Account Roles
A user's account role (also called workspace role) is assigned when they're invited to your workspace and governs what they can do across the whole workspace. A user has exactly one account role at a time. It's set during invitation, and an Admin or Manager can edit it later from the member admin panel.
GLYPH has four account roles:
| Role | Invite members | Manage any group | Enable archiving | Browse open groups | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Full control. Required to set up archiving. |
| Manager | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Same as Admin minus archiving. |
| User | No | Only in groups they create | No | Yes | The default. Can still create their own groups and own them. |
| Guest | No | No | No | No | Limited reach: can only see and use groups they've been explicitly added to. Use sparingly. |
A few non-obvious points
- Admins and Managers have group-management privileges across every group in the workspace, even groups they didn't create and aren't members of. This is an override that comes with the account role.
- A workspace User is not powerless — when they create a group, they automatically become its Owner and can manage it like any other group owner. The User role just doesn't grant authority over groups they didn't create.
- Guests are deliberately limited. They can't browse the Open groups directory, can't invite others, and won't see anything you don't hand them directly. Use the Guest role for external collaborators (vendors, customers, auditors) when you want a hard ceiling on their access.
Account roles vs. group roles
Account roles govern whether you can touch a group at all; group roles govern what you can do once you're in it. See How the Two Role Systems Interact for worked examples.