Workspaces

A Workspace groups files, users, groups, Partners, integrations, and workflows within a Files.com Site. An integration can provision a Workspace for a department or project and delegate its operation to a team without making that team Site Administrators. Every Site has a Default Workspace, with ID 0; additional Workspaces have their own IDs and root folders.

Account membership, request context, and permission grants serve different purposes. Creating an account in a Workspace determines where it belongs. Selecting a Workspace determines which resources a request operates on. A permission grant determines what the caller can do there. Selecting a Workspace never grants access to it.

Accounts and Administrative Access

A user's or group's workspace_id identifies the Workspace the account belongs to. Accounts belonging to a Custom Workspace stay within it. Default Workspace users and groups can receive permissions in one or more Custom Workspaces while keeping their existing accounts in Workspace 0.

Account	Workspace Administrator assignment	Scope
User belonging to a Custom Workspace	Set the user's `workspace_admin` to `true`.	That user's own Custom Workspace.
Default Workspace user	Create an `admin` Permission for the user on a Custom Workspace's root folder.	Each Custom Workspace with a root grant.
Default Workspace group	Create an `admin` Permission for the group on a Custom Workspace's root folder.	Every member inherits administration of each Workspace with a root grant.

workspace_admin is not a summary of a user's effective administrative access. A Default Workspace user can administer a Custom Workspace through a direct or group root grant while their workspace_admin remains false. Groups have no workspace_admin field. See Users and Groups for account fields.

An admin grant on the Custom Workspace root provides full Workspace Administrator authority over its files, users, groups, Partners, workflows, and integrations. An admin grant on a subfolder provides Folder Admin authority over that folder and its descendants; it does not provide Workspace administration. Other permission levels provide their corresponding folder access without Workspace administration. Permissions defines the levels.

Site Administrators manage cross-Workspace assignments to Default Workspace accounts. Workspace Administrators manage accounts and permissions within their own scope. Site Administrators retain access to every Workspace; adding a Workspace grant does not narrow Site Administrator authority. The product documentation explains the administrator's operational scope and site-wide controls.

Request Context and API Keys

You can include the X-Files-Workspace-Id REST header to select a Workspace for a request. SDK request options and CLI configuration send that same selection. When a Workspace is selected, Workspace-scoped resources are listed, created, and changed within that context, and ordinary paths are relative to its root.

A resource's workspace_id request field describes the resource's Workspace membership. It is separate from the SDK's Workspace request option or REST header. Creating a Workspace-scoped resource in a Custom Workspace defaults its workspace_id to the selected Workspace; a mismatching membership value is rejected with not-authorized/insufficient-permission-for-params.

Selecting another Workspace with an API key requires a Full Access key created in the Default Workspace. A user key follows that user's current access, including group permissions. A site-wide Full Access key created in the Default Workspace has Site Administrator authority in every Workspace. A Files Only key stays in its creation Workspace, even if its user has cross-Workspace access. Any key created in a Custom Workspace stays within that Workspace. Selecting another context with these confined keys is rejected with bad-request/invalid-workspace-id-header.

An account belonging to a Custom Workspace is scoped there when it authenticates normally. For a Default Workspace user, explicitly select the intended Workspace for an integration rather than relying on an interactive login preference. API Keys and Authentication cover credentials.

The Files.com JavaScript SDK supports workspace scoping by using the Files.setWorkspaceId configuration method. Scope a single request by passing workspaceId in the request options.

The adjacent scoping example uses a credential authorized for the selected Workspace. A group member uses their own Full Access user key from the Default Workspace; the Site Administrator credential used to assign the grant is not needed for their day-to-day work.

Example Request

import Folder from "files.com/lib/models/Folder"
import Files from "files.com"

Files.setWorkspaceId(123)

Folder.listFor("/", {}, { workspaceId: 456 })

Delegating a Workspace to an Existing Group

An operations team already represented by a Default Workspace group can administer a Custom Workspace through one root Permission. The group and its members stay in the Default Workspace, so the same team can receive different access in other Workspaces.

First retrieve the target Workspace and Group IDs as a Site Administrator in Workspace 0. The examples use Workspace 123, group 456, and member user 789; replace them with your own IDs. Confirm that the group belongs to Workspace 0 and that the intended user is a member.

Create the Permission using a Default Workspace Full Access site-wide key or a Full Access user key belonging to a Site Administrator. Keep the request context at 0 and use the qualified root path _/Workspaces/123. Set group_id to the group's ID, permission to admin, and recursive to true. Save the returned Permission id for later removal. For an individual Default Workspace user, use user_id instead of group_id.

For a Default Workspace group, a Site Administrator can also select Workspace 123 and use an empty path to grant access to its root. The qualified path in Workspace 0 works for both Default Workspace users and groups and keeps the account scope and target Workspace explicit. Appending a subfolder to the path would grant Folder Admin access instead of Workspace Administrator authority.

After the grant, run the request-context example above with the member's own credential and Workspace 123 selected. That member can work with the Workspace's files and perform Workspace Administrator operations, such as managing its users, Partners, and integrations. A Site Administrator's successful request does not establish that the member has the intended access.

Grant group administration

import Files from 'files.com'
import Permission from 'files.com/lib/models/Permission.js'

Files.setWorkspaceId(0)
const grant = await Permission.create({
  path: '_/Workspaces/123',
  group_id: 456,
  permission: 'admin',
  recursive: true,
}, { workspaceId: 0 })
console.log(grant.id)

Permission Inspection and Removal

List the member's Permissions with user_id and include_groups=true to include grants inherited through group membership. Listing only direct user grants can miss the Permission that provides Workspace administration. In Workspace 0, the Custom Workspace root appears as _/Workspaces/123; in Workspace 123, paths are relative to that root. Inspect the root path and permission=admin, rather than treating the user's workspace_admin field as their effective administrative access.

Permission lists show individual grants, rather than a single flag for effective administrative access. Membership in several groups combines their access. A Permission using group_ids instead of group_id requires membership in all the specified groups; it is not a shorthand for assigning the same grant to several independent groups.

Removing a member ends access received through that group. Deleting the root Permission ends the group's Workspace Administrator grant for every member. These changes leave independent direct and other group grants in place, so review all applicable grants when withdrawing access. Default Workspace user API keys follow those permission changes without being recreated.

Group membership maintained through SCIM follows the same rule. A Group Admin allowed to add members can give those users the group's existing Workspace Administrator access. Choose who manages the group with that authority in mind.

Delete the Permission by its returned id as the Site Administrator in Workspace 0. The removal examples use Permission ID 9001; replace it with the ID returned by your create request. Permissions are created and deleted, rather than updated in place. If narrower folder access is still needed, assign it explicitly; deleting a broad grant does not restore narrower grants it previously replaced.

Inspect member grants and remove the group grant

const grants = await Permission.list(
  { user_id: '789', include_groups: true }, { workspaceId: 0 }
)
await new Permission({ id: 9001 }, { workspaceId: 0 }).delete()