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.

3. Pick a room type on the Create Your Room screen:

   • Open (Public) — anyone on Cantina can see and join.
   • Social (Friends) — your friends can see and join.
   • Invite Only (Closed) — your friends can see the room, but they need to request to join.

   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.

4. Tap Continue to open Room Permissions. Adjust the Room Moderation toggle and Content Controls (Go Live, Post Media, Control the Stage, Send Messages, Signal, Ring, Send Reactions & Gifs, Manage Membership, Manage Bots, Edit Room Properties), or leave the defaults. Tap Continue.
5. On the Room Details screen, set up your room's look:
   • 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 and Set Avatar when you're happy with it.
     • 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.
6. On the Room Description screen, add a short description (up to 1000 characters) of what the room's about, then tap Save.
7. On the Invite Members screen, tap the contacts you want to bring in, then tap Continue.
8. On the You're All Set! screen, tap your new room card or Enter Room to go in.

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.