A category is a label you define for your own workspace and then assign to an item to group and organize it. Categories are applied to five kinds of things in Deskie: assets, plans, resources, passes, and members. Each item carries at most one category, chosen on its add or edit form. This guide explains what a category is versus an item's structural type, the five separate category pools, the difference between built-in and custom categories, how to create, rename, reorder, and remove them in Settings, how categories are assigned, how the resource type field mirrors a resource's category, and which permissions are involved.
Categories versus the structural type
Every asset, resource, and pass already has a structural type that Deskie uses to decide how the item behaves. An asset has an asset type (private office, dedicated desk, flex, parking, mailbox, and so on) that determines how it is billed and assigned. A resource has its own structural shape. A pass has its own configuration. That structural type is fixed by the way the feature works and is not something you invent.
A category is different. It is a free-form organizational label that you define and that has no effect on how the item is billed, booked, or assigned. It exists purely to help you group, sort, and recognize items in a way that matches how you think about your space. For example, two assets can both be the structural type "private office" while carrying different categories such as "Ground Floor" and "Executive Suites." The category does not change the office's billing or assignment behavior; it just organizes it the way you want.
Because the two are separate, you are free to leave a category unset. A category is optional on every item, so an asset, resource, pass, or member can have no category at all.
The five category pools
Categories do not mix across the different kinds of items. Each kind has its own independent pool, so the categories you create for assets are not offered when you categorize a member, and so on. There are five pools:
- Assets: offices, desks, parking, mailboxes, and other held spaces.
- Plans: membership plans. Plans are a distinct pool from assets even though a plan is internally a flex-type asset, so plan categories are kept and shown separately from asset categories.
- Resources: bookable rooms and resources.
- Passes: day passes and punch cards.
- Members: the people in your workspace.
Each pool is managed on its own tab in Settings, and the category picker on an item's form only ever shows that item's pool.
Built-in versus custom categories
Most categories are custom: you create them, name them, and remove them as you like. Resources additionally come with a small set of built-in categories that Deskie seeds for you the first time you open the Resources tab. The built-in resource categories are Meeting Room, Equipment, Workspace, and Other.
Built-in categories behave differently from custom ones. They are pinned to the top of the list, marked with a "Built-in" badge, and they cannot be renamed, reordered, or deleted. They are always available as options. You can still add your own custom resource categories alongside them; your custom categories appear below the built-in ones and are fully editable. The other four pools (assets, plans, passes, and members) start empty and contain only the custom categories you add.
Managing categories in Settings
Categories are managed under Settings → Categories. The page has five tabs, one per pool: Assets, Plans, Resources, Passes, and Members. Switch to the tab for the kind of item you want to organize, then add and arrange categories there.
Creating a category
On the tab for the pool you want, choose Add category, give it a name, and save. A category only carries a name (up to 100 characters), so there is nothing else to configure. New custom categories are appended to the end of the list. You can also create a category on the fly without leaving an item's add or edit form; see the assigning section below.
Renaming a category
Use the edit (pencil) action on a custom category to change its name. Renaming takes effect everywhere that category is shown. Built-in resource categories cannot be renamed.
Reordering categories
Custom categories can be dragged into any order using the grip handle on the left of each row. The order you set is the order they appear in the picker on item forms, so you can put your most common categories near the top. Built-in resource categories stay pinned above your custom ones and are not part of the drag order.
Removing a category
Deleting a custom category removes it as an option but does not strip it from items that already carry it. Removal is a soft delete: the category stops appearing in pickers and in Settings, while any item already assigned to it keeps that assignment until you reassign the item to a different category. Built-in resource categories cannot be deleted.
Assigning a category to an item
You pick an item's category on its add or edit form, in the category field. The picker lists the categories for that item's pool: built-in resource categories first (for resources), then your custom categories in the order you set, with a "None" choice so you can leave the item uncategorized. Saving the form stores your choice on the item.
If you have permission to manage the workspace, the picker also includes a + Create new category option at the bottom. Choosing it opens a small dialog where you can name and create a category without leaving the form. The new category is created in that pool, selected for the current item, and becomes available everywhere that pool is used.
When you save an item, Deskie validates the selected category to make sure it belongs to the right workspace and the right pool and is still active. One deliberate exception protects existing data: if an item already carries a category and you resubmit its form without changing the selection, that unchanged category is preserved even if it has since been deleted, so saving an unrelated edit will not blank out an existing assignment.
How a resource's type mirrors its category
Resources have an additional behavior worth understanding. For historical reasons a resource also stores a plain text type value that is read by reports, table columns, the public website, and search. When you choose a category for a resource, Deskie copies that category's name into the resource's type field so the two stay in sync. A resource with no category falls back to a type of "Other." In practice the category you pick is the type you will see across the rest of Deskie for that resource. The built-in resource categories (Meeting Room, Equipment, Workspace, Other) line up with the values the type field has always used, which keeps existing resources and reports consistent.
The other four pools do not have this mirror. Assets, plans, passes, and members store only the category itself, separate from their structural type.
Permissions
Creating, renaming, reordering, and deleting category definitions requires workspace management permission, so only owners and admins can change the lists in Settings. Seeing the categories for a pool inside an item's add or edit form is gated by that item's own manage permission instead, so anyone who can manage assets or plans sees those category options, anyone who can manage resources or passes sees those, and anyone who can manage members sees member categories. The inline + Create new category shortcut on a form only appears for users who hold workspace management permission. For more on roles and what each can do, see Managing members.
For the items you can categorize, see Assets, Resources overview, Plans and memberships, Passes, and Managing members.