ERDism beta

Roles and permissions

Updated 2026-10-30

Everyone in ERDism has two kinds of role. A workspace role says what they can do across a workspace. A project role says what they can do in one project they are assigned to. To open a project, someone must be assigned to it — the workspace owner is the only exception.

ERDism only shows the controls you are allowed to use. If you cannot find a button described here, your role does not include it.

Workspace roles

Owner

Each workspace has exactly one owner, usually the person who created it.

  • Opens every project in the workspace without being assigned, and can do anything a project Admin can do in it.
  • Invites people, removes members and changes their workspace roles.
  • Creates projects.
  • Restores projects from the trash and deletes them permanently.
  • Renames the workspace, deletes it, and can turn public links off for the whole workspace.
  • Hands the workspace to another member with Transfer ownership. The owner cannot leave the workspace until they have done so.

Creator

  • Creates projects, and becomes the Admin of each project they create.
  • Restores projects from the trash.
  • Opens the projects they are assigned to, with their project role in each.

Member

  • Opens the projects they are assigned to, with their project role in each.
  • Sees every project in the workspace's list. Projects they are not assigned to are marked "No access" and cannot be opened.
  • Sees the workspace's members and the trash.

Guest

A guest is someone from outside the team, such as a client or contractor.

  • Opens only the projects they are assigned to, and is always a Viewer in them.
  • Sees, on the Members screen, only those projects and the people assigned to them.
  • Does not see the trash, and cannot invite anyone.

Any member except the owner can leave a workspace at any time. Leaving removes them from every project in it; what they did there stays in the history.

Project roles

Admin

  • Can do everything a Manager can.
  • Renames the project and deletes it (it goes to the workspace trash).
  • Adds members of the workspace to the project with any project role, including Admin, changes their roles and removes them. An Admin cannot lower their own role.
  • Turns the project's public link on or off.
  • Changes the project's settings, such as the database it targets.

Manager

  • Can do everything a Contributor can.
  • Publishes the project.
  • Adds members as Contributor or Viewer, changes members between those two roles, and removes them.

Contributor

  • Edits the diagrams, tables, SQL and documentation pages.
  • Approves or rejects SQL changes waiting for review.
  • Exports the current draft as SQL.
  • Cannot publish, and cannot manage the project's members.

Viewer

  • Reads the project: its diagrams, SQL, documentation, history and published versions.
  • Exports the published version as SQL.
  • Cannot edit, publish or export the draft.

Any member can leave a project at any time.

Public links

When an Admin or the workspace owner turns on a project's public link, anyone with the link can read the project's last published version without signing in. They are not given a role and cannot change anything. See section 2 of the Privacy policy for what is recorded when someone opens a public link.