# Software factory: Sharing a project and roles

Invite people to a software factory project, pick their role, and how roles carry into your live app.

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You can share a software factory project with anyone, including people
outside your organization, such as a contractor, a client, or a vendor
giving you a quote. Open the project, choose **Share**, enter their email,
and pick a role. They get an email invite. They do not need a paid plan.

## Roles

| Role | In Chipp | In your live app |
|---|---|---|
| **Viewer** | Sees the project overview. Cannot change it or open the Builder. | Viewer: reads, cannot change data. |
| **Editor** | Opens the Builder, chats with the AI engineer, files tickets. | Editor: reads and writes app data. |
| **Owner** | Everything an editor can do, plus members, access and publishing. | Owner (or admin, when the app already has an owner). |

People in your own organization reach the project through the organization.
Their role comes from their organization role.

## What a viewer sees

When a viewer accepts the invite and your app is live, they land in the live
app, not the Builder. They sign in there with the email the invite was sent
to. If the app has not been published yet, they land on the project overview
in Chipp instead.

## Promote a viewer to editor

Open **Share** (or the project's **Members** page) and change their role from
viewer to editor. One step. The next time they open the project, it opens in
the Builder.

## Roles sync into your app

Each software factory app has its own sign-in and its own list of people. A
person with a role on the Chipp project gets the matching role in the app
automatically. When you change their role in Chipp, the app follows. When you
remove them from the project, they are removed from the app too, and their
open sessions end.

The sync only changes the people it added. In the app those people show as
**Managed by Chipp** on the app's Team page, and the app does not let anyone
change or remove them there. To change them, change their role on the Chipp
project. If someone already had their own account in the app before you
shared the project, the sync leaves that account alone.

The sync reaches apps built from the current software factory template.
An app created earlier picks it up with its next template update.

## Invite people inside the app only

You can also invite people from inside the app itself (its own team page). Those
people never need a Chipp account and do not see the project in Chipp. The
role sync never touches them. Use this for your app's own users and staff;
use **Share** in Chipp for people who should help build or review the project.

## Remove someone

Remove them from **Share** or **Members**. Removing a member:

- ends their access to the project in Chipp;
- removes them from the app, if the sync added them;
- ends their live app access when the app is restricted
  ([Restricting access to your live app](/docs/guides/software-factory-restricted-access));
- revokes the git credentials they created
  ([Work on your project in Claude Code](/docs/guides/software-factory-claude-code)).