I created a project template for work. When I create a project from this template and add an external guest as a commenter, they initially only have comment access. However, once they comment on a specific task, they are automatically converted into a collaborator with full editing access, including the ability to edit or delete the task. How can I prevent this and ensure they remain comment-only, regardless of whether they comment?
Hello Ashley, and welcome to the Asana Community Forum. Thank you for your feedback.
When your guest comments on a task, Asana automatically gives them extra permissions. This happens because commenting makes them a “task collaborator,” which comes with more access than just being a "commenter."This happens because Asana always gives users the highest level of access they’re entitled to. So, if someone is both a commenter (lower access) and a task collaborator (higher access), they get the higher permissions.
While this is how Asana works by design, there is still a workaround. You can monitor and adjust access, so after guests comment, manually review and lower their project access level back to commenter if possible. You can learn more about it here: Individual project permissions
I hope this helps. Enjoy your Asana experience! 
To add to @Elluz_Macalinao’s good answer, you probably want to change the default permission for task collaborators. If you click on the project’s Share button in the top right, then under Members, the first line is where you do that. It sounds like that’s probably set to “Editor” now (like below), but you may want to change that to “Commenter” to persist the permission regardless of a person being a task collaborator. Just make sure this doesn’t cause a side effect that’s otherwise over-restricting something you need.
Thanks,
Larry
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Hi all,
Thank you for the quick responses. This issue still persists even when the guest is added as a “commenter” in the project permissions. Unfortunately, I’m unable to manually monitor access, as this template will be used to create multiple individual projects, each with its own external guest.
What’s confusing is that coworkers have built similar templates and aren’t experiencing this issue—they’re able to keep external guests as commenters even after they comment on tasks.
Have you tried my suggestion of changing what’s shown as “Editor” in your screenshot to “Commenter”? That’s what I was suggesting and I believe is the cause of the increased access.