> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.pinecone.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Projects overview > Learn how Pinecone projects organize indexes, cloud environments, API keys, and members, including project roles and per-role permission summaries. A Pinecone project belongs to an [organization](https://docs.pinecone.io/admin/organizations/organizations-overview.md) and contains [indexes](https://docs.pinecone.io/guides/indexes/index-data-overview.md), [assistants](https://docs.pinecone.io/guides/assistant/overview.md), and users. Only a user who belongs to the project can access the indexes and assistants in that project. Each project also has at least one project owner. ## Project environments You choose a cloud environment for each index in a project. This lets you manage related resources across environments and access them with the same API key. ## Project roles If you're an [organization owner](https://docs.pinecone.io/admin/organizations/organizations-overview.md#organization-roles) or project owner, you can manage who has access to a project. To grant a principal (a user, [service account](https://docs.pinecone.io/admin/projects/manage-service-accounts.md), or [API key](https://docs.pinecone.io/admin/projects/manage-api-keys.md)) access, assign it one or more roles scoped to the project. A principal can hold more than one role, and its effective permissions are the union of all the roles it holds. The roles you assign depend on the principal type: * **Users and service accounts** are typically assigned a membership role (`ProjectOwner`, `ProjectManager`, or `ProjectMember`), optionally combined with one or more access roles. * **API keys** are typically assigned `ProjectEditor` or `ProjectViewer`, or one or more access roles. API keys can't be assigned `ProjectOwner`, `ProjectManager`, or `ProjectMember`, which include access to project settings, members, and API keys. To access these items programmatically, use a [service account](https://docs.pinecone.io/admin/projects/manage-service-accounts.md). | Role | Permissions | | :- | :- | | Project owner (`ProjectOwner`) | Full access to the project, including members, API keys, and all resources and data. | | Project manager (`ProjectManager`) | Read and write access to all resources and data. Read-only access to project settings, members, and API keys. | | Project member (`ProjectMember`) | Read-only access to project settings, members, and API keys. No resource or data access unless granted additional access roles. | | Project editor (`ProjectEditor`) | Read and write access to all resources and data. No access to project settings, members, or API keys. | | Project viewer (`ProjectViewer`) | Read-only access to all resources and data. No access to project settings, members, or API keys. | | Control plane editor (`ControlPlaneEditor`) | Read and write access to control plane resources, such as indexes, assistants, backups, and collections. | | Control plane viewer (`ControlPlaneViewer`) | Read-only access to control plane resources. | | Data plane editor (`DataPlaneEditor`) | Read and write access to data plane data, such as records, namespaces, and assistant files. | | Data plane viewer (`DataPlaneViewer`) | Read-only access to data plane data. | The owner, manager, and member roles have these project settings, resource, and data permissions: | Permission | Owner | Manager | Member | | :- | :-: | :-: | :-: | | View project settings, members, and API keys | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | Update project settings and configuration | ✓ | | | | Delete the project | ✓ | | | | Manage project members and their roles | ✓ | | | | Create and delete API keys | ✓ | | | | View indexes, assistants, backups, and collections | ✓ | ✓ | | | Create, configure, and delete indexes, assistants, backups, and collections | ✓ | ✓ | | | Read index data (query, fetch, list, and view stats) | ✓ | ✓ | | | Write index data (upsert, update, delete, and import) | ✓ | ✓ | | For pod-based indexes, the roles have these additional permissions: > [!WARNING] > > Pod-based indexes are legacy. Customers who signed up for a Standard or Enterprise plan on or after August 18, 2025 cannot create them. [Create a serverless index](https://docs.pinecone.io/guides/indexes/create-an-index.md) instead. Serverless indexes use on-demand read capacity by default, or [dedicated read nodes](https://docs.pinecone.io/guides/optimize/dedicated-read-nodes/overview.md) for sustained high query rates and workloads of millions of records or more. | Permission | Owner | Manager | Member | | :- | :-: | :-: | :-: | | View project pod limits | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | Update project pod limits | ✓ | | | | Update index size | ✓ | ✓ | | > [!NOTE] > > Pod-based indexes don't support role-based access control and always grant data plane read and write access to project members. ### Role permissions These tables list the operations each general, control plane, and data plane role covers: #### General permissions | Role | Permissions | | :- | :- | | `ProjectEditor` | Permissions to read and write all project data. | | `ProjectViewer` | Permissions to read all project data. | #### Control plane permissions | Role | Permissions | | :- | :- | | `ControlPlaneEditor` | Permissions to list, describe, create, delete, and configure indexes, backups, collections, and assistants. | | `ControlPlaneViewer` | Permissions to list and describe indexes, backups, collections, and assistants. | | None | No control plane permissions. | #### Data plane permissions | Role | Permissions | | :- | :- | | `DataPlaneEditor` | | | `DataPlaneViewer` | | | None | No data plane permissions. | ## API keys Each Pinecone [project](https://docs.pinecone.io/admin/projects/projects-overview.md) has one or more API keys. To [make calls to the Pinecone API](https://docs.pinecone.io/guides/get-started/quickstart.md), you must provide a valid API key for the relevant Pinecone project. For more information, see [Manage API keys](https://docs.pinecone.io/admin/projects/manage-api-keys.md). ## Project IDs Each Pinecone project has a unique project ID. To find the ID of a project, go to the project list in the [Pinecone console](https://app.pinecone.io/organizations/-/projects). ## See also * [Organizations overview](https://docs.pinecone.io/admin/organizations/organizations-overview.md) * [Manage organization members](https://docs.pinecone.io/admin/organizations/manage-organization-members.md)