Custom assistants in SecureAI let you package a system prompt, model selection, and parameter settings into a reusable preset. By default, an assistant you create is private -- only you can see and use it. This article explains how to share assistants with your team, what visibility levels mean, and how role-based permissions affect who can create, edit, and share assistants.
What Sharing an Assistant Does
When you share an assistant, other users on your SecureAI instance can:
- Select the assistant from their model/assistant picker when starting a new conversation
- Use the assistant with its preconfigured system prompt, model, and parameters
- See the assistant's name and description in the assistant list
Sharing does not give other users the ability to edit or delete your assistant. They use it as-is. Only the creator (or an admin) can modify a shared assistant.
Visibility Levels
SecureAI assistants have three visibility settings:
| Visibility | Who can see it | Who can use it | When to use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private | Only you | Only you | Personal workflows, work in progress, experimental prompts |
| Team | Everyone in your workspace | Everyone in your workspace | Shared tools for your department or shop |
| Public | All users on the instance | All users on the instance | Organization-wide standards, cross-department tools |
Private (Default)
Every new assistant starts as private. Use private visibility while you are building and testing an assistant. There is no reason to share an assistant that is not ready -- your team will try it, get inconsistent results, and lose confidence in the tool.
Team (Workspace-Level Sharing)
Team visibility makes the assistant available to everyone in your workspace. In a typical automotive aftermarket setup, a workspace maps to a department or location -- the parts counter team, the service department, or a specific shop location.
Use team sharing when:
- The assistant is relevant to your immediate team but not the whole organization
- You want to limit exposure while gathering feedback from close colleagues
- The assistant uses terminology or workflows specific to your department
Public (Organization-Wide Sharing)
Public visibility makes the assistant available to every user on your SecureAI instance, across all workspaces. Use this for assistants that provide organization-wide value.
Examples:
- A Parts Cross-Reference Assistant that any counter staff at any location can use
- An Estimate Formatter configured to match your organization's standard output format
- A Customer Communication Drafter with tone and compliance guidelines baked into the prompt
How to Change Assistant Visibility
- Navigate to Workspace > Assistants (or Models, depending on your OpenWebUI version).
- Find the assistant you want to share and click Edit (or open its settings).
- Locate the Visibility setting.
- Select Private, Team, or Public.
- Click Save.
The change takes effect immediately. Team members will see the assistant in their assistant selector the next time they load the page or start a new conversation.
To stop sharing, change the visibility back to Private. Users who are mid-conversation with the assistant can finish their session, but they will not be able to start new conversations with it.
Role-Based Permissions
Not everyone on your SecureAI instance may be able to create or share assistants. Your administrator controls these permissions through role assignments.
Roles and What They Can Do
| Action | User | Lead / Power User | Admin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create private assistants | Depends on admin settings | Yes | Yes |
| Share assistants (Team) | Depends on admin settings | Yes | Yes |
| Share assistants (Public) | No | Depends on admin settings | Yes |
| Edit someone else's assistant | No | No | Yes |
| Delete someone else's assistant | No | No | Yes |
| Control who can create assistants | No | No | Yes |
The exact role names may vary depending on your OpenWebUI configuration. The key point: your admin decides the permission boundaries.
Common Permission Configurations
Restrictive (recommended for new deployments):
- Only leads and admins can create and share assistants.
- Regular users consume shared assistants but cannot create their own.
- Prevents assistant sprawl and ensures quality control.
Open (good for small teams):
- All users can create and share assistants at the team level.
- Only admins can publish at the public level.
- Works well when the team is small enough that informal coordination prevents duplicates.
Locked down (compliance-sensitive environments):
- Only admins create assistants.
- All assistants go through a review process before being shared.
- Appropriate when system prompts must comply with regulatory requirements.
If You Cannot Share an Assistant
If the visibility options are grayed out or missing:
- Your role may not have sharing permissions. Contact your administrator.
- Your admin may have disabled assistant creation for your role entirely.
- Ask your admin or a lead to create and share the assistant on your behalf -- provide them with the system prompt, model selection, and parameter settings you want.
Workspace vs. Team Sharing
In OpenWebUI, workspaces and teams are related but distinct concepts:
- A workspace is a container for assistants, knowledge bases, and conversations. Think of it as a project space or department folder.
- Team sharing means making an assistant visible to all members of your workspace.
If your organization uses a single workspace for everyone, team sharing and public sharing are effectively the same. If your organization uses multiple workspaces (e.g., one per shop location or one per department), team sharing limits the assistant to colleagues in your workspace, while public sharing makes it available across all workspaces.
Multi-Workspace Example
| Workspace | Team-Shared Assistants | Public Assistants |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown Shop | "Downtown Inventory Checker" (uses Downtown-specific knowledge base) | "Standard Estimate Formatter" (visible here too) |
| Westside Shop | "Westside Parts Locator" (uses Westside-specific knowledge base) | "Standard Estimate Formatter" (visible here too) |
| Corporate | "Warranty Claim Drafter" (corporate procedures) | "Standard Estimate Formatter" (created here, shared everywhere) |
Team-shared assistants stay within their workspace. Public assistants cross workspace boundaries.
Best Practices for Sharing Assistants
Before You Share
- Test thoroughly. Run the assistant through 10-15 representative queries your team would actually use. Check that the output format, tone, and accuracy are consistent.
- Write a clear description. The description appears in the assistant selector. Explain what the assistant does, when to use it, and any limitations. "Cross-references OEM brake part numbers against aftermarket equivalents. Works best with specific part numbers, not general descriptions." is useful. "Brake helper" is not.
- Choose a descriptive name. Your team will scan a list of assistants. Make the name specific enough to distinguish it. "Dorman Brake Cross-Reference" beats "Brake Bot."
After You Share
- Announce it. Sharing an assistant does not notify your team. Tell them it exists, what it does, and when to use it. A quick message in your team chat or a mention in a standup is enough.
- Gather feedback. Ask colleagues to try it and report cases where it gives wrong or unexpected results. Use that feedback to refine the system prompt.
- Version your changes. If you update a shared assistant's system prompt, note what you changed. Other team members may have workflows built around the previous behavior. Consider adding a version note in the assistant's description field.
Ongoing Maintenance
- Retire unused assistants. If analytics or feedback show an assistant is not being used, set it back to private or delete it. Clutter in the assistant list makes it harder for your team to find the tools they actually need.
- Consolidate duplicates. If two people created similar assistants, merge them into one shared version and retire the other.
- Review quarterly. As your parts data, procedures, or team structure changes, the system prompts in your shared assistants may need updates.
Troubleshooting
"I shared an assistant but my colleague cannot see it"
- Confirm you set the visibility to Team or Public and saved the change.
- Your colleague may be in a different workspace. If they need access, either move them to your workspace or set the assistant to Public.
- Ask your colleague to refresh the page or restart their browser session.
"I can see a shared assistant but the results are different from what the creator gets"
- The assistant uses the same system prompt for everyone, but results can vary based on the conversation context and any knowledge bases you have selected. Make sure you are using the same knowledge base the creator intended.
- Check if the assistant specifies a particular model. If the model is unavailable to you (e.g., due to access restrictions), OpenWebUI may fall back to a different model.
"Someone changed a shared assistant and it broke my workflow"
- Only the creator and admins can edit a shared assistant. Contact the creator to understand what changed.
- If you need the previous behavior, ask the creator to revert, or create your own private copy with the original settings.
- Consider requesting that your admin restrict assistant editing to prevent uncoordinated changes.
"There are too many shared assistants and I cannot find the right one"
- Use the search or filter function in the assistant selector if available.
- Ask your admin to audit and consolidate shared assistants.
- Pin your most-used assistants for quick access.
Related Articles
- Team Collaboration with SecureAI -- broader guide covering shared conversations, knowledge bases, and team workflow patterns
- Knowledge Base Design Best Practices -- how to structure the knowledge bases your assistants reference