Visibility & discovery
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Visibility decides who can see and find a workspace before anyone is given a role in it. There are three settings. Pick by how much you want the rest of your organisation to discover.
| You want… | Use | Who can find it |
|---|---|---|
| Everyone in the org to find and use it | Open to the organisation (default) | All org members; admins auto-join |
| Org admins to discover it, others by invite only | Invite-only (needs Innovator+) | Org admins; everyone else needs an invite |
| Only invited people; not discoverable | Private (needs Innovator+) | Invited people only |
To change a workspace’s visibility you need to manage its settings - workspace owner or admin (see roles & permissions).
What each one means#
- Open to the organisation is the default and the low-friction choice. Every org member sees the workspace and org admins auto-join. Good for shared internal work with nothing to hide. It’s free at every tier, including Free.
- Invite-only is the middle ground. Org admins can still discover it and join themselves, but everyone else needs an invite or an approved access request.
- Private is the tightest. Only invited people, and org admins do not auto-join - discovery stops at the door. The one exception is the org owner, who can still carve in (see organisations & workspaces). Use it for confidential programmes or client work that shouldn’t appear in colleagues’ lists.
Tip
If you specifically don't want org admins wandering in, choose private. Invite-only still lets them discover and self-join; private does not.
Visibility and roles do different jobs. Visibility decides who can find a workspace and ask to join; the role you’re then granted decides what you can do. A workspace can be wide open to discovery and still only let people read.
The one paywalled transition#
Moving a workspace out of “open to the organisation” - to invite-only or private - needs Innovator or above. Every other visibility change is free.
The reasoning: being open is the free default. Tightening a workspace down so the rest of the org can’t see it is the paid capability. So on Free, workspaces stay open; to lock one down you’ll be on Innovator, Changemaker, or Guardian. If you’re a member without billing rights, you’d request an upgrade.
How org admins discover and self-join#
Org admins get a discoverable workspaces view listing the workspaces they can reach - alongside access requests and pending invites. It’s how an admin steps into a workspace without waiting for an invite, where visibility allows:
- Open workspaces appear to all org members; admins are auto-joined.
- Invite-only workspaces are discoverable to admins, who can self-join.
- Private workspaces are invisible to discovery (except to the org owner).
Related#
- Roles & permissions - what people can do once they’re in.
- Tiers & billing - why tightening visibility needs Innovator+.
- Organisations & workspaces - the structure visibility operates on, and the org owner’s special access.
- Invites & access - how people actually join once they’ve found a workspace.
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