Restrict who can view and edit projects

While Atlassian encourages open communication and transparency into work in progress, there will always be bodies of work that must be kept private. To fulfill this need, you can use private projects to communicate with key stakeholders without making the work public.

Who can see and make changes to a private project?

Access to a private project can be provided by setting up permissions.

Adding contributors to a private project

When adding contributors, a checkbox at the bottom of the select dropdown (checked by default) lets you grant view and edit access to the project.

Granting additional stakeholders access

At any time, a project’s owner and editors can grant other people and teams in your organization view and edit access via the Share button on the project page.

Adding followers to a private project

When granting an individual person or members of a team view access, you’ll also have the option of adding them as a follower.

Email notifications are also sent to people who have view or edit access to the private project.

Posting private project updates to Slack

Private projects can only be connected to private Slack channels. If you connect a private project to a Slack channel, its updates will be automatically posted to the channel and is viewable by everyone who’s a member of that Slack channel. Be sure to check who has access to a Slack channel before connecting.

Creating a private project

When you create a new project, you’ll see an option to make the project private.

Identifying a private project

Private projects have a padlock icon on both their avatar and the Share button. The padlock icon appears wherever the project avatar is shown to users with access to the project. By default, the creator is added as both the owner and as a contributor.