Private chats vs organization chats in ModuleX

Every chat in ModuleX has one switch that decides who can read it: it is either private to you or visible to your whole organization. New chats are organization-visible by default, so your team can find and pick up each other’s work. When a conversation should stay personal, you flip it to private and only you can open it. This page explains the two visibility settings, who can see what, and how your active organization scopes the chats you see in the first place. For how chats are stored and what a chat is, start with chat overview. For the tenancy model behind all of this, see organizations, roles and membership.

The two kinds of chat

A chat is one of two things at any moment. You can change which one it is at any time if you created it.

Private chat

Only you — the person who created the chat — can open it. No one else in your organization sees it in their history, even other owners and admins.

Organization chat

Everyone in the same organization can open it. This is the default for a new chat, so teammates can find shared work without you sending a link.

Visibility is a single setting on the chat (is_private). Organization-visible chats have it off; private chats have it on. There is no third “share with specific people” state — a chat is either yours alone or open to the whole organization.

New chats are organization-visible by default. If you want a conversation kept to yourself, set it to private — ideally before you start, or as soon as you realize it should be personal.

Who can see what

Visibility and your role both play a part. The table below is the full picture for chats that belong to your active organization.

You are…	Private chat you created	Private chat a teammate created	Organization chat (anyone’s)
The creator	You see it	—	You see it
Another owner or admin	You do not see it	You do not see it	You see it

The rule is short: a private chat is visible only to the person who created it. An organization chat is visible to every member of that organization. Being an owner or admin does not let you read someone else’s private chat — privacy is per-creator, not per-role.

A private chat is hidden, not encrypted end to end against your organization. It is excluded from other members’ lists and they cannot open it through the app, but it still lives inside your organization’s data. Treat private as “personal workspace”, not “secret”. For how data is protected and encrypted at rest, see data security and encryption.

What happens when you switch a chat

Changing visibility takes effect immediately and changes who the chat appears for.

Private → organization

The chat becomes visible to everyone in the organization. Your teammates will now see it in their history, including the messages already in it.

Organization → private

The chat disappears from everyone else’s history and only you can open it from then on.

Who can change visibility

Only the person who created a chat can change whether it is private or organization-visible. A teammate — even an owner or admin — cannot make your chat private or public on your behalf.

If you are not the creator and you try to change a chat’s visibility, ModuleX treats the chat as not available to you rather than telling you it is a permission problem. You will see a “not found or no access” result, not an explicit “you are not allowed” message.

This matters for two related actions:

Renaming a private chat can also only be done by its creator. Renaming an organization chat is open to any member.
Deleting a private chat can only be done by its creator. Deleting an organization chat can be done by any member of the organization, so a shared chat can be cleaned up by the team.

For who counts as an owner or admin and what else those roles gate, see roles and permissions.

Organizations scope every chat

Before privacy even comes into play, your active organization decides which chats you see at all. ModuleX is multi-tenant: you can belong to more than one organization, and a chat always belongs to exactly one of them.

You pick an active organization

The organization switcher in the app sets which organization you are working in right now. Everything you do — chats included — happens inside it.

Your chat list is filtered to that organization

You see organization chats from the active organization plus your own private chats in it. Chats in your other organizations are not shown until you switch.

Switching organizations swaps the whole view

Change the active organization and the chat list reloads for the new one. A chat you created under one organization does not move with you to another.

Under the hood, every request the app makes carries an X-Organization-ID header that names the active organization, and the server only returns chats that belong to it. You never mix chats across organizations by accident. For the mechanics of the org context header, see org context and X-Organization-ID.

A chat lives in one organization for its whole life. There is no “move this chat to another organization” action. If you need the same conversation in a different organization, start it there.

Folders are personal, even on shared chats

Visibility decides who can open a chat. Folders are separate and always personal: how you file a chat into a folder is yours alone and does not change where it appears for anyone else. That means two people looking at the same organization chat can each keep it in a different folder — one in work, another pinned — without affecting each other. The default folder for any chat you have not filed is chats. See history and folders for organizing your sidebar.

Setting visibility from the API

In the app you flip visibility from the chat’s settings. If you are building on ModuleX, the same setting is the is_private field on a chat, updated with a PATCH request. The example below sets a chat to private; send false to make it organization-visible. You can update the title and your personal folder in the same call. Every request authenticates with Authorization: Bearer mx_live_… plus your X-Organization-ID header — see authentication. Only the chat’s creator can change is_private or the title of a private chat; if you are not the creator, the call returns 404.

curl -X PATCH https://api.modulex.dev/chats/0a1b2c3d-4e5f-6789-abcd-ef0123456789 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer mx_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
  -H "X-Organization-ID: a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef0123456789" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "is_private": true,
    "folder": "personal"
  }'

from modulex import Modulex

client = Modulex(
    api_key="mx_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    organization_id="a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef0123456789",
)

# Make a chat private and file it into your personal folder.
chat = await client.chats.update(
    "0a1b2c3d-4e5f-6789-abcd-ef0123456789",
    is_private=True,
    folder="personal",
)

import { Modulex } from "modulex-js";

const client = new Modulex({
  apiKey: "mx_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
  organizationId: "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef0123456789",
});

// Make a chat private and file it into your personal folder.
const chat = await client.chats.update(
  "0a1b2c3d-4e5f-6789-abcd-ef0123456789",
  { isPrivate: true, folder: "personal" },
);

Chats are created by running the Assistant or a workflow, not by a manual “create chat” call — and there is no endpoint for posting a message into an existing chat thread. PATCH /chats/{chat_id} changes a chat’s title, visibility, and your folder; it does not add messages. To start a conversation, begin an Assistant turn or run a workflow from chat. See known limitations for the read-only nature of chat threads.

Common questions

Are new chats private or shared by default?

Shared. A new chat is organization-visible unless you set it to private. Switch it to private from the chat’s settings (or send is_private as true) whenever you want it kept to yourself.

Can an owner or admin read my private chats?

No. A private chat is visible only to the person who created it. Owner and admin roles control what you can do across the organization, but they do not grant access to another member’s private chats.

Who can rename or delete a shared chat?

Any member of the organization can rename or delete an organization chat. A private chat can only be renamed or deleted by its creator.

Why don't I see a chat a teammate told me about?

Either it is private to them, or it is in a different organization than the one you have active. Check your organization switcher first, then confirm the chat is organization-visible. See chat collaboration for working in shared chats.

Does putting a chat in a folder change who can see it?

No. Folders are personal to you and never affect visibility. Use the private / organization setting to control access, and folders only to organize your own sidebar.

Where to go next

Chat collaboration

How teams work in shared, organization-visible chats together.

Organizations, roles and membership

The tenancy model: organizations, the active-organization context, and the owner and admin roles.

Org context and X-Organization-ID

How the organization header scopes every request you make, including which chats you see.

History and folders

Find past conversations and group them into personal folders.

App overview

Chat

Knowledge

Collaboration

Builder

Nodes

Execution

Co-editing

Assistant Chat

Private chats vs organization chats

The two kinds of chat

Private chat

Organization chat

Who can see what

What happens when you switch a chat

Private → organization

Organization → private

Who can change visibility

Organizations scope every chat

Folders are personal, even on shared chats

Setting visibility from the API

Common questions

Where to go next

Chat collaboration

Organizations, roles and membership

Org context and X-Organization-ID

History and folders

​The two kinds of chat

Private chat

Organization chat

​Who can see what

​What happens when you switch a chat

Private → organization

Organization → private

​Who can change visibility

​Organizations scope every chat

​Folders are personal, even on shared chats

​Setting visibility from the API

​Common questions

​Where to go next

Chat collaboration

Organizations, roles and membership

Org context and X-Organization-ID

History and folders

The two kinds of chat

Who can see what

What happens when you switch a chat

Who can change visibility

Organizations scope every chat

Folders are personal, even on shared chats

Setting visibility from the API

Common questions

Where to go next