Chat access and project scope
Choose the right project, understand chat roles, and share a research conversation with the people who need it.
Check the workspace and project before you ask Copilot to use customer, supplier, or team material. A chat belongs to one workspace and can be associated with one project at a time.
Your chat role controls conversation actions. Your project role controls access to the project's material and whether you can save changes there. Workspace access and the required licenses also apply. Choosing a project or turning Workspace on does not give you additional permissions.
What each chat role means
The workspace needs Platform and Research Copilot access. Reading requires Reader access to both the workspace and chat. Contributing requires Contributor access or above to both.
| Action | Reader | Contributor | Admin | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read messages, view progress, inspect the queue, and open chat history | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Send questions and follow-ups, change response settings, and manage your own waiting messages | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Edit your own message | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Edit another member's message or reorder their waiting message | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Manage direct members, teams, and workspace sharing when the chat has no project | No | No | Yes, within the roles you can assign | Yes |
| Assign Owner access or remove another Owner | No | No | No | Yes, while preserving an Owner |
| Delete the conversation | No | No | No | Yes |
These are chat roles. A workspace Reader remains read-only even if a chat sharing setting names a higher role. For the broader resource matrix, see Roles, access, and licenses.
Answer now has an additional rule: the person who started the running response, or a chat Admin or Owner who can contribute, can request it. Other contributors can send their own steering instructions.
Choose the project for a new question
- Open Copilot Agent in the intended workspace and choose New Research.
- Select the project in the composer before attaching files or sending the question.
- Check the selected project name and the Workspace source control. Selecting a project turns Workspace on.
- State which files, artifacts, requirements, or business context Copilot should use, then send the question.
Selecting a new project association requires Contributor access to that project. Once a chat is associated with a project, sending in that chat requires at least Reader access to the associated project, alongside Contributor access to the workspace and chat. Uploading files or asking Copilot to save changes still requires the appropriate contribution access to the target resource.
Review sharing before sending a chat link
- Open an existing conversation and choose Sharing. On a narrow screen, open More actions to reach sharing controls.
- Check the Project, Members, Teams, and Workspace tabs and the access summary.
- Use the controls available to your role, then wait for the change to save.
- Copy the chat link after checking who should be able to open it.
A link does not grant access. Readers may be able to open the conversation while contribution controls remain disabled.
A chat associated with a project
Project-managed sharing means that direct member, team, and workspace-sharing controls in the chat are disabled. Manage the relevant people and teams through the project's Members and sharing settings.
Check the access summary when reviewing an existing chat. Direct, team, workspace-sharing, and inherited project grants can affect a member's effective access. Removing one grant does not remove access supplied by another grant.
A chat without a project
Use Members to add a person, Teams to add a team, and Workspace to set a default sharing role for workspace members. Workspace sharing can make the conversation available beyond the people directly listed in Members. Choose the access level your audience needs and review the current setting before saving.
Chat Admins can manage sharing within their allowed roles. Only a chat Owner can grant Owner access or remove another Owner. Sorena AI protects the last Owner from removal or demotion.
The sharing controls become available after the new chat has been created. If Project association blocked appears, remove additional direct users or teams before associating a project, then manage their access through that project. Review who should retain access before removing a share.
Change the chat's project
- Open Sharing > Project and check Active Project.
- Choose Change project, search for an eligible project, and select it. Choose Unset project if you want to remove the association.
- Review Change project? or Unset project? when a project-file warning appears. Choose Cancel to keep the current project.
- After the change, check sharing and any files needed for the next question.
Changing the association requires Contributor access to the workspace and chat, and Contributor access to a newly selected project. The project must be in the same workspace.
Files uploaded in the previous project become unavailable to AI in this chat after changing or unsetting the project. You may need to upload them again. The warning can be skipped if you previously chose Don't ask again; the effect on file availability still applies.
Changing project context does not erase the conversation's existing messages. Review what has already been shared before choosing a new audience or project.
If access changes while you work
Recheck your selected workspace, the chat's sharing, and the associated project when a control becomes read-only or a source is unavailable. Ask the person managing that resource to review your effective access. A settings retry does not grant a missing role or license.
Changing workspace clears the selected chat and project context. Select the intended conversation again in the new workspace before continuing.