Understand workspaces

A workspace is the boundary around a team and its work

A workspace is the main container for a team’s work in ALLO. It holds:

• people and teams
• projects and canvases
• Goals/OKRs
• files
• billing
• workspace settings

Most teams use one workspace for a company, department, class, client group, or long-running program. If you belong to more than one workspace, the active workspace decides which people, files, projects, canvases, Goals/OKRs, and billing settings you are looking at.

Many support questions that feel like missing data are actually workspace questions:

• A canvas may not be gone. It may live in another workspace.
• A teammate may not be missing from ALLO. They may be an external collaborator on one canvas instead of a workspace member.
• A billing or invite button may not be broken. Your role may not include workspace admin permissions.

For the deeper role model, read Members, guests, and external collaborators. For the admin workflow, read Manage workspace members and Change a member role.

Availability and permissions

Where to find workspace areas

Use Switch workspaces first when something looks wrong. If you are in the wrong workspace, every other search and filter will feel misleading.

What belongs to a workspace

A workspace owns the main operating context. Members, teams, projects, canvases, Goals/OKRs, files, and billing all belong to a workspace. Search, recent work, activity, permissions, and notifications are also scoped by workspace so ALLO can protect private work across teams and clients.

The important distinction is that workspace membership is not the same as permission on a specific item:

• Joining the workspace can make you a member of the team, but a private canvas can still be view-only or unavailable to you.
• A client can be invited to one canvas without becoming a workspace member.
• A deactivated member can have an old direct link and still be blocked because the workspace boundary comes first.

Use this quick model when deciding what to change:

Workspace members, external collaborators, and guests

Content-level access still matters

ALLO has two layers of access: the person’s relationship to the workspace and the person’s permission on the specific work.

This is why a workspace admin may still need to check a canvas sharing dialog, and why making someone a workspace member is not always the right fix. If the problem is one canvas, fix the canvas permission. If the problem is team membership, fix the workspace membership. If the problem is admin controls, fix the workspace role.

Workspace settings, security, and deletion

Workspace settings are where admins handle the workspace itself: member management, roles, billing-sensitive areas, security policies, and dangerous actions such as leaving or deleting the workspace.

These actions are intentionally separate from normal project or canvas editing. Editing a canvas does not mean you can change a workspace's member list. Owning a project does not mean you can delete the workspace. A hidden settings control usually points to role, plan, workspace type, or policy, not a missing page.

Examples

Common mistakes

• Inviting someone to the workspace when they only need one shared canvas. That can increase seat usage, expose the person in People, and make later permission cleanup harder.
• Copying a direct link and assuming the link grants access. A link helps someone navigate to the work; it does not always grant permission.
• Treating People as every collaborator list. People is the workspace directory. External collaborators and guests are usually managed from the shared work itself.
• Assuming teams automatically fix every permission issue. Teams help organize members, but item-level sharing still decides who can open or edit a private canvas or project. See Manage teams for the difference.

Recover when work or people look missing

1. Confirm the active workspace. Use Switch workspaces, then return to Home, People, Projects, All canvases, Files, or Goals/OKRs.
2. Clear search and filters. A filtered People list, archived Session, private project, deleted canvas, or Shared with me state can look like missing data. Use When work looks missing for the broader checklist.
3. If a person is missing from People, ask whether they are actually a workspace member. They may be a guest or external collaborator on one shared item. Check Members, guests, and external collaborators before sending another invite.
4. If someone cannot open work, check their account email, workspace membership, item permission, and whether they are deactivated. If the item is linked from a notification, also check whether the original resource was deleted, moved, or unshared. When you cannot access work covers the wider access path.
5. If an admin action is missing, ask a workspace admin to review your role. Do not create duplicate work just because a control is unavailable. Unavailable controls usually mean role, permission, plan, or item state, not a missing feature.