Set Up and Manage Spaces

Learn how to enable and configure Spaces, external sharing, and guest accounts for your organization.

For Admins

Last updated: Sep 3, 2026

Overview

Spaces allow you to organize and share Workflows, Playbooks, Vaults, and Assistant Threads in secure collaboration environments.

As a workspace admin, you control:

Who can create and use Spaces
Who can collaborate with other Harvey organizations
Who can invite non-Harvey users as guests

By the end of this article, you’ll understand how to:

Enable the correct permissions
Configure external sharing approvals
Set up guest access
Communicate collaboration models to your team

What Are Spaces?

Spaces are secure, branded collaboration environments in Harvey that allow teams to organize and share tools, data, and work product in one place. They support multiple modes of collaboration:

Internal Spaces: Organize resources within your own workspace. Great for practice groups, project teams, or knowledge management.
External Spaces: Spaces shared between two Harvey organizations. Both organizations can contribute and access shared resources while maintaining separate data visibility and approval controls.
Guest Accounts: Invite non-Harvey users into a Space using a limited-access account. Guests authenticate through a secure email link and can only access the Spaces they're invited to.

Resource owners can set different access levels for each party within the Space, so different parties in the same Space can have different levels of access to the same resource.

Collaboration Permissions

Important: Spaces are fully opt-in. Collaboration features are disabled by default. You must explicitly enable each permission before users can access Spaces or collaborate externally.

Each permission controls a different level of collaboration:

Permission	What It Enables	Recommended For
Use shared spaces	Allow users to join and collaborate in shared spaces in your Harvey workspace.	Any user who should access Spaces internally.
Create shared spaces	Allow users to create shared spaces in your Harvey workspace.	Users who should set up new Spaces (e.g., practice group leads, project managers).
Invite shared spaces	Allow users to invite other members into a Shared Space they belong to.	Users who need to bring teammates or collaborators into existing Spaces.
Use external collaboration	Allow users to invite collaborators to their shared spaces from other Harvey customers. Each external user invite requires admin approval. Allow users to invite non-Harvey users (e.g., consultants) to their shared spaces. Each guest invite requires admin approval.	Users who need to collaborate with people at other Harvey workspaces (e.g., firm and client). Users who need to bring in collaborators who don't have a Harvey license.
Manage external connections (Admin only)	Allow admins to manage external collaborators, assign Connection Admins, and approve or deny share requests across all spaces.	Admins responsible for governing external collaboration across the organization.
Manage internal spaces (Admin only)	Allow admins to access and manage a centralized view of all internal spaces in the workspace.	Admins who need to audit or govern internal spaces without joining them.

Note: These permissions are independent. You can combine them based on your organization’s collaboration model.

Permission Configurations

Use Shared Spaces	Create Shared Spaces	Invite Shared Spaces	External Collaboration	What Your Users Can Do	Typical Use Case
✅ Enabled	❌ Disabled	❌ Disabled	❌ Disabled	View and join existing internal Spaces; join external shared spaces if they are invited and approved by admins	For viewers who read Spaces but don't need to create them.
✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled	❌ Disabled	❌ Disabled	Create and join Spaces, but cannot invite others Cannot invite external members	Space creators who manage their own Spaces; membership managed by admins
✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled	❌ Disabled	Create internal Spaces and invite members — no external sharing	Teams organizing resources internally (e.g., practice groups, knowledge management)
✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled	✅ Enabled	Full collaboration: internal, external, and guest invites for non-licensed users	Active client collaboration across Harvey and non-Harvey users
❌ Disabled	❌ Disabled	❌ Disabled	✅ Enabled	Direct resource sharing only (no Spaces) — share a Workflow or Vault to a specific external user	Lightweight, infrequent sharing without a full Space

Manage Permissions

Permissions can be managed per user, by role, or for all users.

Option 1: Enable for Specific Users

Go to Command Center → Users & permissions → Users.
Search for and select the user you want to enable.
Select Manage Permissions.
Search for the relevant permission name.
Select Add permissions.

image of going to settings, then users, searching for the user, selecting the user, then searching for the permission name. Select the permission then select Add permissions

Option 2: Enable Permissions by Role

Go to Command Center → Users & permissions → Roles.
Expand the Collaboration permission category.
Select Edit Table.
Check the appropriate permission boxes for each role. Check the boxes for every role to enable for all users.
Select Save.

Image of going to settings then roles. Finding collaboration in the table and expanding those permissions. Selecting Edit table and then selecting the permission to enable or disable for the role. Then clicking save to confirm updates.

Tip: Start by enabling shared spaces for all users to encourage internal adoption. Then selectively enable external collaboration for users who actively collaborate with other organizations.

External Collaboration

External Collaboration lets your users share Workflows, Playbooks, Vaults, and Spaces with users at other Harvey organizations.

Before you begin: Your workspace must meet the following requirements

Both organizations must have Harvey.
Both workspaces must be in the same data processing region (US to US, EU to EU, etc.).
At least one Connection Admin. You must designate at least one user in your workspace who can review and approve external collaboration requests.

External Collaboration Overview

External Collaboration allows your organization to securely collaborate with other Harvey organizations and approved external participants without exposing your internal workspace.

External collaboration supports:

Spaces between organizations
Direct sharing of supported resources
Guest access for non-Harvey users
Controlled approval workflows between organizations

Your organization maintains ownership, governance, and visibility over externally shared resources at all times.

Harvey supports two external collaboration models:

Collaboration Type	Description
Spaces	Persistent collaborative environments where organizations can share workflows, vaults, threads, Playbooks, and resources together
Direct External Sharing	One-time or lightweight sharing of supported resources without creating a Space

Use Spaces for ongoing collaboration across matters or teams. Use direct external sharing for lightweight collaboration or individual resource sharing.

Designate Connection and Space Admins

Connection admins manage resource sharing between your workspace and external connections. You can designate these capabilities at the workspace or at the relationship (individual connection) level.

External Collaborators

You can use the Collaboration settings page to manage external collaborations between Harvey organizations.

External collaborators:

Represent approved relationships between organizations
Control external sharing approvals
Allow Connection Admins to manage collaboration requests centrally

Admins can manage connections with external collaborators within Command Center → Users & permissions → Collaboration.

Note: The Collaboration settings page may appear as External Collaboration if the admin does not have the Manage internal spaces permission.

Workspace Level Connection Admin

To permit workspace-wide management of connections, assign a role or user the Manage external connections permission.

This permission allows a user to:

Manage all external connections in Command Center → Users & permissions → Collaboration.
Review and approve (or deny) share requests across all spaces in Spaces → Requests.
Assign relationship level connection admins to specific collaborators.

Important: This role provides organization-wide control over external sharing. Limit it to a small number of trusted users. Workspace Admins have this permission by default.

Tip: Assign this role to users responsible for governing external collaboration across your organization.

Relationship Level Connection Admin

If you’d like to restrict connection management to a specific relationship, you can choose a connection admin for that connection only.

This access allows a user to:

Send and receive resources for that connection without additional approval from their workspace
Approve resource shares for that connection. For routine Space-level actions (membership, join requests), these can be delegated to a Space Admin.

Tip: Assign this access to relationship managers or deal leads who own a specific partnership but do not require broader administrative access.

Note: The external organization’s Workspace or Connection Admin must still approve requests on their end.

Steps to Give Connection Admin Access to a Single Connection

Go to Command Center → Users & permissions → Collaboration.
Select an external collaborator.
Go to the Users tab.
Select the role drop-down menu and choose Connection admin.

image of selecting settings then external connections. Then selecting the connection and locating the user you want to give access to. Select the access level dropdown for the user and select connection admin

Space Admin

Space Admin is a Space-level role sitting between Connection Admin and Space Collaborator. It lets Connection Admins delegate day-to-day management of a specific Space (such as membership, join requests, roles, and settings) to a trusted user, without granting them broader administrative access.

A Space Admin can:

Invite and remove users within their assigned Space
Approve or deny join requests for that Space
Assign roles to users within that Space
(Hosting-side only) Configure Space settings such as name, branding, and operational controls.

The user who creates a Space is automatically assigned as Space Admin. A Connection Admin (or an existing Space Admin) can assign the role to others using the Space invite modal or the External Collaboration settings page.

Tip: Use Space Admin to delegate matter-level or project-level management to a trusted person, such as a matter lead or paralegal, without expanding their permissions beyond that Space.

Note: Existing Space Leads will be automatically assigned the Space Admin role when this feature goes live.

Steps to Designate a Space Admin

A Connection Admin or existing Space Admin can assign the role using the Space’s invite modal or through the Collaboration page.

Using the Invite Modal

Open the Space you want to assign an admin for.
Select Invite.
Find the user you want to designate as Space Admin.
Select the role drop-down menu and choose Space Admin.

Using the Collaboration Settings Page

Go to Command Center → Users & permissions → Collaboration.
Locate the Space you want to assign an admin for.
Select Users.
Find the user you want to designate as Space Admin.
Select the role drop-down menu and choose Space Admin.

All approval activity for your workspace lives in Spaces → Requests. Connection Admins and Workspace Admins use this page to review incoming and outgoing requests. End users use it to track the status of requests they've submitted.

Note: Workspace admins can also access requests within Command Center → Users & permissions → Collaboration.

The Harvey Spaces dashboard shows a grid of project spaces with a requests panel open on the right displaying 20+ pending sh…The Harvey Spaces dashboard shows a grid of client project spaces created by Whitestone Lane, with a requests panel open on the right displaying 20+ pending share requests from colleagues awaiting accept/deny action.

When someone in your workspace shares a resource or Space with someone at another Harvey organization, the sharing request moves through a four-step approval flow:

Requester adds context (optional). Before submitting, the requester will be prompted to add justification to their request: the use case, the people involved, and why access is needed. This context is optional and travels with the request to every reviewer on both sides.
Outgoing approval. The request appears in your workspace under Spaces → Requests in the Action required tab, where your Connection Admin (workspace-level or relationship-level) approves or denies it.
External recipient approval. Once your Connection Admin approves the request, the other organization's Connection Admin must review the request. The request will move to your In progress tab until the other organization responds to it.
Access granted. Access is granted only after both organizations approve. The request moves to the Resolved tab on both sides.

Note: Internal-only Spaces do not require approval.

Managing Requests

The Requests panel is organized into three tabs:

Action required: Requests pending your approval
In progress: Requests you’ve approved that are still waiting on the other organization)
Resolved: Completed requests — approved, rejected, or cancelled — that include the outcome, timestamp, and the user who resolved it. Use the Resolved tab to support audits and internal governance reviews.

Review Activity in a Space

Every Space includes an Activity Feed that records key events in the Space. Space members see a scrollable record of recent activity, and admins get an expanded view with additional events and filtering for governance, access reviews, and investigations.

What Admins Can See

In addition to the activity available to Space members, admins can see admin-only events, including:

Invitation requests, and approval or decline decisions
Members removed by an admin

What you can review depends on your role:

Workspace Admins can review activity across all Spaces
Space Admins can review activity in the Spaces they manage

How to View Activity

Open a Space.
In the top-right corner, open the ellipsis menu and select Activity.
At the bottom of the activity panel, select View all activity to open the full history.
Filter by users, activity type, and workspaces.

By default, Space activity is private to your workspace. Sharing activity with collaborators is optional and can be enabled in Space settings. In an external Space, collaborators can see your users' activity only if you opt in, and you can see theirs only if they opt in.

Guest Accounts

Guest Accounts allow your organization to invite non-Harvey users into a Space.

Guests:

Access only the Spaces they are invited to
Authenticate through secure email verification
Cannot access the rest of your workspace
Cannot independently create workspace resources or tools

All guest invitations require admin approval.

Data, Privacy, and Security

Spaces support secure collaboration while protecting data residency, ownership, query privacy, and access controls.

For more details, refer to Security, Data, and Privacy for Sharing in Harvey.

For more details on per-party access levels, refer to the Spaces Overview.

Use Cases: Getting Your Team Started

Tip: Start with one or two high-value internal Spaces first — no external approvals needed — then expand to external collaboration once your team is comfortable.

Go-Live Checklist for Admins

Use this checklist to configure collaboration for your workspace.

☐ Decide your collaboration model: internal only, external with other Harvey orgs, or full collaboration with guests.

☐ Grant the Use shared spaces permission to the users or roles who need it.

☐ If using external sharing or guest accounts: Grant the Use external collaboration permission to relevant users, and designate at least one Connection Admin.

☐ Designate Space Admins for active Spaces: Assign a Space Admin via the Space invite modal or external collaboration settings page.

☐ Communicate to your users: Let them know which capabilities are enabled and where to find Spaces in the app.

☐ Create your first Space in the correct processing region (US, EU, or AU) — matching the region of the people you'll be collaborating with.

☐ For external sharing: Ensure the other organization's admin is also set up and ready to approve connection requests.

FAQs

Was this article helpful?

Manage Vault Data Retention Settings

Learn how to manage vault data retention settings in Vault, including triggers and deletion timelines.

Enable the Harvey Word Add-In for Your Workspace

Learn how to deploy and enable the Harvey Word add-in for your organization.

Managing the Library For Your Workspace

Discover how to manage, customize, and organize Library to fit your organization’s needs.

Set Up Intapp Walls for AI

Learn how to connect Harvey to Intapp Walls for AI to enforce your firm's ethical walls, including prerequisites, connection steps, and how often walls sync.

Ethical Walls in Harvey

Learn how ethical walls affect sharing in Harvey and how admins set up, sync, and monitor walls by connecting their firm's walls provider.