Roles & Permissions

Control what each person in your team can do by assigning them the appropriate role.

Overview

Every member of a team has a role that determines which actions they can perform. Hamster Studio uses two built-in roles — owner and member — organized in a hierarchy. Owners sit above members in this hierarchy, which means owners can manage members but members cannot manage owners.

There is also a special designation called primary owner, which applies to the person who originally created the team. The primary owner has additional protections that cannot be overridden by other owners.

Team members page showing member roles and the actions menu for managing permissions

The Two Roles

Owner

Owners have full access to the team workspace and its settings. An owner can:

Invite new members and set their roles
Update or remove pending invitations
Change an existing member's role
Remove members from the team
Manage billing and subscription settings
Update team profile settings (name, logo)
Transfer ownership to another member
Delete the team (primary owner only)

Owners cannot change the role or remove the primary owner.

Member

Members have access to the workspace content — conversations, briefs, projects, blueprints, and skills — but no administrative permissions. By default, a member cannot:

Invite other people to the team
Change anyone's role
Remove members
Access billing settings
Access team profile settings

Members can leave the team at any time from the team profile area.

Role Hierarchy

The hierarchy determines which actions are permitted between roles. A lower hierarchy number means a higher level of access:

Role	Access Level	What they can do
Owner	Highest	Manage members, roles, invitations, billing, and team settings
Member	Standard	Access workspace content; no administrative actions

When an owner performs a role-sensitive action (such as changing someone's role), they can only assign roles that are at the same level or below their own. An owner can make someone else an owner, but a member cannot elevate anyone.

Primary Owner

The primary owner is the member who created the team. This designation cannot be transferred through normal role management — it requires an explicit ownership transfer, which includes an additional verification step.

Key differences for the primary owner:

Cannot be removed from the team by other owners
Cannot have their role changed by other owners
Is the only person who can delete the team
Is the only person who can initiate an ownership transfer

Changing a Member's Role

To change a member's role:

Go to the Members page in your team workspace.
Find the member in the table and open their actions menu (the three-dot icon on the right).
Select Update role.
Choose the new role from the options available to you based on your own role.
Confirm the change.

The change takes effect immediately. The affected member does not need to do anything.

Transferring Ownership

Transferring primary ownership moves full control of the team from you to another owner. This is a permanent action that requires verification:

Go to the Members page.
Open the actions menu for the member you want to make the primary owner.
Select Transfer ownership.
Complete the verification step — you will be sent a one-time code to confirm your identity.
Confirm the transfer.

After the transfer, you remain in the team as an owner (not the primary owner). You can still manage the workspace, but you can no longer delete the team or perform other primary-owner-only actions.

Removing Members

Owners can remove members whose role is at a lower hierarchy level than their own. To remove a member:

Go to the Members page.
Open the actions menu for the member.
Select Remove member.
Confirm the removal.

Removed members lose access to the workspace immediately. Their past contributions (briefs, comments, and similar) remain in the workspace.

Leaving a Team

Members who are not the primary owner can leave a team at any time. To leave:

Go to the team settings or profile area.
Find the Leave team option in the danger zone.
Type LEAVE to confirm.

The primary owner cannot leave the team. They must transfer ownership first.

Tips

If you need someone to help administer the workspace but not access billing, note that billing access is tied to the owner role — there is no way to grant billing access without making someone an owner.
Role changes and removals take effect immediately across all active sessions.
If you are unsure who the primary owner is, look for the yellow "Primary Owner" badge in the members table.