Creating and Setting up a Room

Assigning roles in your Cantina room lets you delegate moderation and shape who can do what. Each role unlocks specific capabilities. The right mix keeps a room running smoothly even when you can't keep eyes on it yourself.

The roles below are the defaults for moderated rooms. When room moderation is turned off, permissions become fully customizable — see Room Moderation 101 for the Moderation Settings overview.

Promote and demote

Founders and Admins manage role changes in a room. The pattern is simple: you can manage roles beneath your own.

• Founder can change Admins, Hosts, and Members.
• Admins can change Hosts and Members.
• Hosts can change Members.
• Members cannot change roles.

See How to Change Room Roles for step-by-step.

In-room moderation tools

The most impactful tools live in a member's profile menu. Hosts and above can:

• Revoke mic and cam access — silence a member's microphone and camera.
• Kick (Remove from Room) — remove a member from the room.
• Ban — block a member from rejoining for 1 hour, 1 day, or forever.

For severe violations, Admins can report the user, content, or bot through Cantina's moderation channels for review.

Keep going

• Room Moderation 101 — the full picture on room moderation settings.
• Serial Reporter — what happens when the reporting feature is misused.
• How to Change Room Roles — step-by-step for promote/demote.
• Cantina Glossary — definitions used across the Help Center.

Rooms are how groups of people gather, hang out, and create together in Cantina. Anyone can create one. Here's how.

Create a room on iOS and Android

1. Open the Cantina app and go to My Rooms.
2. Tap + in the top right.

Pick a room type

On the Create Your Room screen, pick one of three types. Each tab shows the room's accessibility, visibility, and who can send invites, so you can compare before you commit.

• Open (Public) — Room will be accessible by all users. Room will be visible to all users.
• Social (Friends) — Room will be accessible by contacts of members. Room will be visible to all users. Invites can only be sent by hosts.
• Invite Only (Closed) — Room will be closed to non-members. Room will be visible to contacts of members. Invites can only be sent by hosts.

If you pick Open, you'll see an Open Room Notice callout: "Open room selected. You must ensure content in this room complies with community guidelines. You are the primary moderator of your room. Failure to moderate your room may result in the room losing its search and discovery privileges." Read it before you continue.

To set up faster with defaults, tap Create a Quick Room at the bottom instead. This skips the customization steps and drops you straight into a room you can edit later.

Otherwise, tap Continue.

Set your Room Permissions

On the Room Permissions screen, adjust the Room Moderation toggle and Content Controls (Go Live Requests, Post Media, Control the Stage, Send Messages, Signal, Ring, Send Reactions & Gifs, Manage Membership, Manage Bots, Edit Room Properties). Each control tells you who can do that thing (No one, Hosts, or Members). Leave the defaults or tune it however you want. Tap Continue.

Set up your room's look

On the Room Details screen, make your room feel like yours:

• Add an image for your room. Tap the image placeholder to open the Change Photo sheet and pick one of three paths:
  • Generate AI Image — describe the image you want, pick an Art Style, then tap Generate Image. When you're happy with it, tap Set Avatar.
  • Pick From Library — use a photo from your camera roll.
  • Take a Photo — shoot a new one with the camera.
• Pick a Room Theme color (Green / Pink / Orange / Purple / Blue).
• Name your room.
• Pick a font for the room name.
• Tap Create Room.

Add a description

On the Room Description screen, add a short description (up to 1000 characters) of what the room's about, then tap Save.

Add hosts

The Add Hosts screen lets you promote friends to co-host: "Co-Hosts can go live at any time, and manage the room with you." Tap Make Host next to anyone you want to bring on as a co-host. You can also skip and promote people later from the Members list. Tap Continue.

For the full role breakdown, see What are Room Roles?

You're in

Your room is live. Add bots to your room or invite some friends.

Create a room on Web

1. Go to web.cantina.com.
2. Click Places in the left sidebar.
3. Click + to open the Create Your Room dialog.
4. Pick a room type — Open (Public), Social (Friends), or Invite Only (Closed) — or click Create Quick Room for the fast path.
5. Click Continue and step through the same Room Permissions, Room Details, Description, and Invite Members screens as on iOS and Android.

After your room is live

A few things worth doing once you're in:

• Set Room Rules. Open Edit Room Settings → Rules & Content Policy to add ground rules visible to anyone who joins. Pick from preset rules (No Spam, No Trolling, Good Vibes Only, and more) or write your own.
• Promote members to Host or Admin. Once members are in the room, you can change their role from the Members list. See What are Room Roles? for the full role breakdown.
• Add AI bots — tap the Media button to add up to 3 bots to your room.
• Invite more people — tap the People button to send more invites.

Keep going

• How to Update Room Privacy — change who can see and enter your room any time.
• Room Moderation 101 — the full moderation playbook for room admins and hosts.
• What are Room Roles? — Founder, Admin, Host, Member.
• How to Add a "Rules and Content" Policy to a Room — set ground rules and content policy.
• Setting & Managing Room Lore — give your room a backstory.