---
url: https://docs.revis.io/admin/understand-roles-and-permissions.md
description: >-
  What each organization and project role in revis.io can do, how a project role
  overrides an organization role, and who can give which role.
---

# Understand organization and project roles

Everyone in a Revis organization has one organization role: Owner, Admin, Member, Reviewer, or Viewer. On a single project, a project role (Project Admin, Contributor, Reviewer, or Viewer) replaces it, even when the project role is lower.

::: info Before you start

* **Who:** everyone can see the roles. Only Owners, Admins, and Project Admins can give them.
* **Where:** in the web app, select **Roles & permissions** above the members list in **Organization settings** > **Members** or in a project's **Project settings** > **Members**.
  :::

## Organization roles

| Role | What it's for |
| --- | --- |
| **Owner** | Everything an Admin can do, plus transferring ownership. Each organization has one. |
| **Admin** | Runs the organization: every project (Private ones included), members, teams, and settings. |
| **Member** | Creates projects, and uploads, edits, comments, and downloads in the projects they can open. |
| **Reviewer** | Comments and sets statuses. Can't upload, edit, or download originals. |
| **Viewer** | Read-only: plays media and reads comments. |

## Project roles

| Role | What it's for |
| --- | --- |
| **Project Admin** | Like an Admin, for one project: its members, settings, and deleting. |
| **Contributor** | Like a Member, for one project. |
| **Reviewer** | Comments and sets statuses in one project. |
| **Viewer** | Read-only in one project. |

## What each role can do in a project

| Action | Owner, Admin, Project Admin | Member, Contributor | Reviewer | Viewer |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Open reviews, play media, and read comments | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Comment and draw | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Edit and delete your own comments | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Set an item's status or a review's status | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Upload media and create reviews and folders | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Rename and edit items and reviews, and resolve comments | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Share a review with a link | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Download original files | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Rename or archive the project | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Delete items, reviews, and folders, and restore them from Trash | Yes | No | No | No |
| Edit or delete other people's comments | Yes | No | No | No |
| Add and remove project members, and accept access requests | Yes | No | No | No |
| Change the project's visibility, link sharing, and download settings | Yes | No | No | No |
| Delete the project | Yes | No | No | No |

* "Your own comments" covers comments, replies, and markers, not drawings. If someone else has replied to your comment, only an Owner, Admin, or Project Admin can delete it.
* A Reviewer's status rights cover the status only: they can't rename, reorder, or otherwise edit the item or review.
* Organization and project settings can turn some actions off for everyone, such as link sharing and downloads.

## What only organization roles can do

| Action | Owner | Admin | Member | Reviewer | Viewer |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Create projects | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| See every project, Private ones included | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Invite people from **Organization settings**, change organization roles, and remove members | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Create and manage teams | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Change organization settings | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Transfer ownership | Yes | No | No | No | No |

A Project Admin, whatever their organization role, can also invite people by email to their project. Anyone not yet in the organization joins it as a Member.

## How roles combine

* **Organization role:** applies in every project you can open, unless you have a project role there.
* **Project role:** replaces your organization role on that project, even when it's lower. An Admin who is a Viewer on a project is a Viewer there.
* **Team role:** a team added to a project gives its members that project role, again replacing their organization role. In several teams on one project, you get the highest team role. A project role given to you directly beats a team role.

## Who can give which roles

* **In the organization:** you can give roles up to your own, never Owner. An Admin can make another Admin.
* **On a project:** you can give project roles up to your own level on that project, never above it. A Project Admin can make another Project Admin. If you have no project role of your own there, your organization role sets your level (Owner and Admin count as Project Admin); a team's role doesn't count.
* **Higher roles are protected:** you can't change or remove someone whose role is higher than yours.
* **Invitations:** people who accept an email invitation join the organization as Members. Change their role afterward.

## The Owner

* Each organization has one Owner, at first the person who created it. revis.io creates an organization for you when you sign up without an invitation.
* Admins can't change or remove the Owner, SCIM provisioning can't deactivate or remove them, and the Owner can't step down or leave. Ownership moves only when the Owner [transfers it to another member](/admin/change-roles-and-remove-members#transfer-ownership-of-the-organization), and the old Owner becomes an Admin.
* Deleting the organization and creating SCIM provisioning tokens are also reserved for the Owner. revis.io has no screen for either yet.
* If your organization has no Owner, contact Revis support to have one assigned.

## Guests

People who open a share link aren't members and have no role. The link's settings decide whether they can comment, draw, set statuses, or download: see [Comment, draw and set status as a guest](/sharing/what-guests-can-do).