Organizations, teams & members

Organizations, teams, and members

An organization (org) is the home for everything in Elliptic: your projects, tasks, notes, meetings, the activity log, your people, and your agents. Every screen in the app lives inside one org, and every org is fully isolated from every other one. People you invite see only the org they were invited to, and the same separation holds for agents, which are first-class members that operate the same surfaces over the company-brain MCP on the org's own key. This page covers how to create an org, configure its behavior, switch between workspaces, manage roles and invitations, group people into teams, and find every admin setting.

Organizations

An org is a tenant: a self-contained workspace with its own members, data, and configuration that never bleeds into another org. Underneath, every org-scoped table carries the org's id, so the boundary is enforced in the database, not just the UI. You can belong to many orgs at once and move between them freely, but nothing you do in one is visible from another.

Creating an organization

When you first sign in, Elliptic sends you to a workspace picker that lists every org you belong to. If you have exactly one, it takes you straight in. If you have none, it prompts you to create your first one.

1. 1
   Open the workspace picker

   Go to the app. If you are not auto-redirected into an org, you land on the "Choose a workspace" screen, which lists your organizations and shows how many are available.
2. 2
   Click "New organization"

   Use the button in the header of the "Your organizations" card. If you have no orgs yet, the empty state shows a "Create organization" button instead, with the same effect.
3. 3
   Name it

   Enter a name such as "Acme Inc". The form requires at least 2 characters. There is no description field at creation time. You can add a description later through the API, and you can rename the org anytime in Settings.
4. 4
   Click "Create"

   Elliptic creates the org and drops you straight into a fresh project at /app/<new-org>/projects?new=1, so you can start working immediately.

On a self-hosted instance, an instance admin can disable workspace creation for everyone except instance admins. When creation is turned off, the "New organization" action is rejected with a clear message.

About the slug

Every org gets a URL-friendly slug derived from its name (for example, "Acme Inc" becomes acme-inc). The slug is unique across the whole instance. If your chosen name produces a slug that is already taken, a short random suffix is added automatically (for example, acme-inc-4f9a2c). The slug is stable: renaming your org does not change it. App URLs, however, are keyed by the org's id, not its slug, so every in-app path looks like /app/<orgId>/….

Organization settings (General)

The General panel under Settings is where you manage the org's identity. The Organization card lets you rename the org and shows the slug in a disabled field, since the slug never changes after creation. Editing the organization requires admin or owner. A plain member can open General and view it, but the server rejects the save.

1. 1
   Open Settings → General

   Navigate to Settings and stay on the default General panel.
2. 2
   Edit the name

   Change the value in the Name field. The Slug field below it is shown but disabled.
3. 3
   Save changes

   Click "Save changes". The button stays disabled until the new name is at least 2 characters and actually different from the current one.

The General panel also surfaces two related areas: Deleted projects, where you review and restore projects removed within the last 30 days, and Project notifications, where you tune which project events notify you. Renaming the org is recorded as an "updated" entry in the activity log.

Org-wide behavior flags

Beyond its name, an org carries a set of org-wide flags that change how the whole workspace operates. These are not all edited from the General panel: each one lives on the surface it governs. The flags below are stored on the organization and can also be read and set programmatically (the company-brain MCP exposes the name and description; the other flags are set through the app or the REST API).

Deleting an organization

Deleting an org is an owner-only action and it is total. The delete cascades at the database level: a single delete on the organization row removes its members, projects, tasks, notes, meetings, activity, MCP grants, invitations, teams, and everything else scoped to that org, because every org-scoped table declares ON DELETE CASCADE on org_id. Over the MCP, delete_org requires an explicit confirmation step before it runs.

Switching workspaces

Because you can belong to many orgs, Elliptic makes moving between them quick. Everything you do inside an org lives under /app/<orgId>/…, where orgId is the org's id. Switching workspace simply means routing to a different orgId.

The workspace picker lists every org you are a member of. Elliptic remembers the last org you opened: next time you sign in, it sends you straight back there. If you have only a single org, it skips the picker entirely and takes you in. Otherwise you pick one, and your choice is remembered for the next visit. Selecting an org routes you to its projects at /app/<orgId>/projects.

Members and roles

Everyone with access to an org is a member of it, and every member holds exactly one built-in role. The roles form a strict hierarchy, from most to least powerful: owner, admin, member, guest.

Elliptic enforces roles on the server, so these limits hold no matter what the UI shows. The dividing line is that managing the org (people, teams, invites, projects, settings) requires admin or higher, while a handful of sensitive actions are reserved for owners only. The detailed permission matrix and any custom roles your org defines live on the Roles page under Settings; this page covers the built-in hierarchy and the membership guardrails.

Viewing the members list

Open Settings → Members. The Members card lists everyone in the org with their name, email, and role, in the order they joined. Your own row is marked with "(you)". The top of the panel shows your edition and seat usage, so admins can see how many billable seats are in use against the plan's limit.

If you are an admin or owner, each row shows a role dropdown and a remove button so you can manage people inline. If you are a plain member, you see the same list but roles appear as read-only badges with no management controls.

Changing a member's role

1. 1
   Open Settings → Members

   You must be an admin or owner to see the role controls.
2. 2
   Find the person

   Locate their row in the Members list.
3. 3
   Pick a new role

   Use the role dropdown on their row and choose owner, admin, member, or guest. The change saves immediately.

Guardrails keep the org safe, and they are enforced server-side:

• You cannot change your own role. This stops an admin self-promoting and stops an owner self-demoting out of control.
• Only an owner can grant, modify, or strip an owner role. An admin can move people between guest, member, and admin, but cannot touch anyone who is, or is becoming, an owner.
• The last owner cannot be demoted. If only one owner remains, the system refuses to lower their role, so an org always has at least one owner.
• Demoting someone to guest tightens their access. On every project, any role above commenter is dropped to commenter, and any work items assigned to them are unassigned, so a guest never holds elevated project access.

Every role change is written to the activity log and recorded in the Role audit trail, capturing who changed whose role, from what to what.

Removing a member

1. 1
   Open Settings → Members

   Admin or owner only.
2. 2
   Click the remove (trash) button

   It sits at the end of the person's row. Your own row's remove button is disabled, so you cannot remove yourself this way.
3. 3
   Confirm

   The member loses access to the org immediately.

Invitations

You add people to an org by inviting them by email. They do not need a Elliptic account yet. When they accept (after signing in or signing up with that same email), they become members. Each invitation carries a role and, optionally, a project to drop the new member straight into.

Sending an invitation

1. 1
   Open Settings → Members

   The "Invite people" card appears only if you are an admin or owner.
2. 2
   Enter their email

   Type the address you want to invite, for example teammate@company.com.
3. 3
   Choose a role

   Pick the role they will join as. The dropdown offers member, admin, or guest. To invite someone directly as an owner you must be an owner yourself, and you would do that through the role controls or the API rather than this dropdown.
4. 4
   Add to a project (optional)

   Pick a project from the dropdown, or leave it on "No project". When set, accepting the invite also adds the new member to that project.
5. 5
   Click "Invite"

   Elliptic creates the invitation, emails a link to the address, and shows you a copyable invite link you can share directly.

A few rules apply when creating an invitation:

• The default role is member if you do not pick one.
• One pending invite per email per org. If an unaccepted invite for that address already exists, you cannot create a second one. Revoke the first to change its role or project.
• No inviting existing members. If the email already belongs to a member of this org, the invite is rejected.
• Invites expire after 7 days. After that the link no longer works and you send a new one.
• Owner invites are owner-only. Only an owner can invite someone as owner; an admin attempting it is blocked.
• The optional project must belong to this org. Linking a project from another org is rejected.

Creating an invite is recorded in both the activity log and the Role audit trail.

Pending invites and revoking

Below the invite form, the "Invite people" card lists every pending invite with its email and role. Each has a trash button. Click it to revoke an invite you no longer want, and the link immediately stops working. Only invites that are still pending can be revoked; an already-accepted, expired, or previously revoked one cannot.

Previewing and accepting an invite

An invite link points to an accept page at /invite/<token>. Before showing the accept flow, the page previews the invite by its token, with no sign-in required, to confirm it is real and still good. The preview returns the org name, the invited email, the role, and the effective status. A pending invite past its expiry reads as expired, and an unknown or garbage token reads as an invalid link rather than a working accept screen.

1. 1
   Open the invite link

   It takes you to a "Join <org>" page showing which org you are joining and as what role.
2. 2
   Sign in or sign up with the invited email

   The account must use the exact email the invite was issued to, otherwise the server rejects it. If email verification is required on the instance, verify your email first.
3. 3
   Accept

   When you are signed in with the invited email and the invite is still valid, Elliptic accepts it for you, adds you to the organization (and to the linked project, if the invite had one), and takes you straight to its projects.

If acceptance fails, the page tells you why. Common reasons an accept is refused:

• Wrong account. The invite was issued to a different email than the one you are signed in with.
• Expired. More than 7 days have passed; the invite is marked expired on the spot.
• Already used or revoked. The invite is no longer pending.
• Already a member. You are already in that org, so there is nothing to accept.

When an invite is accepted, a "member added" entry is written to the activity log and the Role audit. If the invite carried a project, the new member is added there too, at commenter level for a guest and member level otherwise.

Teams (teamspaces)

A team, also called a teamspace, is a named group of people inside an org with a shared purpose and a portfolio of work. A teamspace has a name, an optional lead, a charter (a free-text statement of what the team owns and its mission), and a logo built from an icon and a color. The same person can be on more than one team.

Team names must be unique within the org. The lead, if set, must already be a member of the org, and is automatically added as a team member when you name them.

Who can create and manage a team

Creating and deleting teamspaces is an admin-or-owner action. Once a team exists, it can be managed by the team lead or by any org admin or owner: they can edit the name, charter, logo, and lead, add and remove members, and link or unlink projects. A plain member who is not the lead sees the team read-only.

You can only add someone to a team if they are already a member of the org, and the same person cannot be added twice. Adding and removing team members is written to the activity log and the Role audit. When you remove someone from the whole org, they are taken off all of their teams automatically. Deleting a team is permanent, and any project owned by that team loses its team assignment.

Adding a member auto-grants project access

Teams are wired to projects, so membership carries access. When you add someone to a team, Elliptic walks every project linked to that team and ensures the new member sits at at least member level on each one. The grant never downgrades an existing higher role, and guests are skipped to preserve their access ceiling. This means joining a team is enough to start working on everything the team owns, with no per-project invite.

Teams and projects

A teamspace links to the projects it owns. From the team's Projects tab you link projects and unlink them, and every link drives the access grant described above.

1. 1
   Open the team and go to Projects

   From Settings → Teams, open a teamspace, then choose the Projects tab. The tab notes that linking a project grants every team member access to it.
2. 2
   Link a project

   Pick a project from the dropdown and click Link. The underlying call accepts a list, so several projects can be attached in one request. Each newly linked project grants its team-member access to every current team member.
3. 3
   Unlink a project

   Use the trash icon on a linked project row to unlink it.

Portfolio stats and the cycles feed

Each team rolls up a portfolio view of the projects it owns. Team stats report the project count, the total work-item count, how many are done, and how many are overdue, with cancelled and duplicate items excluded from the totals so the numbers reflect real in-flight work.

The team's Cycles tab shows a single feed of the active and upcoming cycles across all of the team's linked projects, each tagged with its project key and a progress bar of completed versus total work items. It is the fastest way to see what every project under a team is shipping right now, without opening each one.

Finding settings

Everything administrative lives under Settings at /app/<org>/settings. The surface is grouped into sections, searchable by keyword, and deep-linkable: each panel has a stable URL of the form /app/<org>/settings?tab=<panel>, so you can bookmark or link directly to, say, Roles or the audit log. Search matches both labels and keywords, so typing "byok", "rbac", or "residency" jumps you to the right panel.

The groups and the panels inside them:

Several of these connect directly to material covered elsewhere. Roles (under Members & Access) holds the full permission detail and any custom roles. Compliance (under Compliance & Audit) is where you set the residency region and compliance frameworks and run the GDPR data-subject workflows. Your edition and seat usage sit at the top of the Members panel. The AI kill switch lives on the AI panel, and Block backward transitions lives on the Workflow panel.