Team Setup Guide

Overview

Workunit is designed for teams that collaborate with AI models. Whether you're a solo founder planning to grow or an established team transitioning to AI-native workflows, this guide will help you set up your organization for success.

You'll learn how to configure your organization, invite team members with appropriate permissions, establish collaborative workflows, and manage your team as it evolves.

Estimated Setup Time: 10-15 minutes to configure your organization, invite team members, and establish initial workflows.

Organization Settings

Your organization is the top-level container for all your workunits, assets, and team members. Every user belongs to at least one organization, and organization settings control how your team collaborates.

Accessing Organization Settings

Navigate to Settings > Organization (or click your organization name in the sidebar) to access your organization settings page. Here you can:

• Update Organization Name: Change your organization's display name (Owners and Admins only)
• View Your Role: See your current role badge (Owner, Admin, or Member)
• Manage Team Members: View all organization members, their roles, and email addresses
• Invite New Members: Send email invitations with specific role assignments
• Manage Pending Invitations: View, resend, or cancel invitations that haven't been accepted yet

Tip: Organization settings are accessible from the main navigation menu. Look for the 'Settings' link, then select 'Organization' from the settings menu.

User Roles & Permissions

Workunit uses a role-based permission system with three levels: Owner, Admin, and Member. Each role has specific capabilities designed to support team collaboration without unnecessary complexity.

Owner Role

The highest level of access with full control over the organization.

Owner Permissions:

• Manage all organization settings and preferences
• Invite and remove team members with any role
• Change member roles (including promoting to admin or owner)
• Manage billing and subscription plans
• Delete the organization
• Full access to all workunits, assets, and tasks

Best Practice: Limit owner role to 1-2 people who are responsible for organization-level decisions and billing. You can always promote members to owner later if needed.

Admin Role

Team leadership with most organization permissions except billing and critical settings.

Admin Permissions:

• Invite and remove members (cannot remove owners or admins)
• Change member roles (up to admin level)
• Manage organization profile and preferences
• Full access to all workunits, assets, and tasks
• View subscription information (cannot modify billing)

Best Practice: Assign admin role to team leads, project managers, or senior engineers who need to manage team members and have oversight of all work.

Member Role

Standard team members with access to collaborative work without administrative privileges.

Member Permissions:

• Create and manage their own workunits
• View and collaborate on shared workunits
• Create and manage assets
• Update task status and AI context on workunits they have access to
• View organization members and activity
• Cannot invite or remove team members
• Cannot access organization settings or billing

Best Practice: Most team members should have the member role. It provides full collaboration capabilities while keeping administrative functions centralized.

Role Assignment Best Practices

Start Conservative

Begin with fewer admins and owners. You can always promote members later, but demoting can create friction.

Clear Responsibilities

Document who has which role and why. Make it clear who team members should contact for administrative needs.

Regular Review

Review team roles quarterly or when team structure changes. Remove access for departing members promptly.

Trust Your Team

Members have full collaboration capabilities. Don't over-promote to admin unless truly needed for team management.

Invitation Workflow

Inviting team members to Workunit is a straightforward process. Owners and admins can send email invitations with pre-assigned roles. New users receive an invitation link that creates their account and adds them to your organization.

Sending Invitations

To invite a team member:

Navigate to Settings > Manage Organization > Team Members
Click the "Invite Member" button
Enter the team member's email address
Select their role: Owner, Admin, or Member
Add an optional personal message
Click "Send Invitation"

What Happens Next:

The invitee receives an email with a secure invitation link
The link is valid for 7 days from the invitation date
When they click the link, they're prompted to create a Workunit account or log in if they already have one
After authentication, they're automatically added to your organization with the assigned role
They receive a welcome email with getting started resources

Managing Invitations

View and manage all pending invitations from the Team Members page:

Resend Invitation

If the invitation email was lost or expired, you can resend it. This generates a new link and extends the expiration date.

Cancel Invitation

Canceling an invitation invalidates the link. You can send a new invitation to the same email address later if needed.

Change Role Before Acceptance

You can update the role assigned to a pending invitation. The change takes effect when they accept.

Accepting Invitations

When a team member receives an invitation:

Step 1: Click Invitation Link

Open the email and click the "Join Organization" button. This link is unique and secure.

Step 2: Create Account or Log In

If you're new to Workunit, create an account with the invited email. If you already have an account, just log in.

Step 3: Verify Email

Verify your email address by clicking the verification link sent to your inbox. This ensures secure account access.

Step 4: Access Organization

Once verified, you're automatically added to the organization with the assigned role and can start collaborating immediately.

Email Verification Process

Email verification ensures account security and helps prevent unauthorized access:

Why Verification Matters

Email verification confirms you own the email address and prevents accidental or malicious account creation. It's a standard security practice that protects both you and your organization.

Verification Token Validity

Verification links are valid for 24 hours. If your link expires, you can request a new verification email from the login page.

Verification Required for Access

You must verify your email address before you can log in to Workunit. This security measure ensures account ownership and prevents unauthorized access.

Troubleshooting: If you don't receive the verification email, check your spam folder. When you try to log in, you'll see a link to request a new verification email. Note: You can request up to 3 verification emails per hour (10 requests per IP per hour for additional protection).

Team Collaboration

Workunit enables seamless collaboration between team members and AI models. Understanding how to share workunits, coordinate workflows, and maintain visibility is key to effective team productivity.

Collaborative Workflows

Workunit supports multiple collaboration patterns depending on your team's needs:

Common Collaboration Patterns

Human Plans, AI Executes

Team member creates workunit with clear problem and success criteria. AI models (Claude, GPT, Gemini) implement tasks in parallel, updating status in real-time.

AI Plans, Human Reviews, AI Executes

AI model creates initial workunit and task breakdown. Team member reviews and adjusts. AI models execute approved tasks with human oversight.

Parallel Human-AI Collaboration

Multiple team members and AI models work on different tasks within the same workunit. Everyone sees real-time progress and AI context updates.

AI Context Handoffs

One AI model (e.g., Claude) does planning and design. Another (e.g., GPT) implements. A third (e.g., Gemini) reviews and optimizes. All share context seamlessly.

Activity Visibility Across Team

Workunit provides multiple ways to stay informed about team activity:

• Activity Feed: See recent updates across all workunits and tasks in your organization
• Workunit Dashboard: View active workunits with progress indicators and recent AI context
• Task Status Updates: Real-time visibility into which tasks are in progress, completed, or blocked
• AI Context: See what AI models have learned and documented about each workunit

Team Coordination Best Practices

Clear Problem Statements

Write problem statements that give both humans and AI models context about why work matters. Include constraints, requirements, and success criteria.

Granular Task Breakdown

Break workunits into tasks that can be completed independently. This enables parallel work by multiple team members and AI models.

Link Relevant Assets

Connect people, product, system, and knowledge assets to workunits. This gives context about who's involved, what's being built, and what resources are available.

Update AI Context Regularly

When you or an AI model makes decisions or discovers patterns, document them in the workunit's AI context. Future work benefits from these insights.

Use Task Status Effectively

Keep task status current. Mark tasks "In Progress" when starting, "Blocked" when stuck, and "Done" when complete. This prevents duplicate work.

Managing Team Members

As your team evolves, you'll need to manage member access, update roles, and handle departures. Workunit provides tools for these administrative tasks while maintaining security and data integrity.

Viewing Team Roster

The Team Members page (Settings > Manage Organization > Team Members) shows:

• Active members: All current organization members with their roles
• Pending invitations: Email invitations sent but not yet accepted

Updating Member Roles

Owners and admins can change member roles as team needs evolve:

Promoting Members

When a team member takes on leadership responsibilities, promote them to admin or owner. Changes take effect immediately.

Demoting Members

If someone's role changes, you can adjust their permissions. They retain access to workunits they created but lose administrative privileges.

Permission Restrictions

Admins cannot change the role of owners or other admins. Only owners can promote to owner or demote from owner.

Security Note: Only Owners and Admins can change member roles. Role changes take effect immediately.

Handling Team Transitions

As team structure changes, follow these practices for smooth transitions:

Departing Owner

Before an owner leaves, promote another trusted member to owner. At least one owner must remain in the organization at all times.

Knowledge Transfer

Use AI context in workunits to document departing member's work and decisions. This preserves institutional knowledge even after they leave.

Workunit Reassignment

Review workunits created by departing members. Update AI context with transition notes and reassign tasks as needed.

Asset Updates

Update people assets to reflect new team structure. Remove departing members from asset relationships.

Communication

Inform the team about membership changes. Update any external documentation or onboarding materials.

Next Steps

Your team is set up! Here's what to do next:

Quick Start Guide

Get your team productive with Workunit in 10 minutes

Asset Management

Build organizational context for AI by tracking products, systems, and knowledge

Create a Workunit

Start your first team project with clear problem statements and success criteria

MCP Integration

Connect AI assistants like Claude and Gemini to your workunits via Model Context Protocol

Team Setup Questions?

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