1. The three roles, and exactly what each can do
Every member of your organization has one of three roles: Manager, Contributor, or Worker. The role decides what appears in their sidebar and what they're allowed to change.
Navigation per role
| Role | Sidebar items |
|---|---|
| Manager | Home, Optimization Inbox, Active Runs, Workflows, Insights, Teams, Settings |
| Contributor | Home, Workflows, Teams |
| Worker | Home, Active Runs, Workflows |
Permissions
| Capability | Manager | Contributor | Worker |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create workflows (scratch, AI, recording, import) | Yes | No | No |
| Edit workflow steps, branching, attachments (the builder) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Publish and revert workflow versions | Yes | No | No |
| Workflow settings, archive, duplicate, delete, request optimization | Yes | No | No |
| Assign workflows to teams (including bulk assign) | Yes | No | No |
| Optimization inbox (review AI suggestions) | Yes | No | No |
| Organization-level Insights page | Yes | No | No |
| Run workflows (guided execution) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Browse the workflows library and workflow detail pages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| See all active runs | Yes | Yes | Own runs plus their teams' queue (see section 6) |
In short: managers own the operation end to end, contributors can improve the content of workflows (edit steps in the builder, suggest optimizations where enabled) but cannot publish or administer, and workers execute. The workflows library even greets them differently: managers see Workflows library ("Every SOP your team can run, end-to-end"), while workers see My workflows, listing only workflows assigned to teams they belong to.
2. Inviting members
Open Settings, then Members, and press Invite members. Each invitee gets an email with a link to join your workspace; you can change their role any time after.
- 1Enter an Email address and pick a Role for each person. New rows default to worker.
- 2Use Add another to invite several people at once.
- 3Press Send invitations.
Who can invite whom: managers can invite members, but only the organization creator can invite new Managers; for everyone else the role list stops at contributor and worker. Only the organization creator can change roles or remove members, and the page says so: Only the organisation creator can change roles or remove members.
The Pending invitations section lists everyone who hasn't accepted yet. Invitations expire if not accepted, and you can Revoke one at any time.
3. Creating teams and adding people
Teams group people who run the same workflows, and they're the unit OpsBrain uses for assignment, queues, and notifications. Open Teams in the sidebar and press Create Team: give it a Team Name (like "Customer Support" or "Manufacturing") and a Description of what it's responsible for.
Each team's page has two tabs:
- Overview: the team's active runs, member cards with per-person active run counts, and workflow cards with active and flagged counters.
- Settings: team information, assigned workflows, members, and deletion.
Adding members
On the team's Settings tab, under Team Members, press Add Member. Search and select any organization members, then confirm; the modal counts your selection as you go. When everyone already belongs, it says All organisation members are already in this team. Newly added members receive a notification that they can now run workflows for this team.
Removing a member from a team only removes team access: they can no longer pick up runs assigned to this team, but their organization membership and run history are untouched, and you can add them back any time.
Adding workflows
Under Assigned Workflows, press Add Workflow and pick from the list (each row shows its step count). Assigned workflows become visible and runnable for the team's members.
Deleting a team
The Delete Team action removes the team permanently: members are unassigned and the team is removed from any workflows it has access to. It does not delete workflows or runs. This cannot be undone.
4. Assigning workflows to teams
Assignment connects a workflow to the people who should run it. There are three ways in:
- From the workflow: the workflow's Settings tab has an Assigned Teams picker (it tells you when All teams are already assigned). You can also set teams when creating a workflow.
- From the team: the Add Workflow flow described above.
- In bulk, from the library: select multiple workflows and choose Assign to teams.
Bulk assign, and its two modes
The bulk dialog ("Assign N workflows to teams") lets you pick teams for many workflows at once, with two modes:
| Mode | What happens |
|---|---|
| Add to teams | Keep existing assignments. Append the picked teams. |
| Replace teams | Reset each workflow's team list to exactly the picked teams. |
When a workflow is assigned to a team, every member of that team (except the workflow owner) receives a "New workflow assigned" notification, subject to their preferences.
5. Workflow-level settings
Each workflow's Settings tab (managers only) carries three toggles that shape how the team interacts with it:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Allow team members to start runs | Team members can initiate new workflow runs. When off, only managers and the workflow owner can start runs; everyone else can still execute runs handed to them. |
| Allow contributors to submit improvements | Contributors can suggest workflow optimizations. |
| Notify team when workflow is updated | Send email notifications about workflow changes. This is also the master switch for the "notify teams" option when accepting an optimization suggestion. |
Other rules worth knowing when workers start runs: the workflow must be Live with a published version; if it has assigned teams, the person must belong to one of them (or own the workflow); and each person can have only one active run per workflow: starting again resumes the existing run instead.
Archive vs delete
The Danger Zone offers two very different exits:
- Archive Workflow hides the workflow from active lists. Existing runs and history stay searchable, and you can unarchive later. This is almost always what you want.
- Delete Workflow deletes the workflow along with every run, suggestion, and insight tied to it. It cannot be undone; the confirm button reads Delete forever, and the dialog itself points you to Archive if you might ever want it back.
6. Organization settings that matter
Workers can see all active runs
By default, workers only see runs they started or were assigned; managers and contributors always see everything. Turning this setting on lets workers see all active runs across the organization. Even with it off, workers always see pending-pickup runs for their teams, so claiming queued work is always possible.
Organization language vs personal language
OpsBrain ships in English, Español, and Français, at two levels:
- Organization language: the language OpsBrain uses for team-wide output: channel notifications, and the workflows the AI generates.
- Personal language: each member picks their own language for their account, used across the app and for the emails and notifications OpsBrain sends them.
So a Spanish-speaking worker in an English-language organization sees the app and their personal emails in Spanish, while AI-generated workflow content and shared channel notifications follow the organization's language.
7. The notification system
OpsBrain notifies people two ways: email (for things you need to know even when OpsBrain is closed) and on-platform (the bell in the app, quieter, replayable in your activity feed). The bell shows your unread count, offers Mark all read, and when empty explains it will let you know when there's a new workflow, flag, or suggestion.
The nine notification types, and who receives them
| Notification | When it fires | Who receives it |
|---|---|---|
| New workflow assigned to your team | A workflow is wired to a team | Every member of the newly assigned team, except the workflow owner. |
| Workflow updated | A manager applies an edit or optimization to a live workflow (with team notification enabled) | Every member of every assigned team, deduplicated, excluding the acting manager. |
| Flag raised on a run | A worker flags a step | The workflow owner (skipped when the owner is the one who flagged). |
| Run completed / abandoned | A run of a workflow you own ends | The workflow owner (skipped when the owner ran it themselves). |
| New handoff | A run reaches a cross-team handoff and waits for pickup | All members of the target workflow's teams (the workflow owner if it has no teams). |
| Run needs action (triggered run) | An external system triggers a run into a team queue | All members of the target team(s), with the note that it's waiting to be claimed. |
| New AI improvement suggestion | The optimization engine surfaces a suggestion | Every Manager in the organization. |
| Added to a team | You're added to a team | The newly added member. |
| Password reset | Requested from the sign-in page | The requesting account (email only). |
The preference toggles
Each member controls their own notifications under Settings, in Notifications. Defaults are conservative; the page suggests opting out only of what you really don't need. There are twelve toggles: six for email and six on-platform, each group with its own Turn all on / Turn all off button.
| Email toggle | Covers |
|---|---|
| A new workflow is assigned to my team | Assignment notifications (also reused for workflow-updated emails). |
| A workflow my team runs is updated | A manager applied an optimization or edit to a workflow your team executes. |
| A run I'm on gets a flag | Step flags from a teammate or system error in your active runs. |
| A run I own has been completed | For managers: a worker wrapped a run of a workflow you own. |
| New improvement suggestion | Manager-only: the nightly review surfaced something worth looking at. |
| I'm added to a new team | A manager added you to a team. |
The six on-platform toggles mirror the same six events: New workflow assigned, Workflow updated, Run flagged, A run I own has been completed, New improvement suggestion, and Added to a new team. The save bar appears only when you've changed something, with Discard and Save changes.
8. Your first-week checklist
- 1Invite your people from Settings, then Members. Start most of them as workers; add contributors for the process experts who should help refine workflows. Remember only the organization creator can invite other managers.
- 2Create your teams under Teams, one per real-world group (receiving, support, night shift), and add members.
- 3Capture your first workflows (import a PDF, record a walkthrough, or describe the process to the AI), then assign each one to the right teams.
- 4Review each workflow's settings: decide who can start runs, whether contributors can submit improvements, and whether the team should be notified on updates.
- 5Set the organization language, and decide whether workers should see all active runs.
- 6Ask everyone to review their notification preferences so the defaults match how they work.
- 7After the first runs come in, check Insights and the Optimization Inbox: that's where OpsBrain starts paying you back.