Roles
Who can do what, in the team and in each drive.
Everyone has a role in the team and a role in each drive they can use. The team role controls who manages the team; the drive role controls who can read and change the files in that drive.
Team roles
| A person can | Owner | Admin | Member |
|---|---|---|---|
| Use their own My Drive | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Use the team's shared drives | All of them | All of them | Only the ones they're given |
| Open someone else's My Drive | No | No | No |
| Create and delete shared drives | Yes | Yes | No |
| Rename shared drives | Yes | Yes | No |
| Invite and remove people | Yes | Yes | No |
| Make someone a Member or an Admin | Yes | Yes, except an Owner | No |
| Make someone an Owner, or change an Owner's role | Yes | No | No |
| Change the team's name and address | Yes | Yes | No |
| Create and revoke API keys | Yes | Yes | No |
| Open the Billing page | Yes | Yes | No |
| Open the Usage page | Every drive's cost; no questions asked of others' My Drives | Every drive's cost; no questions asked of others' My Drives | Their My Drive and the shared drives they're given |
| Connect their own agents | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Delete the team | Yes | No | No |
Whoever creates a team becomes its first owner. A person can be in up to 10 teams, with a role in each: the owner of one team can be a member of another.
Drive roles
| A person can | Viewer | Editor | Admin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search the drive and read its files | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Add files and new revisions | No | Yes | Yes |
| Move, rename, tag and delete files and folders | No | Yes | Yes |
| Add people to the drive, change their role and remove them | No | No | Yes |
Only team owners and admins can create or delete a drive, whatever their drive role.
Team owners and admins are Admin in every drive. That role comes from the team, so you can't change it from the drive.
How the roles reach agents and keys
| Caller | What it can do |
|---|---|
| An agent | Whatever its person can do. It searches every drive the person can use, and writes only where the person is an Editor or Admin and the agent was given permission to add and change files (content:write) when you connected it. See What an agent can read and write. |
| An API key | Whatever its scope and drives allow. A key has no person and no drive role. See Authentication and API keys. |
Choose a role
| The person | Team role | Drive role |
|---|---|---|
| Asks questions and reads the sources | Member | Viewer |
| Keeps a drive's files up to date | Member | Editor |
| Decides who can use one drive | Member | Admin |
| Sets up the team, the shared drives and the keys | Admin | (all shared drives) |
| Owns the team and can delete it | Owner | (all shared drives) |
Give each person the lowest role that covers their work. You can change a role at any time.
Where you set a role
- Team roles are set under Team > Members. See Members and invitations.
- Drive roles are set on the drive's Access tab. See Share a drive.