---
title: "Manage access"
url: "https://docs.mekodata.ai/architecture/core-concepts/manage-access/"
---

# Manage access

Change a member's role, or remove their access to a datapack

An owner or a maintainer manages who can use a datapack. A viewer does not see the member list.

To invite someone or share a link, see [Share a datapack](/architecture/core-concepts/sharing/).

## Find a member

1. Open the datapack and click **Share**, then **Settings**.
2. Under **Members**, search by name, email address, domain, or role. The field says **Search name, email, domain (@company.com), or role**.
3. Filter the list by role. **All roles** shows everyone.

**View all** opens the **Members** page. The same list is on the datapack's **Members** tile.

## Change a role

On **Members**, an owner or a maintainer chooses a role for another member. You cannot change the owner's role, or your own.

Meko shows **Role updated**. If the change does not go through, it shows **Couldn't update role**.

Changing a role from the **Members** card on the Share page asks you to confirm **Update member role**.

## Remove a member

On **Members**, click **Remove** on that person's row.

The dialog title is **Remove** followed by their name. It says they lose access to the datapack right away and can rejoin only through a new invite. Click **Remove**.

The share link does not add them again. See [Share a link](/architecture/core-concepts/sharing/#share-a-link).

## Datapack roles

When you add a member, you assign them a role: Viewer, Contributor, or Maintainer.

| Role        | View | Add memories | Add/edit knowledge base | Promote |
|-------------|------|--------------|-------------------------|---------|
| Viewer      | Yes  | No           | No                      | No      |
| Contributor | Yes  | Yes          | No                      | No      |
| Maintainer  | Yes  | Yes          | Yes                     | Yes     |

- *View*: read knowledge-base material, memories, and conversations your deployment exposes for that datapack.
- *Add memories*: create new memories. Contributors can do this, but cannot write to the knowledge base directly.
- *Add/edit knowledge base*: upload or modify knowledge-base content. Requires Maintainer.
- *Promote*: elevate memories into shared knowledge. Requires Maintainer, or the datapack owner.

## What a viewer can do

A **Viewer** can read the datapack.

In the portal and the REST API, a viewer sees the knowledge base, collective memory, conversations, and memories.

A viewer does not see who started a conversation, who added a memory, who uploaded someone else's file, or who promoted a memory.

A viewer does not see the member list. The **Share** page says **You have viewer access to this datapack**. Owners and maintainers manage who it is shared with.

Through MCP, a viewer can search the datapack.

Creating or changing a conversation or memory returns `read_only_access`.

Installer 2.5.0 holds automatic capture for that datapack and reports `read_only_access` the next time you start a session, instead of retrying every few minutes. See [Capture won't save because you are a viewer](/troubleshooting/#capture-wont-save-because-you-are-a-viewer).

A viewer can't upload artifacts or knowledge-base files.

A viewer can still delete their own memories, conversations they started, and knowledge-base files they uploaded. On **Memories**, **Delete** is on the viewer's own rows created on or after September 9, 2026. See [Delete a memory](/guides/working-with-memory/#delete-a-memory).

A member whose role changed to **Viewer** can still remove what they added before.