Roles
Roles control what a person can do in a workspace or board.
Kanera uses the same role names for workspace access and board access: Owner, Admin, Member, and Observer.
Role reference
| Role | What it means |
|---|---|
| Owner | Full control. Owners can manage the workspace and other owners. A workspace must always have at least one owner. |
| Admin | Can manage workspace settings, lists, fields, labels, automations, members, and boards. |
| Member | Can create, edit, move, and delete cards and comments across the boards they can access. |
| Observer | Read-only. Can view boards and cards but cannot make changes. |
Owner protections
Owners are intentionally protected.
- You cannot remove or downgrade the last workspace owner.
- You cannot change your own workspace role from the Members page.
- Only workspace owners can add, promote, downgrade, or remove another owner.
This prevents a workspace from being left without someone who can manage ownership and access.
Choosing roles
Use roles like this:
| Need | Suggested role |
|---|---|
| Own the workspace setup and access model | Owner |
| Configure workflow, members, automations, fields, labels, and boards | Admin |
| Do the work day to day | Member |
| Read progress without editing | Observer |
Give people the lowest role that lets them do their job. For example, a client who only needs to read a board should be an Observer guest, not a workspace admin.
Workspace roles and board roles
A workspace role controls access through the workspace.
A board role controls access to a specific board. Guests use board roles because they are not workspace members.
For internal users, workspace membership is usually the right model. For external collaborators, guest board access is usually the right model when they only need selected boards and use a different email domain from the organisation owner. On hosted Pro, guests can access one or two boards without a paid seat licence. Guests can access three or more boards, but they need a paid seat licence.