Roles & Permissions

License Required

The multi-user role-based access control (RBAC) system described on this page is a premium feature that requires a valid Docunara license. Without a license, only the single admin account (defined by ADMIN_EMAIL / ADMIN_PASSWORD) is available. See Licensing for details.

When the database is enabled (DB_ENABLED=true) and a valid license is configured, Docunara uses a role-based access control system to manage what each user can do. There are four predefined roles.

User Roles

Role	Code	User Management	Document Access	Description
Admin	admin	All users	Full access	Full system administration
Operator	operator	All except admin	Full access	User management + full document access
Content Operator	content_operator	None	Full access	Can edit all documents
Content Manager	content_manager	None	Assigned scope only	Limited to specific locales/paths

Admin

The admin role has unrestricted access to everything in the system:

• Create, edit, and delete all users (including other admins)
• Access and edit all documents across all locales
• Manage system settings

Operator

Operators can manage users and access all documents, but they cannot modify admin accounts:

• Create, edit, and delete users (except admin users)
• Access and edit all documents across all locales

Content Operator

Content operators have full document access but no user management capabilities:

• Access and edit all documents across all locales
• Cannot manage users or system settings

Content Manager

Content managers have the most restricted access — they can only access documents within their assigned scope:

• Access and edit only the documents they have been granted permission for
• Cannot manage users or system settings

Permission Scope

Permissions for the content_manager role are defined by three dimensions:

Dimension	Description	Example
Locale	Language/locale restriction	en, ko, or null (all locales)
Document Path	Folder path restriction	Signer/, Otpkey/guides/, or null (all documents)
Actions	Allowed operations	["read"], ["read", "write"], ["read", "write", "create", "delete"]

Available Actions

Action	Description	HTTP Methods
read	View documents and folder contents	GET
write	Edit existing documents and folders	PUT, PATCH
create	Create new documents and folders	POST
delete	Delete documents and folders	DELETE

How Permissions Work

Each content manager can have one or more permission entries. A request is allowed if any permission entry matches the requested locale, document path, and action.

Example permissions for a user:

Locale	Document Path	Actions
en	Signer/	["read", "write", "create"]
ko	Signer/	["read"]
null	Otpkey/guides/	["read", "write", "create", "delete"]

This user can:

• Read, write, and create English documents under Signer/
• Read Korean documents under Signer/
• Read, write, create, and delete documents under Otpkey/guides/ in any locale

Path Matching

• A path like Signer/ grants access to the entire Signer/ directory and all subdirectories
• A null path grants access to all documents
• A null locale grants access across all locales

Managing Users

Admins and operators can manage users through the User Management panel in the editor UI:

• Create new user accounts with a role assignment
• Edit user details (name, role, active status)
• Deactivate users without deleting their accounts (set inactive)
• Reset passwords for other users
• Delete user accounts

Users can also change their own password from the editor.

Managing Permissions

Admins and operators can manage content_manager permissions through the editor UI:

1. Open the User Management panel (available to admin and operator roles)
2. Select a user to view or edit their permissions
3. Add or remove permission entries specifying locale, document path, and allowed actions

note

Only content_manager users require explicit permission entries. The admin, operator, and content_operator roles have full document access by default.

Without a License

When no valid license is configured, the RBAC system is not active:

• Only the single admin account (ADMIN_ID / ADMIN_EMAIL + ADMIN_PASSWORD) can access the editor
• The admin has full access to all documents
• User management UI is not available
• Document search remains available if DB_ENABLED=true