Manage roles

Create, edit, and assign roles to organize what members can do.

What are roles?

A role is a named set of permissions that you assign to members. Instead of configuring permissions for each member individually, you create roles that represent different responsibilities.

Every community starts with two default roles:

Role	Purpose
EVERYONE	Assigned to all members automatically. Sets the permissions all members start with. Cannot be deleted.
Admin	Full control over the community. Assigned to the community creator.

You can create additional roles to match your community's needs:

Example role	Purpose
Moderator	Helps keep the community safe by managing messages and members
Trusted Member	Active members with extra abilities like uploading files
Team Lead	Members who manage specific channels or projects

Members can have multiple roles. When they do, Root grants a permission if any of their roles allows it. One of these roles is their primary role, which determines their display color. Changing the primary role does not affect what the member can do. See Set a member's primary role below.

Required permissions

• Manage Roles

Create a role

Desktop

1. Right-click the community tab, or select the community image in the sidebar.
2. Select Community settings.
3. Select Roles from the left navigation.
4. Select Create Role.
5. Enter a name for the role.
6. Select a color. On the Palette tab, choose from preset colors. On the Spectrum tab, use the color spectrum and slider, or type a 6-character hex code (e.g., FF5500) in the hex input field.
7. (Optional) Enable Role is mentionable to allow members to @mention this role.
8. Select the Permissions tab and enable the permissions for this role.
9. Select the Channel assignment tab and select which channels and channel groups this role can access.
10. Select the Members tab and select which members should have this role.
11. Select Save changes.

Mobile

1. Tap the community name at the top of the screen to open the community menu.
2. Tap Community settings.
3. Tap Roles.
4. Tap the + icon in the top-right corner.
5. Enter a name for the role.
6. Tap the color field to select a color.
7. Tap Create.
8. The role is created and you are taken to the role edit screen to configure permissions and assignments.

note

You can only grant permissions you have yourself. When editing a role, permissions you don't have appear grayed out, and you can only assign a role if you already have every permission it grants. This means Manage Roles can't be used to reach a more powerful role like Admin.

Edit a role

Desktop

1. Right-click the community tab, or select the community image in the sidebar.
2. Select Community settings.
3. Select Roles from the left navigation.
4. Select the role you want to edit.
5. Make your changes on the Display, Permissions, Channel assignment, or Members tabs.
6. Select Save changes.

Mobile

1. Tap the community name at the top of the screen to open the community menu.
2. Tap Community settings.
3. Tap Roles.
4. Tap the role you want to edit.
5. Tap one of the following options:
   • Display: Edit the role name, color, and mentionable setting.
   • Permissions: Enable or disable permissions for this role.
   • Channel assignment: Select which channels this role can access.
   • Members: Add or remove members from this role.
6. Tap Save changes.

Assign roles to a member

To give someone a role, you need all three of these:

• The Manage Roles permission
• Your own highest role to be at least as high as the role you're giving out, since you can't assign a role that outranks yours
• Every permission that role grants, since you can't hand out a permission you don't have yourself

That third point is the one people miss: a moderator with Manage Roles still can't give out a role if it includes even one permission they don't have. If a moderator can't assign a role they should be able to, check that they have all of that role's permissions.

Desktop

1. Right-click the community tab, or select the community image in the sidebar.
2. Select Community settings.
3. Select Members from the left navigation.
4. Find the member and select the + icon next to their name.
5. Select or deselect roles as needed.

Mobile

1. Tap the community name at the top of the screen to open the community menu.
2. Tap Members.
3. Tap a member's name or avatar to open their profile.
4. Tap Manage roles in the Roles section.
5. Toggle the checkboxes to add or remove roles.

Set a member's primary role

When a member has multiple roles, their primary role determines their display color. Changing the primary role is purely visual. It does not change what the member can do.

Desktop

1. Open the member's profile.
2. In the Roles section, select the role you want to set as primary.
3. The primary role is highlighted with a blue border.

Mobile

1. Tap the community name at the top of the screen to open the community menu.
2. Tap Members.
3. Tap a member's name or avatar to open their profile.
4. Tap Manage roles in the Roles section.
5. Long press on the role you want to set as primary.

Delete a role

You can delete any role except the EVERYONE role. When you delete a role, members who had that role lose the permissions it granted.

Desktop

1. Right-click the community tab, or select the community image in the sidebar.
2. Select Community settings.
3. Select Roles from the left navigation.
4. Select the role you want to delete.
5. Select Delete Role at the bottom of the Display tab.
6. Type the role name to confirm.
7. Select Delete.

Mobile

1. Tap the community name at the top of the screen to open the community menu.
2. Tap Community settings.
3. Tap Roles.
4. Tap the role you want to delete.
5. Scroll down and tap Delete role.
6. Type the role name to confirm.
7. Tap Delete.