> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.akua.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Workspaces
> How organizations contain workspaces, and how workspaces isolate clusters, products, billing, and installations
A workspace is the unit of resource ownership in Akua. Clusters, products, installations, billing, and Stripe payments all belong to a workspace. Switch between workspaces in the sidebar to navigate between sets of resources.
Workspaces are scoped to their members. Only people invited to a workspace, or members of an [organization](/platform/organizations) that manages it, can see it.
Every workspace sits inside an organization. Akua creates the first organization automatically during onboarding, so solo users can start from a workspace-first experience while still having a durable organization to grow into later.
## What a workspace contains
* **Clusters**: Kubernetes infrastructure for deploying applications.
* **Regions**: organizational labels for grouping clusters.
* **Products**: sellable software packages you create.
* **Installations**: running instances of your products and direct installs, each with its own [package repository](/installs/repositories).
* **GitHub App installations**: connected for automated installs.
* **Workspace members**: users with direct access.
* **Organization**: parent [organization](/platform/organizations) for team identity, member management, and managed customer workspace access.
* **Stripe account**: one billing account per workspace for marketplace payments.
## Workspaces vs organizations
These solve different problems. Use them together:
| | Workspace | [Organization](/platform/organizations) |
| ------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| **What it is** | Container for resources (clusters, products, installations) | Identity for your team, company, or seller account |
| **Who sees it** | Direct members and the managing organization's members | Members of the organization |
| **Owns billing** | Yes (Stripe Connect, Akua subscription) | No |
| **Owns resources** | Yes | Contains the workspaces that own resources |
| **Typical count** | One per environment, customer, or business unit | One per company |
If you're a single user shipping a product, onboarding creates the organization for you and keeps the experience focused on your first workspace. When you add teammates, customers, or more environments, that organization becomes the shared identity that ties those workspaces together. If you sell software that your customers install on Akua, your organization gets admin access to each customer's workspace through the [managed-by](/platform/organizations#managed-workspaces) relationship; your customers retain full ownership and billing control.
## When to use separate workspaces
Even with an organization, you'll often want multiple workspaces:
* **Environment separation**: production, staging, and development as separate workspaces prevent accidental changes and keep clusters isolated.
* **Per-customer ownership**: when you sell software, each customer gets their own workspace. They own it; your organization manages it. This keeps billing, data, and resources isolated per customer.
* **Independent business units**: different legal entities, different Stripe accounts, or different teams that should never share resources.
* **Test isolation**: short-lived workspaces for one-off projects, demos, or partner experiments.
Don't reach for a new workspace just to organize resources within the same business and same team. Clusters, products, and installations can coexist in one workspace.
## Workspace roles
Each member has a role that controls their permissions:
| Role | Permissions |
| ---------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Owner** | Full control: delete workspace, manage billing, transfer ownership, and invite members. |
| **Admin** | Manage products, installations, clusters, secrets, and members. |
| **Member** | Deploy products and view resources and logs. |
The workspace creator is automatically assigned the **owner** role. Members of a managing organization get **admin** access automatically. See [Organizations → Managed workspaces](/platform/organizations#managed-workspaces).
## Managing the workspace
* Switch workspaces from the sidebar switcher.
* Selecting **All Workspaces** shows resources from every workspace you have access to.
* Create, edit, invite members, or transfer ownership from **Settings** in the dashboard.
## API
Manage workspaces, members, subscriptions, and access state programmatically.
CRUD, member management, subscription, access state, and billing portal endpoints.
Mint API tokens for programmatic access.
## Related topics
Team and customer-management identity.
Manage your workspace subscription.
Set up infrastructure in your workspace.
Resource quotas and plan limits per workspace.