---
title: Your first workspace
description: How to create a workspace, and exactly what it comes with — the starter board, its three columns, the wiki, and who owns it.
section: Start here
order: 3
---

# Your first workspace

A workspace is the container for everything: boards, tickets, the wiki, the
people, and the subscription. This page covers making one and what you get in
it.

**Prerequisites:** a Laver account. Any signed-in user can create a workspace,
and there is no cap on how many you create. Each one is billed separately.

## You may already have one

Signing up without an invitation creates a workspace for you automatically,
named _Your first name's workspace_. You do not need to create a second one to
get started.

Signing up **from an invitation** does not: you join the workspace that invited
you, with the role and board access it granted, and no workspace of your own.

## Creating a workspace

1. In the left sidebar, click the **Workspace** switcher at the top.
2. Click **New workspace**.
3. Type a name (up to 200 characters) and click **Create**.

Names do not have to be unique — two workspaces may share one, and the name can
be changed later by the owner. Very occasionally a create can come back with _"A
workspace with that name already exists."_; nothing was created, so try again.

**You should see:** the switcher now showing the new workspace, one board in the
sidebar, and — because it has no subscription yet — the Billing page.

## What a new workspace comes with

Every workspace is created with the same three things.

### A starter board called General

One board, named **General**, ready to use. You can rename it with the pencil
beside its name, or create more with **New board**.

### Three status columns on that board

The starter board comes with three columns, in this order:

| Column      | Meaning                                  |
| ----------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| Backlog     | Accepted, not started                    |
| In progress | Being worked on now                      |
| Done        | Finished — the board's completion column |

**Done** is marked as the board's completion column. That flag is what the tick
shortcut on a card targets and what sprint rollover treats as finished. Columns
you add later are not complete, and there is no setting to move the flag —
[Statuses and workflow](/docs/concepts/statuses-and-workflow) explains what that
means in practice.

Every board you create afterwards starts with these same three columns.

### A wiki

One wiki, named **Wiki**, with no pages in it. Reach it from **Workspace tools →
Wiki** in the sidebar. It belongs to the workspace rather than to any board, so
everyone in the workspace can read it. See
[Wiki pages](/docs/wiki/wiki-pages).

## You are the owner

Whoever creates the workspace becomes its **owner**. There is exactly one owner
role at creation, and it carries the things nobody else can do:

- Start, change, or cancel the subscription.
- Rename or delete the workspace.

Owners also do everything an admin does — invite people, set roles, grant board
access, issue API keys, read the audit log.

Admins run the workspace day to day but cannot delete it or touch billing.
Ownership is not something you set from the role dropdown; it moves through a
separate transfer. See
[Roles and permissions](/docs/workspaces-and-access/roles-and-permissions).

## It is locked until the subscription starts

A brand-new workspace has no subscription, and Laver locks a workspace without
one — the boards and wiki refuse to load and the app sends you to **Billing**.
Nothing is missing; it is simply closed until someone pays.

The owner opens it with **Start 14-day free trial** on the Billing page. A card
is taken up front, nothing is charged for fourteen days, and the trial is
available once per workspace — a workspace that has subscribed before is
charged immediately instead.

## Deleting a workspace

Only the owner can delete a workspace, and doing so removes access for everyone
in it and cancels its subscription. It is a soft delete: nothing is destroyed
immediately, but there is no way to undo it from inside the app, so treat it as
permanent.

## Next

- [Quickstart](/docs/start-here/quickstart) — put a ticket on the board and
  invite someone.
- [Workspaces and boards](/docs/concepts/workspaces-and-boards) — how access
  works once there is more than one board.