Default Roles

YouTrack provides a set of predefined default roles: System Admin, Project Admin, Contributor, Observer, User Manager, and Project Creator. For a comparison of the default permissions granted to default roles, see Permission Comparison for Default Roles.

If you want to create a custom set of permissions that are available to a group or user account, you can create new roles or edit an existing role.

System Admin

The System Admin role is intended for use by the users who are responsible for the administration of your YouTrack instance.

This role is assigned all available permissions in YouTrack.

Project Admin

The Project Admin role is intended for use by the users who create and manage projects. The Project Admin role has the same access rights as a Contributor and can also manage project settings like assignees, fields, and workflows.

All the permissions assigned to the default Project Admin role are project-scoped. Permissions that grant rights at the global level, like Create Project, Create User, and Create Group, are not included. Access to globally scoped permissions can be assigned using the default Project Creator and User Manager roles.

Entity	Permission
Project	Read Project Basic Read Project Full Update Project
Issue	Read Issue Read Issue Private Fields Update Issue Create Issue Delete Issue Link Issues Update Issue Private Fields Apply Commands Silently View Watchers Update Watchers View Voters
Attachment	Add Attachment Update Attachment Delete Attachment
Comment	Create Issue Comment Read Issue Comment Update Issue Comment Delete Issue Comment Update Not Own Issue Comment Delete Not Own and Permanent Comment Delete Read Article Comment Create Article Comment Update Article Comment Delete Article Comment
Work item	Read Work Item Update Work Item Update Not Own Work Item Create Work Item Create Not Own Work Item
Article	Read Article Create Article Update Article Delete Article

Contributor

The Contributor role is intended for use by the users who create and work with issues. Contributors can create new issues, add comments, view existing issues and comments, and update most issue attributes.

The Contributor role is assigned the following permissions by default:

Entity	Permission
Project	Read Project Basic
Issue	Read Issue Read Issue Private Fields Update Issue Create Issue Delete Issue Link Issues Update Issue Private Fields View Watchers Update Watchers View Voters
Attachment	Add Attachment Update Attachment Delete Attachment
Comment	Create Issue Comment Read Issue Comment Update Issue Comment Delete Issue Comment Read Article Comment Create Article Comment
Work item	Read Work Item Update Work Item Create Work Item
Article	Read Article Create Article

Observer

The Observer role grants baseline access to interact with other registered users in the system. Observers can view profile data for other users in the system and update their own profiles. This role is assigned the following permissions by default:

Entity	Permission
User profile	Update Self
User	Read User Basic Read User Full

User Manager

The default User Manager role lets users create accounts for other users and invite users to join your YouTrack site. By default, this role is only assigned the Create User role at the global level.

Use this role to give non-administrators permission to add user accounts to your YouTrack system. Note that this only grants users the ability to create accounts for new users.

Permission to read user accounts at the global level is granted by the default Observer role.
Permission to update user accounts is granted to users for their own accounts by the default Observer role. Permission to update the accounts of other users is limited to users who are assigned the default System Admin role.

Project Creator

The default Project Creator role gives users the ability to create new projects in the system without granting access to content in projects created by other users. By default, this role is only assigned the Create Project permission at the global level.

Use this role to give non-administrators permission to create their own projects. Since project owners are automatically granted the Project Admin role in their own projects, they can manage access in these projects as well.

26 March 2026