edit tasks
Create views
Export data
Change project settings
Share the project or manage permissions

Viewer access is useful for stakeholders who need visibility without the ability to change things — like sharing a dashboard with leadership or giving a client read-only access to a project.

Capability Matrix

A quick reference for what each role can do:

Capability	Viewer	Editor	Admin	Owner
View artifacts and data	✅	✅	✅	✅
Comment	✅	✅	✅	✅
Create and edit artifacts	❌	✅	✅	✅
Modify sheet data	❌	✅	✅	✅
Create and edit fields	❌	✅	✅	✅
Create and edit tasks	❌	✅	✅	✅
Create views	❌	✅	✅	✅
Export data	❌	✅	✅	✅
Share project and manage links	❌	❌	✅	✅
Change project settings	❌	❌	✅	✅
Manage permissions	❌	❌	✅	✅
Delete project	❌	✅	✅	✅
Transfer ownership	❌	❌	❌	✅

When to Use Each Role

Choosing the right role prevents two problems: people who can't do their work, and people who accidentally change things they shouldn't.

Use Owner for:

The person ultimately responsible for the project. Usually the person who created it.
Only one person per project. If responsibility shifts, transfer ownership.

Use Admin for:

Team leads or project managers who need to control access and settings.
Anyone who needs to invite external collaborators or manage sharing links.
Limit to one or two per project. More than that creates confusion about who's responsible for what.

Use Editor for:

Anyone actively contributing to the project — writing documents, entering data, building automations, creating views.
This is the default role for most team members.

Use Viewer for:

Stakeholders who need visibility but shouldn't modify anything.
Clients or external collaborators who need read-only access.
Anyone who's reviewing or monitoring a project without contributing to it.

Project-Level vs. Workspace-Level Permissions

Obvious has two levels of permission: project-level and workspace-level. They're independent of each other.

Project-Level Permissions

Project-level permissions control access to a specific project. When you share a project with someone, you're assigning them a project-level role (Owner, Admin, Editor, or Viewer).

Each person can have a different role in different projects:

You might be an Editor in Project A
An Admin in Project B
A Viewer in Project C

Project permissions are independent. Access to one project doesn't grant access to another.

Workspace-Level Permissions

Workspace-level permissions control access to the entire workspace and its settings. These are separate from project-level roles.

Workspace-level roles include:

Workspace Admin — Can manage workspace members, billing, and workspace settings
Workspace Member — Can access projects in the workspace (unless specifically restricted)

Most team members are Workspace Members. Only a few people need Workspace Admin access.

Important: A Workspace Member's access to individual projects can still be restricted. For example, you might be a Workspace Member but only have Viewer access to a sensitive project. Being a Workspace Admin doesn't automatically make you a Project Admin — those are separate roles with separate purposes.

How to Change Someone's Permission

Give Someone Access to a Project

Open the project you want to share.
Click Share in the top right. A sharing panel appears.
Click Invite people and enter the person's email address.
Select their role from the dropdown: Viewer, Editor, or Admin.
Click Send invite. They'll receive an email invitation to join the project.

If the person is already in your workspace, you can also click Add next to their name in the workspace members list.

Change Someone's Role

Open the project.
Click Share in the top right.
Find the person in the shared members list.
Click the role dropdown next to their name and select the new role.

The change takes effect immediately.

Remove Someone from a Project

Open the project.
Click Share in the top right.
Find the person you want to remove.
Click Remove next to their name.

They lose access to the project immediately.

Transfer Ownership

Only the current Owner can transfer ownership. Once transferred, the previous Owner becomes an Admin.

Open the project.
Click Share in the top right.
Find the person you want to transfer ownership to (they must already have access to the project).
Click the role dropdown next to their name and select Owner.
Confirm the transfer.

When you share a project with someone:

They receive an email invitation (unless they're already in your workspace)
They can accept the invitation to join the project
They gain access at the role you specified
The project appears in their sidebar
All their activity (edits, comments, task runs) is tracked and visible to other project members

Tip: If you're sharing with someone outside your workspace, they'll need to create an Obvious account first. The invitation email walks them through signup.

Permission Restrictions by Plan

Some workspace plans restrict which roles are available:

Free and Personal plans — Only Viewer and Admin roles are available.
Team and Enterprise plans — All four roles (Viewer, Editor, Admin, Owner) are available.

If you're on a Free or Personal plan and want to give someone Editor access, you'll need to upgrade to a Team plan.

You now have everything you need to set up the right access for your team. Roles keep projects organized and secure without slowing anyone down — assign the minimum access each person needs, and adjust as their work evolves.

Next Steps

Share a project with your team — Step-by-step guide to sharing
Manage workspace members — Add or remove people from your entire workspace
Workspace roles and permissions — Understand workspace-level access control