# Teams & members
URL: https://openship.io/docs/guides/teams-members.md

Invite other people into your Openship workspace, give them the right role, and understand the difference between your personal space and a shared team.

import { Step, Steps } from 'fumadocs-ui/components/steps';

Openship starts out as a space for one person: you. But most real work happens with other people —
a teammate who deploys the app, a designer who just needs to look, a co-founder who owns the whole
thing with you. This guide shows how to bring people in and decide what each of them can do.

Think of your workspace like a shared office. You can hand someone a key (invite them), and each key
opens different doors (their **role**). Some keys open everything; some only open one room.

<Callout title="What you need first">
- An Openship account with a workspace you can see in the dashboard.
- The **email address** of the person you want to invite.
- You must be the **owner** or an **admin** of the workspace to invite people. (More on roles below.)
</Callout>

## Invite someone

<Steps>

<Step>

### Open the Team settings

In the dashboard, go to **Settings** and choose the **Team** tab from the sidebar. This page lists
everyone who currently has access, plus any invitations that haven't been accepted yet.

<Callout title="Screenshot">Settings → Team tab, showing the "Active members" list and the **Invite member** button in the top-right. *(screenshot pending)*</Callout>

</Step>

<Step>

### Press "Invite member"

Click **Invite member** in the top-right. A small window opens titled **Invite a member**.

<Callout title="Don't see the button?" type="info">
Only owners and admins can invite people. If you're a plain member, the button is hidden — ask an
owner or admin to send the invite for you.
</Callout>

</Step>

<Step>

### Enter their email and pick a role

Type the person's **email** address. Then choose a **role** — one of the cards below the email box.
Each role is explained in the next section; **Member** is the usual choice for a teammate who will
build and deploy.

</Step>

<Step>

### Send the invite

Press **Send invite**. Openship emails that address a link to join this organization. The new person
shows up under **Pending invitations** until they accept.

<Callout title="Screenshot">The "Invite a member" window: the email field, the Member / Admin / Restricted role cards, and the **Send invite** button. *(screenshot pending)*</Callout>

</Step>

</Steps>

<Callout title="Self-hosting Openship?" type="info">
On a self-hosted install you'll also see a **Send via** choice in the invite window: **Your mail
server** (the mail server you run yourself) or **Openship Cloud**. Pick "Your mail server" only if
you've set one up; otherwise "Openship Cloud" sends the invite for you. On Openship Cloud this choice
doesn't appear — invites always go out for you.
</Callout>

## What each role can do

A role is just a bundle of permissions. Openship has four, from most powerful to least:

- **Owner** — the person who created the workspace. Can do everything, including changing other
  people's roles and removing members. You can't invite someone straight in as owner — but an owner
  can promote an existing member to owner later, from the role dropdown on the Team tab.
- **Admin** — everything a member can do, **plus** manage members (send and cancel invites, remove
  people). On Openship Cloud, admins can also manage billing.
- **Member** — full read and write access to everything in the workspace: create projects, deploy,
  edit environment variables, and so on. A member **cannot** manage other people.
- **Restricted** — starts with **no** access. When you invite a restricted member you pick exactly
  which resources (specific projects, servers, and so on) they're allowed to reach. Use this for
  someone who should only touch one or two things.

<Callout title="Changing a role later" type="info">
Only the **owner** can change someone's role. On the Team tab, each member (except you) has a role
dropdown next to their name — pick a new role and it applies right away. Owners and admins can also
**remove** a member with the trash icon; Openship asks you to confirm first. You can't change or
remove yourself.
</Callout>

For the full rules on how permissions and per-resource access are enforced, see
[Permissions & roles](/docs/security/permissions).

## Accept an invite

This is what the *invited* person does after you send it.

<Steps>

<Step>

### Open the link in the email

The invite email contains a link. Clicking it opens a page that says **You're invited** (or **Join
[workspace name]** once you're signed in).

</Step>

<Step>

### Sign in or create an account

If you're not logged in yet, the page offers **Sign in** and **Create account**. Use the **same email
address the invite was sent to** — Openship checks that they match.

<Callout title="Screenshot">The accept-invite page showing "You're invited", the workspace name, and the **Sign in** / **Create account** buttons. *(screenshot pending)*</Callout>

</Step>

<Step>

### Press Accept

Once signed in with the right email, the page shows the workspace name and the role you're joining as,
with **Decline** and **Accept** buttons. Press **Accept**. You'll see **You're in**, and Openship
sends you to the dashboard for that workspace.

</Step>

</Steps>

## Personal vs team workspaces

Every Openship workspace is called an **organization**. When you first sign up, Openship creates a
**personal workspace** just for you — your own projects, servers, and domains, with no one else in it.

You have two ways to work with other people:

- **Invite them into your personal workspace.** Fine for a small group — everyone shares the same
  projects and servers. Use the **Invite member** button described above.
- **Create a separate team organization.** A clean, shared space that stays isolated from your
  personal projects. On the Team tab (while viewing your personal workspace) you'll see a **Create a
  team organization** card — press **Create team**, give it a name, and Openship switches you into the
  new shared workspace. Its projects and members are completely separate from your personal ones.

You can belong to more than one organization and switch between them. A team organization has its own
members and roles, exactly as described above.

<Callout title="Which should I pick?" type="info">
If it's just you and one or two trusted people, inviting into your personal workspace is simplest. If
you want a shared space that isn't tangled up with your own experiments — or you expect the group to
grow — create a team organization.
</Callout>

## If something goes wrong

<Callout title="“This invite is for … You're logged in as …”" type="warn">
The invite was sent to one email but you're signed in with a different one. Sign out, then sign back
in (or create an account) using the exact address the invitation was sent to. If you've lost the link,
ask an owner or admin to cancel the old invite and send a fresh one to the right address.
</Callout>

<Callout title="The invite email never arrived" type="warn">
Check the spam folder first. If you're self-hosting and chose **Your mail server** as the send method
but haven't set one up, switch the invite to **Openship Cloud** and send again. The invitee can also
be handed the link directly — it's the same link that's in the email.
</Callout>

<Callout title="“Failed to send invite”" type="error">
Usually this means you don't have permission (only owners and admins can invite) or the person is
already a member. Confirm your own role on the Team tab, and check the **Active members** and
**Pending invitations** lists to see if they're already there.
</Callout>

## What next?

<Cards>
  <Card title="Permissions & roles" href="/docs/security/permissions" description="The full picture of how Openship decides who can do what, including per-resource grants." />
  <Card title="Core concepts" href="/docs/getting-started/core-concepts" description="What an organization, project, server, and deployment actually are." />
  <Card title="Deploy from GitHub" href="/docs/guides/deploy-from-github" description="Now that your team is set up, put an app online." />
</Cards>