> Rally Help Center. Index of every page: https://rallywith.ai/help/llms.txt
> This chapter's pages: https://rallywith.ai/help/canvases/llms.txt

# Who can see what

> Understand who can open a Canvas, how to share it with people or the whole Organization, and what happens when access changes.

Before you paste a contract, a salary or a customer's details into a Canvas,
you should know who can read it. This page explains how Rally decides, how to
check for any Canvas, and what happens the moment you change it.

## Each Canvas decides for itself

There are no folders or teams in Rally that hand out access to a group of
Canvases. Every Canvas has its own list of who can open it, and that list is
the whole answer. Sidekicks work the same way, with their own sharing, covered
in [What a Sidekick is](https://rallywith.ai/help/sidekicks/what-a-sidekick-is.md#who-a-sidekick-is-shared-with).

A Canvas can be open to one of three groups:

| Setting | Who can open it |
| --- | --- |
| **Only you** (**Only the creator**, to anyone else) | The person who created it. This is where every new Canvas starts. |
| **Specific people** | The creator and the people chosen, guests among them. |
| **Everyone in the Organization** | Every member of the Organization, and any guests you add. |

To check, click **Share** at the top right of the Canvas. The **Share Canvas**
window shows which setting is chosen, and the people chosen below it.

Whoever can open a Canvas can read all of it: the conversation, every version
of what Rally made, and every comment. There is no way to show someone the
latest version but not the conversation behind it.

## Share a Canvas

1. Click **Share** at the top right of the Canvas.
2. Choose **Only you**, **Specific people** or **Everyone in the
   Organization**. For **Specific people**, tick who should be able to open
   it, as described in
   [People in a Canvas](https://rallywith.ai/help/canvases/people-in-a-canvas.md#adding-and-removing-people).
3. Click **Save**. **Cancel** leaves everything as it was.

Choosing **Everyone in the Organization** puts the Canvas in every member's
Canvases list and makes it findable in search. In the sharing window, you can
still search for members and guests. Members appear checked because they
already have access, and you can choose which guests to include. If you save
and later go back to **Specific people**, choose the members again.

Guests are never included by the Organization-wide setting. A guest sees a
Canvas only when someone chooses them for it, or invites them by email, as
[Sharing with people outside your Organization](https://rallywith.ai/help/canvases/sharing-with-guests.md)
explains.

### Who can change the sharing

The creator of a Canvas, and the Organization's owners and administrators,
decide who can open it: they choose people, invite guests, open it to the
Organization or close it again, and answer requests to open it. Everyone else
in the Canvas, members and guests alike, reads it and takes part, and sees the
**Share** window read-only, with a note saying who can change it. If you want
someone added, ask the creator. For a Canvas a Sidekick made, the Sidekick's
managers decide too.

## Requests to open a Canvas

A member who opens a link to a Canvas they cannot see is told **You don't have
access to this Canvas**, without its name, and can click **Request access**,
with an optional message. The people who decide on the Canvas each get an
Activity row, such as **Theo asked to open Launch plan**, with **Approve** and
**Deny** beside it, and a notification if they chose one for **Access
requests** (see [Activity and notifications](https://rallywith.ai/help/rally-everywhere/notifications.md)).
The same request is listed under **Requests** at the top of the Canvas's
**Share** window.

- **Approve** adds the person to the Canvas. They get an Activity row saying
  you let them in, and the Canvas opens for them, even if they are still
  looking at the request page.
- **Deny** turns it down. Nobody tells them, and they may ask again later.
- Once someone has answered, every decider's row says who approved or denied
  it.

Guests cannot ask. A guest who opens a link to a Canvas not shared with them
sees **This Canvas could not be opened.** with **Only a member of the
Organization can ask to open a Canvas**, whether or not the Canvas exists.

## Canvases from a Sidekick

A Canvas a Sidekick makes starts out open to the people the Sidekick is shared
with, so everyone who can talk to the Sidekick can read what it made. From then
on, the Sidekick's managers, and the Organization's owners and administrators,
decide who else can open it. Changing who the Sidekick is shared with later
does not change the Canvases it already made.

## Sites have a public address

Most of what Rally makes is reachable only inside Rally. A website is the
exception: a live site has its own web address, and who can reach that address
is set on the site itself, not by the Canvas's list. [Live sites](https://rallywith.ai/help/things-rally-makes/live-sites.md)
explains the choices. Check the site's setting before you send its address to
anyone.

## Roles

Who may change things depends on each person's role in the Organization.

| Role | In short |
| --- | --- |
| **Owner** | The person who created the Organization. Can do everything an administrator can. |
| **Administrator** | Runs the Organization. Can change roles and change the sharing of any Canvas. |
| **Member** | Can create Canvases and Sidekicks, and decides who can open the Canvases they created. |
| **Guest** | Someone from outside the Organization who was added to particular Canvases. Sees only those Canvases, and who is in the Organization. Can write in those Canvases. Cannot create Canvases or Sidekicks, and cannot change who can open anything. |

Rally shows buttons according to your role and checks every change again when
you make it, so a button that has stopped applying to you will refuse. Roles,
and how to change them, are covered in
[Roles: owners, administrators, members and guests](https://rallywith.ai/help/running-an-organization/roles.md).

## When access narrows

Rally applies a narrowing within moments, including to people who have the
Canvas open at that moment. Nobody keeps reading a Canvas because they happened
to have it on screen.

- **Someone is removed from a Canvas.** It leaves their Canvases list, and if
  they had it open, it closes.
- **A Canvas stops being open to the whole Organization.** Members who are not
  participants are cut off, and if they had it open, it closes.
- **Someone opens a Canvas they have lost.** A member sees **You don't have
  access to this Canvas**, without its name, and can ask to be let back in. A
  guest sees **This Canvas could not be opened.**

> [!IMPORTANT]
> Taking away one route to a Canvas does not take away the other. Removing
> someone does nothing while the Canvas is open to everyone in the
> Organization: they can still read it. To shut someone out, choose **Specific
> people** and leave them unticked.

> [!WARNING]
> Narrowing access stops people reading from now on. It cannot take back what
> they have already read, copied or downloaded.

Next: [Sharing with people outside your Organization](https://rallywith.ai/help/canvases/sharing-with-guests.md).