Reference and Concepts
Roles overview
The four Gleo roles — Facilitator, Participant, Observer, and Owner / Admin — and where each role's UI differs.
Gleo has four roles. They determine what each person can do inside a playbook or session — what they can edit, what they can see, and what they can publish. This page is the single look-up for who can do what.
The four roles
Facilitator
Runs sessions. Edits prep and agenda. Publishes sessions and playbooks. The default role for the person who creates a session or playbook.
Participant
Completes pre-work and attends sessions. Cannot edit the agenda or other people's responses. The default role for invited members.
Observer
Read-only. Sees session content, prep responses, and artefacts but cannot edit, comment, or contribute. Useful for stakeholders, sponsors, and silent reviewers.
Owner / Admin
Holds company-level rights inside Gleo — Brand Centre access today, more surfaces over time. Distinct from workspace admin, which is configured in Forge.
Where the UI differs
Each role sees a slightly different version of the same screens. This table summarises the most important divergences:
| Surface | Facilitator | Participant | Observer | Owner / Admin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Session planner | Full edit (agenda, prep, goal, theme) | Read-only outline | Read-only outline | Inherits Facilitator on owned sessions |
| Pre-work | Edit structure; see all responses | Submit own responses; see own only* | Read-only view of all responses | Inherits Facilitator |
| Responses tab | Full visibility, can comment | Hidden by default | Read-only | Inherits Facilitator |
| Publish a session | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Brand Centre | Hidden | Hidden | Hidden | Visible (when connected to Forge) |
| Tasks tab | Edit any task | Edit own assigned tasks | Read-only | Edit any task |
| Questions tab | Ask, answer, resolve | Ask, answer | Read-only | Ask, answer, resolve |
* Some session templates expose other participants' responses by design — that's a per-template setting, not a role override.
A note on enforcement
Your role decides what you can do — not which buttons happen to be visible. Gleo's interface tries to hide actions you can't take, but if a control occasionally shows up for a role that shouldn't have it, attempting the action will simply be refused.
So: seeing a button doesn't mean you have permission to use it. If a control feels misplaced for your role, treat it as a UI quirk worth reporting — the underlying permission still applies.
Roles in Gleo vs membership in Forge
These two concepts are related but distinct:
- Gleo roles (Facilitator, Participant, Observer, Owner / Admin) are assigned per playbook or session. The same person can be a Facilitator on one playbook and an Observer on another in the same workspace.
- Workspace membership is granted in Forge. Forge controls who can sign into your workspace at all. Within the workspace, Gleo decides what they can do per playbook.
In practice: invite people via Forge first, then assign their per-playbook role inside Gleo's Team tab or Participants tab.