Share something and choose who can open it

One way to share in every module: who a board, project, notebook or design is open to, the five levels, and the Share dialog.

In short

In an organization, two things decide what you can do with a board, project, notebook or any other thing. Your role is the ceiling. The thing decides who it is open to and who it is shared with. You hold the lower of the two. The Share dialog is the same in every module.

Before you start

Who: only people who manage a thing change who it is shared with. Anyone can ask for access to a thing they took part in.
Plan: Organizations is part of every plan, Free included. Your plan sets how many members and teams an organization may hold (Plan & usage shows them).
First: the organization's role is the ceiling, and a thing in your Personal Workspace is yours alone.

Steps

Open the thing and press "Share" in its header, or press its "Visible to" line. Only people who manage the thing can change who it is shared with.
Under "Add a person, team or role", type a name, a team or a role. A team can be "This team only" or "With the teams below it".
Choose the level. You are never offered more than you hold yourself.
For a share that should end, set "Access until". Leave it empty for no end.
Press "Add". The share is saved at once - there is no Save button.

When a link opens a thing that is not open to you, the page says it is not open to you.
Choose the level you would like, and add a line for whoever answers if you like.
Press "Ask for access". Its managers get one item in their inbox, and you are told when someone answers.

Result: every share is a row in the list with its level, who added it and when, and its end date. Change the level from the row, or remove the share.

How sharing and access work

Everything inside a thing has the thing's access: the cards of a board, the requests and runs of a project, the notes of a notebook. Nothing inside is narrower. To keep something apart, put it in a thing of its own - a second notebook, a second project. No role opens everything. A private thing is open only to the people, teams and roles it names. That includes administrators, until they open it with Manage all, which the thing records for good.

What each level lets you do

Each module's Share dialog says in one line what each level means there, such as "Edit - changes requests and suites, and can use this project's secrets".

Edit in a tester is trust with its secrets Whoever can change a request, a case or a track can make it send a project's secret somewhere else. Give Run to people who should only run what is saved.

Who can open it

At the top of the Share dialog, "Who can open it" sets the thing's audience inside the organization:

The three choices that name a team need the thing filed under a team first; until then the dialog says "File it under a team first". A choice that opens the thing to a team opens it to work on, never to manage: managing is given to a person, by name.

The Visible to line and the Private mark

Under every shared thing's title, one line says who can open it and what you can do there, for example "Visible to the Payments team - you can edit". Managers press the line to open Share. In lists, a private thing carries a small Private mark. A thing that is not open to you is not listed at all - not even its name.

How a new thing starts

The create dialog says who the new thing will be open to before you make it - for example "Starts visible to the Payments team". Whoever makes a thing manages it. The start comes from these, and the first match wins. First is your choice in the create dialog. Next are the defaults of the team it is filed under. Then comes the organization's Settings › General › How new things start. Last is the product's start below.

A thing in your Personal Workspace is yours alone. Some modules share a personal thing with people by email address - an API Tester project or folder, a notebook, a calendar - never with a team or a role.

Good to know

Nobody gets more than their organization role allows. A team or a role gets Edit at most. Manage goes to a person, by name.
A share with an end date gives Edit at most - managing is never lent for a while. The person is told a day before it ends.
You cannot give yourself more, lengthen your own share, or let a team or a role you belong to manage the thing.
A service account can be named too, and it changes things at most.
When someone's role allows less than the share, the row says so, for example "Aysel's role allows Comment here, so Edit becomes Comment". The Edit is kept and counts the day their role allows it.
Only people who were part of a thing's work - a share named them, a card was assigned to them, they commented - can ask for access. Anyone else sees the same page a thing that never existed shows.
"Ask for more" on a thing you can open asks for a higher level. A request gives nothing while it waits, and you can withdraw it. After a decline you can ask again in seven days. Managers answer with "Share" at a level they choose, or "Decline" - from the inbox, the Share dialog, or Access › Requests.
A pin is your own: pinning a project, connection or site keeps it at the top of your list, and nobody else sees your pins.

Share with someone who has not joined yet

If you may invite people into the organization, type an email address in the add field and choose "Invite and share". They are invited with the organization's default role, and the share waits for them until they join through that invitation. The list shows it as "Someone invited to the organization", with the level - never who it is for. A waiting share ends by itself when the invitation is declined, withdrawn or runs out; "End this waiting share" takes it off by hand. A board also offers "Invite as a guest" - see /help/boards/board-guests.

When nobody manages it

If the only person who managed a thing leaves, loses the role or is paused, the thing is released: nobody manages it, and its shares stay as they were. Its people see "Nobody manages this board" (or project, notebook and so on) under the title. A person who holds Manage all sees two ways out. Each asks for a reason that stays on the thing for good. "Give a manager" names a member whose role can manage it. "Open with Manage all" gives them Manage on it, and its people are told.

A hand-over never passes managing When someone leaves, work done in their name - a schedule, a monitor, an assigned card - can pass to the person who takes over. Managing a thing never passes that way: it is shared at Manage before they go, or given with Manage all afterwards.

Make it private, and what happens when access narrows

A manager can always make a thing private, even on a plan that is read-only. A thing can narrow in several ways: a preset made private, a share removed or lowered, a team left, a role changed, or a member paused. When it narrows, it leaves the lists, search, Home and inbox of everyone who lost it at once. A page they have open stops updating.

Ways in from outside - a published page, a mock server, a public card link, a form - are not closed by a preset. Each has its own switch. The Share dialog lists them, with "Close" beside each, and the organization's Access › Outside access lists them all.

If something goes wrong

You cannot change who a thing is shared with: you do not manage it. Ask a manager, or "Ask for more".
"File it under a team first": the Team choices need a team. File the thing under one in its settings.
A share row says the role allows less: give the person a role that allows more if they need it now.
The page says the thing is not open to you, with no way to ask: you were never part of its work. Ask someone who works on it to share it.

/help/organizations/access
/help/organizations/roles-and-permissions
/help/organizations/work-by-team
/help/boards/share-a-board