Architecture
Scopes
How personal, team, and organization mail stay in the right place — and how sharing into a nest or project space works.
What a scope is
A scope is simply where a message belongs: your personal mail, a team’s project space, or the organization. Outdraft keeps those worlds separate so everyday inbox mail doesn’t mix with team or org work — and so you can choose the right reach when you send. A nest sits beside those scopes: it does not change where a message was sent from, only who else can open a copy you bring in.
The three scopes
You don’t need to think about infrastructure. You only need to know which of these fits the mail you’re about to send or open.
- 01
Personal
Your own inbox and the default way to write someone — a teammate or an outside address. Mail you send and receive here stays with you.
- 02
Team
A project space inside an organization. Use it when the message belongs to that team’s work, not only to one person’s inbox.
- 03
Organization
Mail in the context of the whole organization. Use it when the audience or the work crosses teams, or when the org itself should be the home for the thread.
When you’re writing
In compose, pick the space that matches the work. That space carries a scope: personal for one-to-one and everyday mail, or a team or organization for project and company context — the people who should see that mail as part of that space, not only as a private thread in your inbox. The project spaces you can send to depend on your role’s sending permissions and their team scopes.
When your role allows it, organization mail can also let you choose who you appear as: yourself, or the organization. That From choice is separate from scope. Scope says which world the mail lives in; From says whose name the other people see on the message. Sending as the organization requires both permission to send to the chosen space and the separate Send as the organization permission. A role’s title alone does not grant either one.
Sharing into a space and Nests
You can also take mail that already exists in your mailbox and share it into an organization, a team, or a nest. Sharing does not change the original send scope. It creates access for people in that space. Unsharing removes it from that space; it does not delete the copy in your inbox or copies you shared somewhere else. Sharing with an organization or team requires the matching sharing permission. Sharing access and sending access are configured separately, so being able to share a message does not automatically let you compose mail for that space.
A nest is a shared space people can make for different purposes: a trip, a project, or an idea taking shape. Invite people, and each member can bring relevant mail into the nest for everyone there to see. It lives under Contact — Library for nests you own or joined, Invites for outstanding invitations. Nest owners control membership. A nest is not a compose From identity or an organization.
Where it shows up for you
Your personal Inbox, Sent, Archive, and related views stay with your account under Contact → Mail. Nests you own or join live under Contact → Nests. Team and organization mail live under Your projects or Shared with you — invited spaces use the same Overview tools, just listed apart from orgs you own. Opening the right space is how you find the right thread.
Who can see and do what
Scope and role answer different questions. Scope says where mail belongs; your role’s current permissions determine what you can read and do there. Organizations can configure their own roles, so the same role name can have different permissions in different organizations.
Owner
The owner always has full organization permissions, including role configuration. Changing another role does not reduce the owner’s access.
Member
The built-in basic role covers mail access, receiving team mail, and sharing. Its available settings stay within basic mail permissions; management access belongs in a custom role. Check the organization’s current settings for the enabled permissions and team scopes.
Custom roles
The owner can create and configure roles for the organization. A role’s name does not define its access: its enabled permissions, team scopes, and assignable roles do. Role management can also be delegated within the managing person’s own permissions.
These permissions are enforced on top of personal, team, and organization scopes. Nest access is simpler: owners control the nest and its membership; members can open the mail shared into it. For how those boundaries are protected, see Security. For signing in, ownership, and leaving Outdraft, see Accounts.
Team scopes apply to each permission
A role can apply a team permission to All teams, Teams the member belongs to, or Selected teams, where that option is available. These ranges are set per permission. For example, a custom role could read mail across all teams but send only to selected teams.
Reading team mail and receiving it in your personal inbox are separate permissions. Receive team mail controls future deliveries; changing it does not remove mail already delivered to your inbox. Sending, sharing, and managing team members also have their own permissions.
Inviting people and assigning roles are separate capabilities, with a configured set of roles that a person may assign. Delegated role managers cannot grant permissions beyond their own access. The owner and your own role assignment are protected in the member editor.
For the steps to invite someone or change their role, see the Projects guide. Check the organization’s role settings for the current permissions instead of relying on a role name such as Manager or Team lead.
A simple way to choose
- PersonalIt’s mainly between you and the people you’re writing to.
- TeamIt belongs with a specific project team inside your organization.
- OrganizationIt belongs with the company or studio as a whole — or needs to span more than one team.
- NestYou’re gathering existing mail with people you invite — not sending as a company or a team.
Read next
Continue with Accounts, or start using the product in Guide.