Spaces vs space groups

Bonfire organizes your community in three nested layers. Understanding how they relate helps you design navigation that stays clear as you grow.

The three layers

• Space group — a labeled section in the sidebar that bundles related spaces. Purely organizational; it holds no content of its own. Example: a "Premium" group containing your paid-tier spaces.
• Space — a container for a topic or area. A space holds channels and carries its own access rules (who can see and join it). Example: "Onboarding", "Trading Desk", "Off-topic".
• Channel — where real-time chat happens, inside a space. Channels host messages, threads, reactions. Example: #introductions, #wins inside the Onboarding space.

Space group: Premium
 └─ Space: Trading Desk        (access: paid tier)
     ├─ Channel: #signals
     └─ Channel: #q-and-a

When to use a group vs a space

Reach for a space group when several spaces share a theme or audience and you want a tidy sidebar heading. Reach for a new space when content needs its own access boundary — for example, paid-only or admin-only content. Access is enforced at the space level, not the group level, so a group is presentation only.

Why access lives on the space

Channels inherit visibility from their space. If you need an admin-only channel, create an admin-only space and put the channel inside it. This keeps permissions predictable: one access decision per space, applied to all its channels.

Related

• Create spaces and channels
• How access control works
• Customize navigation

FAQ

Can a space belong to two groups? No. A space lives in one group (or none).

Do groups have permissions? No. Groups are organizational labels; permissions are set per space.

Should I make many small spaces or a few with many channels? Use separate spaces when access differs; otherwise add channels to an existing space to avoid sidebar clutter.