User groups
User groups let you manage access for multiple Workspace Members at once. Add members to a group, then assign the group an Environment Role in each Restricted Environment it needs to access.
Group types
Modal supports two types of user groups:
| Group type | Created in | Name and membership managed in |
|---|---|---|
| Custom | Modal | Modal |
| SCIM | Your IdP | Your IdP |
You can assign Environment Roles to either type of group from Modal. SCIM only controls the group’s name and membership; Modal remains the source of truth for its Environment access.
Create a custom group
To create and populate a custom group:
- Open the Groups tab on the Workspace Management settings page.
- Click Create Group.
- Enter a group name and select the Workspace Members to add.
- Click Create.
A group can be created without any members or Environment access. Assigning an Environment Role later applies that Role to every current and future member of the group.
Update a custom group
On the Groups settings page, expand a custom group and click Edit Group to rename it or change its membership. You can also remove a member directly from the group’s member list.
Changes to group membership update the members’ access to every Environment assigned to that group.
Manage groups with SCIM
When SCIM group provisioning is enabled, groups pushed by your identity provider (IdP) appear automatically on the Groups settings page with a SCIM label.
Manage the name and membership of a SCIM group in the IdP. These fields cannot be edited in Modal, so the IdP remains their source of truth. You can still assign, change, and remove the group’s Environment Roles in Modal.
Removing a user from a group in the IdP removes the access they received from that group after the change syncs to Modal. Deactivating or removing the user through SCIM also removes their Workspace access according to your SCIM configuration.
Assign an Environment Role to a group
User groups work with Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) at the Environment level. Groups do not receive a Workspace Role and do not change who can manage Workspace settings or billing.
To assign a group to an Environment:
- Open Environment settings.
- Click Manage for a Restricted Environment, then open Access Restrictions.
- Select the Groups tab and click Add Group.
- Select a custom or SCIM group and choose an Environment Role:
- Contributor — can view and modify resources in the Environment.
- Viewer — can view resources but cannot modify them.
- No Access — cannot discover or access the Environment.
- Click Confirm.
Group Roles can only be assigned in Restricted Environments. From the same Groups tab, you can change a group’s Role or remove the group from the Environment. The Groups settings page also lists every Environment and Role assigned to each group.
How group Roles combine with other RBAC settings
A Workspace Member can receive an Environment Role directly, through one or more groups, or from the Restricted Environment’s default member Role. Modal resolves these sources as follows:
- Any direct or group Role takes precedence over the default member Role.
- If a member has multiple direct or group Roles, the most permissive Role applies: Contributor, then Viewer, then No Access.
- Workspace Owners and Managers always have Contributor access, regardless of group assignments.
For example, a member assigned Viewer directly and Contributor through a group has Contributor access. A No Access group assignment does not revoke a more permissive direct or group assignment, but it does override an Environment default of Viewer or Contributor when no other explicit assignment applies.
To keep access predictable, assign each team to the smallest set of groups it needs and review both direct and group Roles when troubleshooting a member’s effective access.