# Roles

> Owner, Maintainer and Contributor: what each can do and when to choose which role.

A role is a **default set of permissions**. It sets a starting point, not a ceiling: any permission in the set can be [turned on or off individually](/en/docs/teams/permissions) for a particular member.

## Owner

The organisation owner can do everything and stands above the roles: the owner’s permissions are not configured or narrowed. Only the owner:

- invites members, changes their permissions and removes them from the organisation;
- appoints and removes other owners (the last owner cannot be removed);
- manages billing and the plan, the choice of models, the rental of compute capacity;
- creates and revokes [connectors](/en/docs/connector);
- reads and exports the [audit log](/en/docs/audit-log) — and can grant this permission to a member separately;
- sets up [single sign-on](/en/docs/sso): the provider, company domains, the role of new members, “SSO only” mode.

There can be several owners. An owner is marked with a crown in the member list; to make a member an owner, press the shield icon in their row (see [Managing members](/en/docs/teams/manage)).

## Maintainer

A role for those responsible for the team’s result: a tech lead, a lead developer, a project manager. A Maintainer does everything a Contributor does, and in addition:

- **makes decisions on other people’s tasks** — answers the analyst’s clarifications, approves the formulation or sends it back for rework, stops and resumes runs, decides on broken tests;
- **approves and publishes PRs/MRs** — for other people’s tasks as well as their own;
- **reviews other people’s tasks** — resolves and dismisses findings, sends for rework;
- **edits and cancels other people’s drafts**;
- **changes and deletes other people’s research and “Ask” conversations**;
- **manages the project** — runs audits and the preparation of development tools, adds repositories, syncs the project with the source repositories.

## Contributor

A role for a developer, analyst or customer who sets tasks and takes **their own** to a result. A Contributor:

- creates task drafts and submits them for work;
- for **their own** tasks answers clarifications, approves the formulation, stops and resumes the run, decides on tests, resolves and dismisses findings, sends for rework;
- adds findings to the review of any task;
- asks questions (“Ask”) and starts deep research; continues, renames and deletes their own conversations and research;
- **sees** other people’s tasks, reviews, conversations and research within their scope — they can read everything but change nothing.

A Contributor does **not** approve or publish PRs/MRs, even for their own task: publishing changes the team’s source repository, and that decision is left to the Maintainer and the owner. If in your team the author should publish themselves, turn on the “Approve and publish PRs/MRs — own tasks” permission for them individually.

## Which role to choose

| Who | Role | Scope |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Tech lead, head of development | Maintainer | The whole organisation or their project |
| Team developer | Contributor | The project they work in |
| Customer, product manager, analyst who sets tasks | Contributor | Project |
| A department employee who asks about documents (support, sales, legal, HR, finance, marketing) | Contributor | The department’s space |
| Head of department who runs the space’s knowledge base | Maintainer | The department’s space |
| External contractor | Contributor | Only their project or repository |
| Reviewer without the right to publish | Contributor + individually “Resolve and dismiss findings — other people’s tasks”, “Send for rework — other people’s tasks” | Project |
| Observer (view only) | Contributor with “Create tasks”, “Submit tasks for work”, “Ask questions”, “Create research” turned off | The scope needed |

More ready-made setups are in [Scenarios](/en/docs/teams/recipes). The role can be changed at any time: changing the role sets a new starting point, and individual adjustments made for the previous role are reset.