Roles & Permissions

Give every teammate the right level of access so more people can collaborate safely without slowing delivery.

Overview

Every teammate in Hamster has a role that controls what they can do. Hamster Studio uses four roles: Reviewer, Creator, Admin, and Owner.

This gives teams a practical middle ground: you can let more people contribute and review work without giving full admin-level permissions to everyone.

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

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

The Four Roles

Reviewer

Reviewers can see everything in the workspace — briefs, blueprints, skills, methods, plans, tasks, and conversations — without being able to edit any of it. They can comment on briefs, participate in conversation threads, and vote on alignment, so they stay involved without changing the work itself.

Reviewer seats are free, making it easy to include stakeholders, leadership, clients, or partners in the same shared context without risking accidental changes.

Creator

Creators can build and edit all workspace content — briefs, blueprints, skills, methods, plans, and tasks — but do not have team-administration privileges.

This role is ideal for teammates who should ship work but should not manage membership, billing, or team settings.

Admin

Admins can manage day-to-day team operations without full primary ownership controls. An admin can:

Invite members and manage invitations
Update team member roles (within allowed hierarchy)
Remove members (except protected roles above their level)
Manage workspace settings and integrations

Admins cannot delete the team, manage billing, or take over primary ownership.

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.

Role Hierarchy

The hierarchy determines which actions are permitted between roles. The list below is ordered from most limited access to highest access:

Role	Access Level	Summary
Reviewer	Read-only	View everything, comment on briefs, vote on alignment
Creator	Standard	All of Reviewer, plus create and edit workspace content
Admin	Elevated	All of Creator, plus manage members, roles, and settings
Owner	Full	All of Admin, plus billing, ownership transfer, and team deletion

When someone performs a role-sensitive action (such as changing a teammate's role), they can only assign roles at or below their allowed level.

Permission Matrix

Capability	Reviewer	Creator	Admin	Owner
View all workspace content and activity	*	*	*	*
Comment on briefs, threads, and alignment votes	*	*	*	*
Create and edit workspace content (briefs, blueprints, skills, methods, plans, tasks)		*	*	*
Organize work into initiatives		*	*	*
Set up integrations (GitHub, Linear, Slack, etc.)		*	*	*
Invite and remove members			*	*
Assign and update roles			*	*
Manage team settings			*	*
Manage billing and subscriptions				*
Transfer ownership				*
Delete the team				*

Seat Types

Owner, Admin, and Creator roles each use one paid seat. Reviewer seats are free and unlimited — add as many stakeholders, clients, or partners as you need without affecting your plan.

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 and admins 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

Any role except 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

Use Creator for teammates actively shipping work who should not manage members or billing.
Use Reviewer for stakeholders who need visibility into decisions and progress without editing access.
Keep the number of owners small. Use Admin for operational coverage without expanding top-level control.
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.