Data Center to Cloud: making a group watch a Confluence space

By Kayabyte · Updated 2 November 2026

Short answer: In Confluence, only individual users can watch a space or page, on Data Center and on Cloud. Data Center admins who wanted a team to watch a space usually ran a script against the REST API or used a Marketplace plugin. Cloud has the same REST API route for single watches, but no setting for groups and no way to keep a group in sync. Options in Cloud: a one-time script, a checklist, or Group Watchers, our app for this.

How it was done on Data Center

• A script that listed the members of a group and added a watch for each one, using Confluence’s REST API or direct admin tooling. Run once, it covers today’s members only.
• A Marketplace plugin that mapped groups to spaces, where one existed for your Confluence version.
• Onboarding steps, asking each new person to select Watch on the team spaces.

Check your version’s REST documentation before you reuse an old script, because endpoints and parameters changed between Server, Data Center and Cloud (Cloud identifies people by account ID, not by user name).

What Cloud offers natively

• Each person can watch a page or space, and see their watches under their notification settings.
• A site or space administrator can add a watch for another person through the REST API (POST /wiki/rest/api/user/watch/space/{spaceKey}?accountId=..., header X-Atlassian-Token: no-check).
• No setting makes a group watch a space, and nothing adds joiners or removes leavers.

Details and a script: How to make a Confluence group watch a space or page. For new hires: Onboarding in Confluence.

Your options in Cloud

1. One-time script. Fine for a rollout. It does not handle joiners and leavers.
2. Checklist. Add “watch these spaces” to your onboarding. Simple, but depends on people.
3. An app that keeps it in sync. Group Watchers (our app, built on Forge) maps groups to spaces or pages and keeps the watches in line as people join and leave. It only removes watches it added, and does not add back people who unwatched. Free for up to 10 users, with pricing on the Marketplace listing for larger sites.
4. Compare other apps: Apps to make a Confluence group watch a space or page, compared.

If you have this problem with 11 or more users and want to try it with us, see design partners.

FAQ

Can a group watch a space in Confluence Cloud? Not natively. Only user accounts can watch, so a group of 40 people means 40 watches.

Does my Data Center group-watch script work on Cloud? Usually not unchanged. Cloud uses account IDs and a different REST base path, so the script needs to be adapted and tested.

Does adding a watch give access to the space? No. A watch never grants access.

Confluence and Atlassian are trademarks of Atlassian. Kayabyte is an independent developer and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Atlassian.

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