docs/main/administration-guide/onboard/advanced-permissions-backend-infrastructure.mdx
This document outlines the backend server infrastructure for permissions in Mattermost and is recommended only for technical Admins or developers looking to make modifications to their installation.
A permission describes a permitted action which may be carried out on an object. It describes the action that users may perform in the context in which they have been assigned the role granting the permission.
A role is something to which permissions are granted, that is then assigned to users in contexts in order to grant them the assigned permissions in that context. One user may end up with different sets of permissions granted by different roles in different contexts.
Permissions live within a given scope. There are three scopes in the Mattermost system: System, Team and Channel. Permissions cascade down the scopes from the context in which they are applied. For example, if a “Channel” scoped permission is applied to a “Team” context, the permission applies to any channels within that team. A permission is considered,
manage_oauth.create_public_channel.manage_public_channel_properties.A context is an instance of a scope. For example, a channel called "Developers Hangout" is an instance of channel scope. Contexts have hierarchical relationships between them that reflect the hierarchical ordering of scopes. Each context has one parent, and may have multiple children, with the ultimate parent context being the system context:
When determining whether a user is allowed to carry out a given action in a given context, the union of the permissions of all roles that user has been assigned in the current context and its parent contexts is calculated. This enables permissions to cascade down the scope hierarchy. For example, if a users is granted the manage_public_channel_properties permission in a role in the system context, then the user has permissions to manage public channel properties in all channels, in all teams, of which they are a member.
Schemes describe the default roles applied to users in a context, and all child contexts. Schemes are either defined specifically for a context, or if they are not specified, the relevant parts of the parent context’s scheme are applied, ultimately climbing the hierarchy to the System Scheme, which serves the purpose of providing the system-wide defaults. For example, if Team A does not have a team-scoped scheme defined, the System Scheme will provide the defaults for all contexts in Team A.
Additionally, the lowest-scoped scheme always takes precedence in the context. For example, if Team B has a team-scoped scheme, that scheme takes precedence over the System Scheme defaults for all contexts in Team B.
Permissions in Mattermost are a property of the server code base and are not created or modified dynamically. The current set of permissions are as described in the table below.
Mattermost permissions
<table style={{width: '99%'}}> <colgroup> <col style={{width: '18%'}} /> <col style={{width: '3%'}} /> <col style={{width: '76%'}} /> <col style={{width: '0%'}} /> </colgroup> <thead> <tr> <th>Name (i18n)</th> <th>Scope</th> <th>Description</th> <th></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>invite_user</td> <td>team</td> <td>Invite users to the team using Send Email Invite or Get Team Invite Link.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>add_user_to_team</td> <td>team</td> <td>Add existing server users to the current team.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_slash_commands</td> <td>system</td> <td>Create, edit, and delete your own slash commands.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_others_slash_commands</td> <td>system</td> <td>Edit or delete other users' slash commands.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>create_public_channel</td> <td>team</td> <td>Create public channels.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>create_private_channel</td> <td>team</td> <td>Create private channels.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_public_channel_members</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Manage public channel members.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_private_channel_members</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Manage private channel members.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>assign_system_admin_role</td> <td>system</td> <td>Grant other users the system admin role.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_roles</td> <td>system</td> <td>Manage other users' system-wide roles.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_team_roles</td> <td>team</td> <td>Add and remove team members.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_channel_roles</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Add and remove channel members.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_system</td> <td>system</td> <td>Access to System Console.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>sysconsole_read_usermanagement_system_roles</td> <td>system</td> <td>View system roles.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>sysconsole_write_usermanagement_system_roles</td> <td>system</td> <td>Add, remove, and assign system roles.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>create_direct_channel</td> <td>system</td> <td>Open Direct Message channels.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>create_group_channel</td> <td>system</td> <td>Open Group Message channels.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_public_channel_properties</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Edit public channel name, header, and purpose, as well as create public channel checklists.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_private_channel_properties</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Edit private channel name, header, and purpose, as well as create private channel checklists.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>list_public_teams</td> <td>system</td> <td>View public teams listed in the "Join Another Team" menu accessed from the main menu.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>join_public_teams</td> <td>system</td> <td>Join public teams listed in the "Join Another Team" menu accessed from the main menu.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>list_private_teams</td> <td>system</td> <td>View private teams listed in the "Join Another Team" menu accessed from the main menu.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>join_private_teams</td> <td>system</td> <td>Join private teams listed in the "Join Another Team" menu accessed from the main menu.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>list_team_channels</td> <td>team</td> <td>List public channels in a team.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>join_public_channels</td> <td>team</td> <td>Join public channels.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>delete_public_channel</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Archive public channels.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>delete_private_channel</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Archive private channels.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>edit_other_users</td> <td>system</td> <td>Edit values on the <code>user</code> object of other users.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>read_channel</td> <td>channel</td> <td>View posts in a channel.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>read_channel_contents</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Read the contents of a channel.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>read_public_channel</td> <td>team</td> <td>View and access public channels on a team.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>add_reaction</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Add emoji reactions to posts.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>remove_reaction</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Remove emoji reactions from posts.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>remove_others_reactions</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Remove other users emoji reactions from posts.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>permanent_delete_user (deprecated)</td> <td>system</td> <td>Permanently delete other users.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>upload_file</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Upload file attachments to posts.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>get_public_link</td> <td>system</td> <td>Get permalink for posts.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_incoming_webhooks</td> <td>team</td> <td>Create, edit, and delete your own incoming webhooks.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_outgoing_webhooks</td> <td>team</td> <td>Create, edit, and delete your own outgoing webhooks.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_others_webhooks(deprecated)</td> <td>team</td> <td>Edit and delete other users' incoming or outgoing webhooks.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_others_incoming_webhooks</td> <td>team</td> <td>Edit and delete other users' incoming webhooks.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_others_outgoing_webhooks</td> <td>team</td> <td>Edit and delete other users' outgoing webhooks.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_oauth</td> <td>system</td> <td>Create, edit, and delete your own OAuth 2.0 apps.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_system_wide_oauth</td> <td>system</td> <td>Edit or delete other users' OAuth 2.0 apps.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>create_post</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Post in channels.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>create_post_public</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Create a system message within a channel.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>create_post_ephermal</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Create an ephemeral message within a channel.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>edit_post</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Authors edit their own posts.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>edit_others_posts</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Edit other users' posts.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>delete_post</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Authors delete their own posts.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>delete_others_posts</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Delete other users' posts.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>remove_user_from_team</td> <td>team</td> <td>Remove users from team.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>create_team</td> <td>system</td> <td>Create teams.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_team</td> <td>team</td> <td>Access Team Settings.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>import_team</td> <td>system</td> <td>Import teams in Team Settings.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>view_team</td> <td>team</td> <td>Read the Team object.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>create_bot</td> <td>team</td> <td>Create bot accounts.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>assign_bot</td> <td>team</td> <td>Assign bots to users other than who created the bot.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>read_bot</td> <td>team</td> <td>View own bots created.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>read_others_bots</td> <td>team</td> <td>View bots created by others.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_bots</td> <td>team</td> <td>Edit and delete own bots.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_others_bots</td> <td>team</td> <td>Edit and delete bots created by others.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>view_members</td> <td>team</td> <td>List all members on the team.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>list_users_without_team</td> <td>system</td> <td>List users without a team.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>create_user_access_token</td> <td>system</td> <td>Create user access tokens.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>read_user_access_token</td> <td>system</td> <td>Read user access tokens by ID.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>revoke_user_access_token</td> <td>system</td> <td>Revoke user access tokens.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_jobs</td> <td>system</td> <td>Create and cancel jobs.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>create_emojis</td> <td>team</td> <td>Create custom emoji.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>delete_emojis</td> <td>team</td> <td>Delete own custom emoji.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>delete_others_emojis</td> <td>team</td> <td>Delete custom emoji created by others.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>invite_guest</td> <td>system</td> <td>Invite guest users via email invite or add existing guests to teams.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>promote_guest</td> <td>system</td> <td>Promote guests to member users.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>demote_to_guest</td> <td>system</td> <td>Demote member users to guests.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="4">manage_remote_clusters (deprecated in v5.36) | system | Add, remove, and view remote clusters for shared channels. Deprecated in v5.36; renamed to <code>manage_secure_connections</code>.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_shared_channels</td> <td>system</td> <td>Share and unshare channels with existing connections to remote servers.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_secure_connections</td> <td>system</td> <td>Create, manage, and remove secure connections to remote servers.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_post_bleve_indexes_job</td> <td>system</td> <td>Manage the status of a Bleve post indexing job.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_data_retention_job</td> <td>system</td> <td>Manage the status of a data retention job.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_compliance_export_job</td> <td>system</td> <td>Manage the status of a compliance export job.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_elasticsearch_post_indexing_job</td> <td>system</td> <td>Manage the status of an Elasticsearch post indexing job.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_elasticsearch_post_aggregation_job</td> <td>system</td> <td>Manage the status of an Elasticsearch post aggregation job.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_ldap_sync_job</td> <td>system</td> <td>Manage the status of an LDAP synchronization job.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>add_bookmark_public_channel</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Add bookmarks to a public channel.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>add_bookmark_private_channel</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Add bookmarks to a private channel.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>edit_bookmark_public_channel</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Make changes to bookmarks in a public channel.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>edit_bookmark_private_channel</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Make changes to bookmarks in a private channel.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>delete_bookmark_public_channel</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Delete bookmarks in a public channel.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>delete_bookmark_private_channel</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Delete bookmarks in a private channel.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>order_bookmark_public_channel</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Reorder bookmarks in a public channel.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>order_bookmark_private_channel</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Reorder bookmarks in a private channel.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_channel_banner</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Manage channel banners.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_channel_access_rules</td> <td>channel</td> <td>Manage attribute-based access control rules for channels.</td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td>manage_team_access_rules</td> <td>team</td> <td>Manage attribute-based channel membership policies for a team from Team Settings.</td> <td></td> </tr> </tbody> </table>Roles fieldRoles are applied to objects that represents that user’s membership in a context. These are referenced in the Roles field of the User, TeamMember, ChannelMember and Schemes Tables.
In the TeamMember and ChannelMember tables, it's the Roles field that contains custom roles and the SchemeAdmin and SchemeUser booleans that indicate the member object should inherit the respective roles from the relevant scheme, either the default or custom scheme assigned to the relevant team.
Roles tableRoles are dynamic and user configurable, necessitating a database table with the following fields:
Id (Autoincrement, Primary Key)Name (Unique String with Character Constraints, e.g. “team_user”).Display Name (String)Description (String)Permissions (String): Space-separated permissions namesScheme Managed (bool): Indicates whether this role is managed as part of a scheme.BuiltIn (bool): Indicates if this role is built-in to the Mattermost system and not removable by the user.The System Scheme is built-in to the product, and its roles are defined as BuiltIn: true in the Roles table. You can use the Mattermost API to retrieve a list of permissions by role name.
The following built-in roles with default permissions are available:
channel_admin
channel_guest
channel_user
system_admin
system_custom_group_admin
system_shared_channel_manager
system_guest
system_manager
system_post_all
system_post_all_public
system_read_only_admin
system_user
system_user_access_token
system_user_manager
team_admin
team_guest
team_post_all
team_post_all_public
team_user
Schemes tableSchemes are dynamic and user configurable, necessitating a database table with the following fields:
Id (Autoincrement, Primary Key)Name (Unique String with Character Constraints, e.g. “corporate_scheme”)Display NameDescription (String)Scope (String): Team or ChannelTeam Admin Role (String): Empty if Channel ScopeTeam User Role (String): Empty if Channel ScopeTeam Guest Role (String): Empty if Channel ScopeChannel Admin Role (String): Always providedChannel User Role (String): Always providedChannel Guest Role (String): Always provided