Your default account workspace — a limited organization type compared to a company Organization.
IOModel distinguishes two organization types:
| Type | What it represents |
|---|---|
| Personal organization | The signed-in individual — a private sandbox tied to one account |
| Organization | A real organization — your company, business unit, customer engagement, or any named team boundary you administer in Studio |
When this guide says Organization (capital O, without “Personal”), it means a workspace created through New Organization — not the Personal row on the Organizations page.
Personal organization
Every account receives one Personal organization on first sign-in. It exists so you can start modeling immediately without provisioning a company workspace.
Personal is a limited organization type. It is suitable for solo experiments and drafts, not for standing in as your company’s primary IOModel tenant.
Personal limitations
| Limitation | Detail |
|---|---|
| Single owner | Exactly one org_owner — the account holder. You cannot add a second org owner or transfer ownership to someone else inside Personal. Shared ownership requires an Organization. |
| Fixed alias | Key is always personal — read-only in Organization Settings. |
| Cannot delete | Personal persists for the lifetime of the account. |
| Not a company boundary | Billing, custom domains, and branded aliases apply to an Organization — not to Personal. |
| Free-plan team-org quota | Does not count toward the “one Organization on Free” limit — Personal is separate. |
You can still invite org_admin and org_member users to Personal for collaboration, but the account owner remains the sole org_owner.
Organization (non-Personal)
An Organization maps to something real in your operating model:
- A company or legal entity (
Acme Corp) - An internal division or program (
Platform Engineering) - A customer or partner workspace you operate on their behalf
That is why it has a custom name and alias, optional deletion when the engagement ends, and support for multiple org_owner members — for example co-founders or two leads who both need full org control.
Create one via Create Organization. In the UI it appears as a normal row on the Organizations page (no Personal badge).
Personal and Local are different. Local is a filesystem workspace
(content/ on your machine) with no cloud org record and no Members
tab. Personal is a cloud org with folders, projects, roles, and
invitations — but with the limits above.
How Personal is provisioned
On first successful login, Studio creates:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Personal (rename allowed in settings) |
| Alias (key) | personal — fixed |
| Flag | isDefault = true in the database |
| Your role | org_owner (and the only org owner) |
You get exactly one Personal org per account.
Personal vs Organization
| Personal organization | Organization | |
|---|---|---|
| Represents | The individual account holder | A real company, team, or customer boundary |
| Created | Automatically at first sign-in | Manually — Create Organization |
org_owner count | One — the account owner only | One or more — invite additional org owners on Members |
| Alias (key) | Always personal — read-only | Custom, globally unique (1–20 characters) |
| Shareable org address | Uses the organization’s numeric id — alias personal is not globally unique | Uses your custom alias or numeric id |
| Delete org | Not allowed | Allowed for org_owner when at most one member remains |
| Free-plan ownership limit | Does not count toward the one-Organization-on-Free rule | On Free, you can own only one Organization at a time |
| UI badge | Personal pill (when you are the org owner) | No Personal badge |
| Org list label for guests | Invited users see the owner’s email on someone else’s Personal org | Shows the org name you chose at creation |
Personal still supports folders, projects, groups, branches, publish settings, and folder/project IAM — see Teams and Access. The difference is scope and governance: Personal is an account sandbox; an Organization is where company-scale access, billing, and co-ownership belong.
Alias behavior
Organization aliases must be globally unique.
Personal orgs share the key personal across accounts (each account has its own row in the database). That is why alias is read-only and shared links use the organization’s numeric id instead.
To use a branded segment such as acme-corp, create an Organization.
Deletion and lifecycle
| Type | Can delete? | Preconditions |
|---|---|---|
| Personal | No | Tied to the account |
| Organization | Yes (org_owner) | Remove all other members; confirm with DELETE in settings |
When to use which
Use Personal when
- You work alone on experiments, learning, or drafts.
- You do not need co-ownership, a company alias, or org-scoped billing.
- Content may move later into an Organization.
Create an Organization when
- The workspace stands for a real team or company.
- More than one person needs
org_owneraccess. - You need a custom alias, org Plans, or custom publish domains.
- The workspace may be retired when the engagement ends.
A common pattern: prototype in Personal, then clone or recreate projects in an Organization when the work becomes a team or customer deliverable.
Related
- Create Organization — provision a company Organization
- Organization Settings — rename Personal, manage domains and plans
- Organizations overview — folders, tabs, and structure
Next: Create Organization.
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