Team-level channel membership policies - Mattermost

Team Admins can create and manage attribute-based membership policies for private channels within their team, directly from Team Settings, without requiring System Admin involvement. For organization-wide policies managed by System Admins, see System-wide attribute-based access policies.

With team-level channel membership policies, Team Admins can:

Create policies that apply attribute-based access rules to one or more private channels within their team.
Control which users can join or stay in those channels based on their profile attributes.
Manage auto-sync membership, so channels stay up to date as user attributes change.

Use cases

Team-wide project access: Restrict all private project channels to members with a specific project attribute.
Department isolation: Ensure only users from a specific department can join the team's private channels.
Clearance tiers: Apply clearance-level requirements consistently across multiple channels in the team without System Admin involvement for each change.

Prerequisites

Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) must be enabled by a System Admin in System Console > System Attributes > Attribute-Based Access.
You need Team Admin permissions for the team. The manage_team_access_rules permission is included in the Team Admin role by default.
Team-level membership policies apply only to private channels within the team.

Access Team Settings

Select the team name in the sidebar to open the team menu.
Select Team Settings.
Navigate to the Membership Policies tab. This tab is only visible when ABAC is enabled system-wide and you have Team Admin permissions.

<Note>

System Admins also have access to the Membership Policies tab in Team Settings and see the same policies as Team Admins.

</Note>

Manage membership policies

The Membership Policies tab shows policies scoped to the team. Each policy displays its name and the number of private channels it applies to.

Team Admins only see policies whose access rules their own user attributes satisfy. If a policy has rules that exclude the Team Admin's attributes (for example, a policy requiring Department=Engineering and the Team Admin has Department=Finance), that policy will not appear in their list. This is a self-inclusion safety mechanism to prevent admins from being locked out of policies they manage.

Create a policy

In the Membership Policies tab, select Add policy.
Enter a unique policy name.
Define access rules under Access rules:
- Select Add attribute to add a condition.
- For each condition, choose the user attribute, the matching operator (Is, Is not, In, Contains), and the required value.
- Add multiple conditions as needed. All conditions are combined with a logical AND, so users must satisfy all of them.
Assign channels under Assigned channels:
- Select Add channels to search for and select private channels within the team.
- Channels already assigned to this policy are excluded from the search results to prevent duplicates.
- A channel can be assigned to multiple policies simultaneously; all policies are enforced independently.
Optionally, toggle Auto-add members per channel to control whether users matching the rules are automatically added to that channel.
Select Save to apply the policy.

Self-exclusion prevention is enforced during save. If your defined rules would exclude your own user account, Mattermost will block the save and display an error. Adjust your rules to include your own attributes before saving.

Edit a policy

Select a policy row in the list, or use the three-dot menu and select Edit, to open the policy editor. You can update the policy name, access rules, and channel assignments. Select Save to apply changes.

When saving changes that affect existing channel membership, a confirmation dialog shows how many users will be added or removed. Confirm to proceed.

Delete a policy

You can only delete a policy that has no channels assigned to it. To delete a policy:

Open the policy editor and remove all assigned channels using the Remove link next to each channel.
Once all channels are removed, select Delete policy at the bottom of the editor.
Confirm the deletion.

Auto-add members

Each channel assigned to a policy has an independent Auto-add members toggle:

Enabled: Users matching the policy rules are automatically added to the channel. If a user loses the required attributes and later regains them, they are automatically re-added.
Disabled (default): The policy enforces rules as a gate, removing users who no longer qualify, but does not automatically add new qualifying users.

Regardless of this setting, users who no longer satisfy the access rules are always removed during the next synchronization.

<Note>

If a system-wide policy has auto-sync enabled for a channel, Team Admins cannot disable it for that channel. If a system-wide policy has auto-sync disabled, Team Admins can choose to enable it.

</Note>

Policy inheritance and combination

When both a system-wide policy and a team-level policy apply to the same channel, both must be satisfied. Team-level policies are additive and cannot relax or override restrictions set by System Admins.

System-wide policies are managed in the System Console.
Team-level policies are managed in Team Settings.
Users must meet the rules of all applicable policies to access the channel.

Cross-team policies

A policy that has private channels from more than one team is considered a cross-team policy. Cross-team policies are not visible in any team's Membership Policies tab — they are managed exclusively through the System Console.

If a System Admin adds a channel from another team to a policy that was previously scoped to one team, that policy will no longer appear in any team's Membership Policies tab.

Synchronization

When you save a policy or modify channel assignments, Mattermost creates a membership synchronization job. Changes are applied as soon as the job completes. Synchronization also runs automatically every 30 minutes to handle attribute changes from external systems such as LDAP or SAML.

Troubleshooting and FAQs

Why can't I see the Membership Policies tab in Team Settings?

The Membership Policies tab is only visible when:

You have Team Admin permissions.
ABAC is enabled system-wide by a System Admin in System Console > System Attributes > Attribute-Based Access.

Why can't I see a policy that I know exists?

There are two reasons a policy may not appear in your Membership Policies tab:

Cross-team policy: The policy includes private channels from more than one team. Cross-team policies are not visible in Team Settings for anyone and must be managed through the System Console.
Self-inclusion filter: Your own user attributes do not satisfy the policy's access rules. For example, if a policy requires Department=Engineering and your profile has Department=Finance, you will not see that policy. A System Admin or another Team Admin whose attributes do satisfy the rules would need to manage it instead.

What happens when I save rules that would exclude me?

Mattermost validates your access rules against your own user attributes before saving. If the rules would remove you from any assigned channel, the save is blocked and an error is shown. Adjust the rules to include your own attributes, or reset them using the Undo option in the save panel.

Can I assign a channel to more than one team-level policy?

Yes. A private channel can be assigned to multiple membership policies. Each policy's rules are applied independently, and users must satisfy all of them to access the channel.

Can Team Admins override system-wide policies?

No. Team-level policies are always additive. Users must satisfy both the system-wide policy and the team-level policy to access a channel. Team Admins cannot weaken or bypass restrictions set by System Admins.

How are membership changes communicated to users?

Users receive standard Mattermost notifications when they are removed from or added to channels due to policy changes, consistent with other membership change notifications.