Project permissions

Access to a project in Asana is contextual and there are a variety of situations that affect who can access a project and its tasks.

If somebody has access to a project, then they have access to all tasks and messages within that project.

Project: Accessible by:
Private project Project members
Public project in request to join team or private team Team and project members
Public project in public team Organization, team, and project members

In this article, we'll explain:

  • How to identify a project's permissions
  • Who can see a project
  • How to share a project
  • How to limit access to a project

 

Comment-only projects are available on Asana Starter, Advanced, Enterprise, and Enterprise+ tiers, as well as legacy tiers Premium, Business, and Legacy Enterprise.

Private projects

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Identifying a private project:

A private project will show Private to project members in the project header.

If a project is private to only you, the project header will show Private to you instead.

Who can see a private project?

Project members can see a private project. Only people who are invited to the project can find it.

How do I share a private project?

  1. Click the share button in project view
  2. Click the 'Share with team' option

How do I limit access to a private project?

You can manage all notifications from this share pop up window.

You can determine if project members are project admins, editors, or can only add comments. You can also change the owner of the project or remove a member from the project.

How to give members access to a project or remove a member from a project:

  1. Across from each member’s name there is a drop-down menu with 4 options
  2. From this drop-down menu you can give members certain rights by choosing one of the options

When you remove a project member from a private project they'll no longer be able to access that project's tasks and messages.

How to manage notifications

You can manage all notifications from this share pop-up window.

Across from Project members click on Manage notifications in the share pop-up.

Next a Member notifications settings pop-up will provide you with a box to opt-in for status updates, conversations and tasks notifications added in Asana for each project member.

Public projects

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Identifying a public project:

To identify a public project, hover over the Share button where the project will show Shared with [team name]. Public projects can be accessed by project members and by all team members.

 

In public teams, organization members that are not part of the team can also see public projects within the team. Check your team's permissions to see whether or not other organization members can see this public project.

Sharing a public project

To share a public project, click on the Share button where you have the option to:

  1. Invite members by name or email
  2. Turn. on a link to share the project with anyone in the organization

How do I limit access to a public project?

To limit access to a public project:

  • Remove project members - if someone is also a member of the team in which the project exists, they will still have access to the project.
  • Change to a private project - changing to a private project means only project members will be able to access that project. Team Members will no longer be able to access that project.

 

Removing project members

To remove a project member from the project:

  1. Click the permission level drop-down
  2. Select Remove from project

 

Change to a private project:

Click the Project privacy dialog drop-down and then select the Private to members option

Request access to a private project

screen that displays the option to request access to a private project

You can reach out to the owner of a private project to request access as follows:

  1. When trying to access a private project you will land on a page stating that you do not have access.
  2. Click on the Request access button to request access from the project owner.
  3. The project owner will be notified that you have requested access to that project.

It is not possible to request access to comment only projects.

Accept or deny requests to add members to a project

People that don’t have access to a private project have the possibility to request access to it. For them to access that project, it is necessary that their request is accepted first.

  • When someone requests access to a private project, the project owner will be assigned a task to notify them that a person has asked for access. The project owner can then add them to the project to provide them access.
  • If there is no owner assigned to that project, the task to provide or deny access will be assigned to the project creator.
  • If there is no owner assigned to that project and the project creator does not have admin access, the first member of the project with edit access will receive the request and can accept or deny access to the project.

Comment-only permissions

Comment-only permissions for projects allow users to view or comment on projects without giving them access to edit them. This makes it easier to share the information in a project with anyone that needs it, while preventing any accidental or unnecessary changes. Capture feedback on projects and update stakeholders, while keeping the structure of your projects intact. Comment-only permissions are perfect for company wikis, templates, points of reference and processes that have been solidified and shouldn’t be changed.

Comment-only permissions are available on Asana Starter, Advanced, Enterprise, and Enterprise+ tiers, as well as legacy tiers Premium, Business, and Legacy Enterprise.

Changing permissions to comment-only

You can access permission settings through the Share button on the project page.

Only project members who have project admin or editor permissions can modify a comment-only project. Those who are not project members may still have access to the project as a whole or to any of the individual tasks within it, but will only be able to access the project with comment-only permissions.

Comment only permissions

To change the permission settings of the project to comment-only:

  1. Navigate to the Share button button on the top right of your project
  2. Under Members at the top of the list, you'll see the team that the project is shared with. Click on the drop-down arrow to select Commenter from the menu.

From here you can also choose to share a project with the team or make it private to project members, and restrict what these members can do within it.

Once you change this setting, your public project will be comment-only for people who are in your team, division, or organization, but not those who are project members. Making this change will not affect the project access settings for existing project members.

Change permission settings for individual project members

The project owner and project members with project admin or editing permissions can give other project members editing access by changing their individual permission settings to Project admin or Editor.

change member access settings

To change a project member's permission settings:

  • Click on the drop-down menu beside the name of the project member you are changing the permission settings for
  • Select Project admin to give them full project permissions, including deleting the project, Editor to give them edit permissions, or Commenter to limit permissions to comment-only
  • The project owner can assign project ownership to another project member
  • Close the menu to save your changes

 

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Project members will see what permissions they have in the task view over the project name in a banner.

Individual user project permissions

Project members can be given individual permissions regardless of the project's default setting. On the project level, members with comment-only permissions or members who are assigned a task with comment-only permissions, can only post project messages and project status updates.

The table below outlines the capabilities of project members with Project admin, Editor, and Commenter permissions. Commenters can also be assigned tasks, which gives them some additional permissions on those specific tasks.

Action Project Admin Editor Commenter Commenter with task assigned
Delete or archive project ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌
Rename project ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌
Change project privacy or team ✅ ❌ ❌

❌
Move project to a different team ✅ ❌ ❌

❌
Create / delete share links and read-only links ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌
Customize permissions ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌
Add or modify project overview ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌
Edit notifications for all members ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌
Add or modify project brief ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌
Share project and manage memberships ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌
Add and modify tasks, including subtasks, dependencies, and multihoming ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌
Change project appearance such as default view, icon and color for everyone ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌
Add and modify workflow features such as custom fields, rules, forms, task templates, bundles, autoshifting due dates, and integrations ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌
Complete tasks, change assignee or due date ✅ ✅ ❌ ✅
Set project status ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌
Send message to project ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Submit forms ✅ ✅ ❌ ❌
Modify custom field values ✅ ✅ ❌ ✅
Add / remove attachments ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Comment on tasks or messages ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Like tasks or comments ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅

 

If you have comment-only access and are assigned a task, subtasks of that task must also be assigned to you in order to be able to action them. In this case, you would have comment-only access to the subtasks.

Tasks associated with multiple projects

If a task is multi-homed, project members who have access to every project the task lives in will inherit the greatest permissions.

For example, anyone who has full editing access to a task in one project, will not lose that access if the task is multi-homed to another project in which they have comment-only access. This means you won't lose editing privileges on tasks if they are multi-homed into projects you have commenter access to.

This also means that anyone with commenter permissions in one project will gain the ability to edit a task that is multi-homed into another project in which they have Editor or project admin permissions.

Customizing project permissions

In Enterprise, Enterprise+ and Legacy Enterprise tiers, project admins can customize their project permissions to add additional restrictions. These settings can be found in the Review project permissions menu next to the project name.

Only project admins can customize project permissions.

Project admins can restrict editors from modifying workflows or changing project appearance. This restricts editors from adding or modifying:

  •  Custom fields
  •  Integrations
  •  Rules
  •  Task templates
  •  Forms
  •  Standard workflows
  •  Bundles
  •  Auto-shifting due dates
  •  Saving layout as default
  •  Project icon and color for everyone

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With Asana Enterprise, Enterprise+ and Legacy Enterprise, project admins can also restrict who can share and manage project memberships. Choose between Only project admins and Project admins and editors.