Projects & Ownership
Project states, and what happens when a project changes hands.
Project states
| Active | Serving content. The normal state. |
| Inactive | Every API call is refused, Client and Secret alike, and Live Preview stops with them. The dashboard still works, so you can edit, save and publish, and content is untouched. Reversible at any time. See API Keys & Security for when to use it. |
| Archived | Out of the way and no longer occupying a project slot, but recoverable. Use this for finished client work you may want back. The public API stops while a project is archived, and restoring it brings back the same API keys, so an integration that was working before the archive works again afterward. |
| Deleted | Permanent. Content, versions and stored files go with it. |
The client-ownership pattern
A project belongs to one account, which is the account that pays for it. That owner can be you while you build and the client afterwards, or the client from the very start with you invited as an Admin. Either arrangement works, and either side can end it: you can hand the project over, and they can remove you. Neither of you is holding the other's work hostage, which is the point.
Transferring ownership
The owner offers the project to a member; that member accepts. Nothing moves until they do.
Who can receive it
Someone who is already a member of the project — any role. Invite them and let them join first; there is no way to transfer to a stranger by typing an address. On a paid plan with a free project slot, if the project is a paid one. Free-tier projects can go to anyone eligible. With enough storage to hold the project. Storage is pooled per account, so the project's files move onto their quota when they accept. Not mid-trial. Trials cannot take ownership of a project.
All of this is checked twice: when you send the offer, so you find out immediately, and again when they accept, because slots fill and storage grows in the days between. A failure at acceptance leaves the offer open — they can add storage or free a slot and accept afterwards. The recipient sees the storage, the slot and the price before they click.
What changes
- The project counts against the new owner's slots
- Its storage moves onto their pool
- Billing becomes theirs, at their rate
- You become an Admin on the project
What doesn't
- API keys stay the same — the live site never notices
- Assets, drafts and every version carry over
- The audit trail continues unbroken
- Members and their roles are untouched
Pricing follows the account, not the project.
A project bills at whatever rate its current owner pays. If you hold a promotional rate, that rate is yours — it does not travel with a project you hand over, and the new owner is charged their own rate from the moment they accept. The same applies in reverse: a project coming to you costs you your rate, whatever the sender was paying.
An offer lasts seven days. Only one can be open per project at a time, and the owner can cancel it at any point before it is accepted.
After the handover
You stay on as an Admin, which keeps your access to settings and API keys — useful while you are still the developer, and worth revisiting when you are not. When the new owner removes you, rotate the keys you had access to. See API Keys & Security for how to do that without downtime.