Create custom roles

The five built-in project roles (Project Owner, Project Manager, Project Member, Project Contributor, Project Viewer) cover most teams. When they do not, custom roles let you add your own, for example a “QA Engineer” who can update task statuses and comment but cannot create or delete tasks.

Custom roles are project-level roles. They appear as extra columns in the permission matrix and as extra options wherever you assign a role to a project member. The organization axis (Owner, Admin, Portfolio Manager, Member, Guest) is fixed and cannot be extended.

Create a custom role

1. Open Organization Settings and go to the Permissions tab.

2. Select Add Custom Role above the matrix. Give the role a name and pick a badge color so it is easy to spot in member lists.

3. The new role appears as a column in the project-level permissions table, with every toggle off. Switch on exactly the permissions the role should have: task creation, status changes, comments, sprint management, and so on.

4. Select Save. The role is now available across every project in the organization.

Tip

Start from the closest built-in role and diff against it. If your new role is “Contributor plus task creation”, copy the Contributor column’s toggles and flip the one extra row, rather than reasoning about each permission from scratch.

Assign the role

Custom roles show up in the same role picker as the built-in ones: when you add someone to a project, or change an existing member’s project role from the project’s member list. The custom role applies only within projects where it is assigned; it does not change the person’s organization role.

FAQs

Who can create or edit custom roles? Only the organization Owner, because custom roles are saved together with the permission matrix, and matrix editing is Owner-only. Admins can view the definitions read-only.

What happens if I remove a custom role that people still hold? A removed role no longer grants any permissions, so those members effectively become view-blocked inside their projects. Reassign affected members to another role before removing one.

Can a custom role have organization-level permissions? No. Organization-level actions (creating projects, managing teams, reviewing governance gates) are resolved against the five fixed organization roles. Custom roles only control what someone can do inside projects where the role is assigned.

How many custom roles can I add? There is no practical limit, but each one is another column the Owner has to maintain. Most organizations need one or two. See Understand roles and permissions for how the two axes fit together.