Restrict space access to certain groups or users in Jira Cloud

Summary

Jira is often shared by different teams. It's common to restrict space access to certain team members using permission schemes, groups, and space roles.

Solution

Note: Before you begin, confirm your space is company-managed. These steps do not apply to team-managed spaces. For those, see the team-managed permissions articles linked in the Summary above.

Example scenario in Jira

Imagine we have three spaces: Teams in Site (TIS), Human Resources (HR), and Technical Crew (TC).

Our company has departments that align with these spaces as well. Each team should only be able to access its corresponding space.

To achieve this, we'll use space roles and groups, so we'll only need to use one permission scheme.

Create groups if you don't have any

If you already have a group, you can skip this step. If not, you'll need at least one group to assign to our space role later on.

You need to be a site admin to create groups. If you're not a site admin, ask your site admin to set up any groups you need.

To create groups:

1. Go to ⚙ Jira settings > User management > Groups

2. Choose Create group, give the group a name and select Create group

3. Select Add to add people to your group

4. Add people (you can add multiple at a time) and choose Add user

Create a space role

We're going to create a new space role and call it "Browse."

1. Go to ⚙ Jira settings > System > Space roles

2. At the bottom of the page, add a Name and Description and choose Add pace role

Add the space role to the Browse Spaces permission

1. Go to ⚙ Jira settings > Issues > Permission schemes

2. Find the permissions scheme associated to the relevant space, and select Permissions

3. Select Edit, choose Space Role, and select the Browse space role we previously created

4. Select Grant

We now have a permission scheme with the Browse space role configured for the Browse space permission.

Add the groups to the space role

We're now going to add the groups to the appropriate space role to give them access.

Go to the People settings page for each space and add the corresponding group to the Browse space role.

For example, for the Teams in Site space we would:

1. Go to Space settings > People

2. Choose Add people

3. Start typing "Teams-In-Site" then select the group

4. Choose the Browse Space role and select Add

Now, all users of the Teams-In-Site group have access to the Teams in Site space.

Repeat this for the other spaces, choosing the appropriate group in each space.

Remove unnecessary browse spaces permissions

To help ensure the space will only be visible to the right users, you should remove any other groups and application access from the browse spaces permission.

Warning: Because this permission scheme is shared across spaces, leaving other groups or application access on the Browse spaces permission grants those users access to every space using this scheme — not just this one. Remove them before relying on the restriction.

To grant users access to the space, add them (users or groups) to the space role via Space settings > People.

1. Choose Remove next to the Browse spaces permission

2. Select any unwanted groups and/or application access

3. Select Remove

How do I know it worked?

1. Go to Space settings > People and confirm only the intended group appears in the Browse space role.

2. Return to the permission scheme's Browse spaces permission and confirm no unwanted groups or application access remain granted.

Related articles:

• Jira Cloud - How to Create a Read Only User

• Default groups and permissions

• How can I restrict users' access to a specific space on my Jira site?