Skip to content

Members and roles

Members are the people with a console account in your workspace: the people who share previews and the people who administer them. Viewers are not members and never need an account.

Every member has a base role over the whole workspace. Grants add roles on top, to a person or a group, over the whole workspace, one share group or one preview. Everything is under Members & roles.

Role Can Takes a seat
Owner Everything, including transferring ownership and deleting the workspace. A workspace always has at least one Yes
Admin Everything except ownership. Can grant any role except Owner Yes
Member Opens previews and runs the ones they opened: viewers, hostnames, TCP services, extend, end, plus Insights and viewer exports for them. Uses the browser terminal on any preview they are invited to. Sees agents, domains, members and settings Yes
Billing Plan, seats and invoices. Sees members and settings; no previews No
Auditor Reads everything, including the activity log; exports the activity log, insights and viewer lists. No browser terminal. Changes nothing No
No workspace role Nothing until granted a role on a share group or a preview No

There is also a built-in Preview manager role, meant to be granted on a share group or one preview: it runs previews and their viewers there, whoever opened them.

  1. Members & roles → Members → Invite.
  2. People: existing members, groups, or new email addresses.
  3. Role and scope: the role, and where it applies: the whole workspace, a share group or one preview. A choice you cannot grant is shown disabled, with the reason.
  4. Review and send. New people get an email and sign in with a code.

An invitation lasts 7 days. Unanswered ones are listed under Pending invites, with Resend (which renews the 7 days) and Revoke. An invited person can sign in at once, with or without the email.

If the address already has a Houseguest™ account in another workspace, the invitation adds this workspace to it. See Several workspaces.

On a member’s page, or the row menu on Members:

  • Base role: change it (needs Assign roles; only an Owner changes an Owner).
  • Grants: each role the person holds, where, and whether directly or through a group. Revoke a direct grant.
  • Effective permissions: what the person can do, by area, and where each permission comes from.
  • Disable: the person cannot open this workspace and is signed out; their roles stay for when they are enabled again.
  • Remove: ends their membership here, with their direct grants and group memberships. Their other workspaces are untouched. Previews they opened stay open.
  • Reset sign-in methods: removes their passkeys, authenticator app and recovery codes and signs them out. Not available for someone who also belongs to another workspace: Houseguest support resets those.

Select several members for bulk Disable, Enable or Remove. Export downloads the list as CSV.

Members & roles → Roles & permissions shows every role and a comparison matrix. Built-in roles cannot be edited; Duplicate starts a custom role from one. A custom role has a name, a description and any set of the permissions below except Own the workspace. You can never put a permission you do not hold yourself into a role.

Permissions marked scopable also work when granted on one share group or one preview; the others apply only workspace-wide.

Area Permission Lets a person Scopable
Previews View previews See previews, their hostnames and viewers Yes
Previews Create previews Open new previews on hostnames the workspace’s agents forward, and terminal shares
Previews Manage own previews Edit hostnames of previews they opened; with extend and end, run them Yes
Previews Manage any preview Edit, extend and end previews opened by anyone Yes
Previews Extend previews Push a preview’s end out, up to 7 days from now Yes
Previews Extend past 7 days Push a standing-access preview’s end more than 7 days out Yes
Previews End previews Close a preview for every viewer at once Yes
Viewers & standing access Invite viewers Send invites and add addresses to a preview Yes
Viewers & standing access Revoke viewers Remove a viewer and end their sessions Yes
Viewers & standing access Manage standing access Edit standing-access lists, including @domain entries Yes
Viewers & standing access Export viewer list Download a preview’s viewers and their request counts as CSV Yes
Agents View agents See agents, their status and hostnames
Agents Add agents Create join tokens and install commands
Agents Turn hostnames on and off Choose names within an agent’s ceiling
Agents Remove agents Disconnect and remove an agent
Domains & addresses View domains See domains and their verification state
Domains & addresses Manage domains Add, verify and remove domains
Domains & addresses Use Houseguest addresses Open previews on Houseguest addresses, including terminal shares Yes
TCP & SSH Add TCP services Add TCP services an agent reports to a preview Yes
TCP & SSH Use the browser terminal Open the browser terminal on a preview’s SSH services, as one of its viewers. Viewers outside the workspace are not affected Yes
Insights & audit View insights Charts of views, sign-ins, refusals and terminal-share time, for the previews it covers Yes
Insights & audit Export insights Download Insights’ daily figures as CSV, for the previews it covers Yes
Insights & audit View activity log Read every recorded action in the workspace
Insights & audit Export activity log Download the activity log, or stream it to a SIEM
Members & roles View members See members, groups and their roles
Members & roles Invite members Invite people with roles they themselves hold Yes
Members & roles Remove members Remove or disable people and end their sessions
Members & roles Assign roles Grant and revoke roles, never beyond what they hold Yes
Members & roles Manage custom roles Create, edit and delete custom roles
Members & roles Manage groups Create groups and share groups, and change who and what is in them Yes
Workspace View settings Read workspace and security settings
Workspace Change settings Workspace name and viewer settings
Workspace Change security settings Console sessions, sign-out everywhere, second sign-in policy, SIEM streaming
Workspace View billing Plan, usage and invoices
Workspace Manage billing Change plan and seats
Workspace Own the workspace Transfer ownership and delete the workspace. Owner only

View insights and Export insights cover the previews they are held on: a Member’s own previews, a share group, one preview, or every preview when held across the workspace. Someone granted View insights on one preview sees Insights for that preview alone.

Use the browser terminal applies to people who are members of the workspace and also viewers of the preview. Viewers from outside the workspace use the terminal whenever the preview includes an SSH service.

Some permissions include others: for example Manage any preview includes extend and end, and Manage standing access includes inviting. The role editor ticks and locks what comes included.

Enforced on every change, not only in the page:

  1. Nobody grants beyond what they hold at that scope, and revoking follows the same rule.
  2. Only Owners grant Owner, and only an Owner changes an Owner.
  3. Custom roles never exceed their editor.
  4. Adding someone to a group hands them the group’s roles, so it needs the right to grant those roles.
  5. The workspace keeps one Owner. Removing, disabling, demoting or ungrouping the last one is refused; the last Owner’s row shows a lock instead of a menu.
  6. Invites only where you may invite. A share-group admin invites into that group, never wider.

A preview you cannot see answers “not found”. One you can see but not change says which permission is missing: Not allowed: this needs the "<permission>" permission. An admin can grant it.

A person takes a seat when they hold any permission beyond viewing and billing. Billing, Auditor and No workspace role take none, and viewers never do. The Members page counts seats in use.