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System roles (Admin, Developer, Manager, Agent) cover most teams. Custom roles go further: you define a role with your own name, color, and a precise permission set, resource by resource. Creating custom roles is available on the Business and Enterprise plans.
Custom and system roles

System vs custom roles

  • System roles are fixed and read-only: Admin, Developer, Manager, and Agent. You can open one to see exactly what it grants, but you can’t change it.
  • Custom roles are roles you create with a tailored permission set, color, and description.
A member has either one system role or one or more custom roles. When a member holds custom roles, those define their access, and their base role drops to Agent (see Assigning roles).

Permission levels

Open a role to see the permission editor. Every resource (Members, Inbox, Contacts, Tables, and so on) is set to one of three levels:
LevelMeaning
NoneNo access to the resource.
ViewRead-only: can see but not change.
ManageFull access: create, edit, and delete.
The role permission editor with None, View, and Manage levels
Resources are organized into groups, Organization, Inbox & contacts, AI & automation, and Reserved for admins, with a legend at the bottom of the editor that explains each level.
Not every resource offers all three levels. Some are view-only (Analytics, Audit logs) and some are manage-only (Connections, Workflows, Segments). The editor only shows the levels that apply to each resource.

Sub-resources and cascading

Some resources nest a finer-grained permission underneath them:
  • System roles under Members: whether this role can assign the system Manager and Agent roles to others (never Admin or Developer).
  • Agents under Assistants: agent assignment and assistant handoff.
  • Table records under Tables: the rows inside tables, separate from the table structure.
Setting a parent to Manage cascades its children to Manage so you don’t have to set each one, and setting any child to View or Manage lifts the parent to at least View, so a child is never granted under a hidden parent. You can still override a child afterward, for example Tables = Manage but Table records = None.
The cascade is a convenience in the editor only. Access is always enforced on the exact permission a role holds, on both the backend and the interface. A role with Tables = Manage but Table records = None can edit the table structure but cannot edit the rows.

Reserved permissions

A few permissions are reserved for Admins and can never be granted through a custom role: SSO and Sub-organizations. They appear in the editor with a “Reserved” badge and can’t be selected.

Creating a custom role

1

Open Roles

Go to Settings → Members & Roles → Roles and select Create role.
2

Name and color

Give the role a name, pick a color (used for its badge across the workspace), and add an optional description.
3

Set permissions

For each resource, choose None, View, or Manage. To start from an existing role, use Copy from a role and adjust from there.
4

Save

Select Save changes. The role now appears under Custom roles and can be assigned to members.
The full permission catalog in the role editor
You can only grant permissions you hold yourself (the subset rule), so you can never create a role more powerful than your own access.

Assigning roles

Assign custom roles from the members list with Edit roles next to a member, or stage them on an invite.
Assigning a custom role drops the member to the Agent base role. They keep only the custom role’s access, and removing all of their custom roles later leaves them as an Agent, not their previous system role. This is a safety measure so elevated access never lingers.

Inviting with custom roles

When you invite a member, pick a system role or one or more custom roles. If you choose custom roles, the invitee joins at the Agent base plus those roles when they accept.
Choosing system or custom roles when inviting a member
If a staged custom role is deleted before the invite is accepted, the invite is removed.

The permissions matrix

Settings → Members & Roles → Permissions Matrix shows every role (system and custom) as a column and every resource as a row, so you can compare access at a glance.
The roles comparison matrix

Plan and visibility notes

  • Creating custom roles requires the Business or Enterprise plan. Existing custom roles stay viewable and removable on lower plans, but you can’t create new ones.
  • In a white-labeled workspace, members with the Manager, Agent, or a custom role can’t see Admin or Developer members. This keeps a clean, branded experience for client-side teams.