How to use space roles

Space roles allow you to associate specific users, groups, and agents with particular functions or access levels in your space.

Membership in a space role is assigned on a space-by-space basis. This allows Jira admins to use the same permission schemes or workflow configurations across multiple spaces, while giving space admins the flexibility to manage who has access to their space.

Space roles can be used to:

• grant permissions in permissions schemes

• set up email notification schemes

• set up work item security levels

• trigger workflow conditions

• grant access to filters and dashboards

Jira admins can create space roles to match how their organization works, or grant permissions to users or agents selected in a field, such as:

• the Assignee field (also called Current assignee)

• the Reporter field

• any Group by field

• any User select field

Any users or agents who appear in that field (or are in the groups that appear in that field) are granted this permission. More about the roles that come with Jira Cloud and the roles that come with Jira Service Management.

How space roles simplify permissions management

For example, let’s say that you – the Jira admin – want to restrict the ability to create new sprints to a specific user or agent in a space that shares a permission scheme with other spaces. If you explicitly assign a user or agent to this permission in your scheme:

• anyone with the Manage sprints permission would be able to do so in all spaces that use the scheme or

• you would need to use a different scheme for each space to limit access

In both situations, changing who can manage sprints requires a Jira admin.

Space roles allow for more flexibility within these shared structures. Instead of nominating specific users, you can create a space role called Lead Developer, then grant it the Manage sprints permission in your scheme.

In each space that uses this scheme, the Space admin can nominate whoever they want to the Lead Developer role, granting them the Manage sprints permission – but only in that space. In this way, your permission scheme grants access to different spaces without a Jira admin intervening.

How space roles work with AI agents

How an agent uses space roles depends on its account configuration:

• Agent’s account (autonomous): Agents operating with their own account act independently and receive permissions governed by the space’s permission scheme. To grant an agent specific permissions, a space admin adds the agent to a space role (such as the default Member role or a custom role) in space settings.

• User’s account: Agents configured to run using a user's account execute tasks on behalf of the person who invoked them, inheriting that user's exact permissions without needing a separate space role or permission scheme assignment.