Open projects

Open projects let administrators apply workflows, tests, and checklists to one or more depot paths without restricting who can approve reviews.

Use open projects when you want consistent review policies for shared code, without managing project membership for every contributor or reviewer.

In a standard project, only project members can approve reviews.
In an open project, any authenticated user can approve a review, as long as the review is associated only with open projects.
Private projects remain restricted and are used when you need tighter control and limited visibility.

Project Type	Who can create or manage it	Who can approve reviews	When to use
Standard	Users with permission to create or manage projects.	Project members.	Team-owned code with defined membership.
Open	Admin or super users.	Any authenticated user, if the review is associated only with open projects.	Shared code where policy should be enforced without membership restriction.
Private	Users with permission to create or manage projects.	Restricted by project membership and visibility rules.	Sensitive or limited-access work.

Creating an open project

Open projects are created using the standard project creation workflow, with additional configuration.

To create an open project:

In the left navigation pane, click Projects.
Click Add Projects and provide a unique project name.
You are navigated to the project configuration page. Click General Settings.
Enable Open projects.

The project is now configured as an open project.

Approval behavior

If a review is associated only with open projects, any authenticated user can approve the review.

If a review is associated with both open and standard projects, standard project restrictions apply.

When rules overlap, the more restrictive rule takes precedence.

When open and standard project rules overlap on the same review, standard project approval restrictions take precedence.

Auto-approval and vote counting

For reviews associated only with open projects, approvals from any authenticated user count toward workflow thresholds. This allows automated approval rules without requiring project membership.

Checklists

For reviews associated only with open projects, any authenticated user can update checklist item status.

This enables broader participation while maintaining checklist enforcement.

To learn more, see Checklists.

Notifications and activity

Open projects use the standard notification model. All approval and checklist activity records the acting user in the review activity log.

Access control and file visibility

Open projects do not change file permissions. Users can only view file content that they are already permitted to access.

If a user is not a project member and has only list access to a file, they cannot view:

The file content.
Inline comments on the file.
File-specific comments associated with that file.

However, the same user can still view general review comments that are not tied to a specific file.

Approval behavior and file access

Approval eligibility for open projects is based on project rules, not file-level read permissions.

As a result, a user who does not have read access to a file can still approve a review that includes that file, provided that:

The review is associated only with open projects.
The user is authenticated.
No more restrictive project rules apply.

Open projects broaden review participation, but they do not grant additional access to protected content.

Overlapping project rules

If a review is associated with multiple open projects, any authenticated user can approve it.

If a review is associated with an open project and a standard project, standard project restrictions apply.

If overlapping project definitions produce different approval expectations, the more restrictive project rule applies.

Changing project type

Changing the project type affects both new and existing reviews associated with the project.

If you change a project from open to standard:

Existing reviews follow standard project rules.
Only project members can approve those reviews.

If you change a project from standard to open:

Existing reviews follow open project rules.
Any authenticated user can approve those reviews, if no standard projects are associated.

When a review is associated with multiple projects, the most restrictive project rule applies.