---
title: "Role-Based Access Control"
description: "Manage user access with fine-grained permissions across Bifrost resources using roles and permissions."
icon: "user-shield"
---

## Overview

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) in Bifrost Enterprise provides fine-grained access management for your organization. RBAC allows you to define roles with specific permissions, controlling what users can view, create, update, or delete across all Bifrost resources.

**Key Benefits:**
- **Principle of Least Privilege** - Grant users only the permissions they need
- **Centralized Access Management** - Manage all permissions from a single interface
- **Audit-Ready** - Track who has access to what for compliance requirements
- **Flexible Role Design** - Use system roles or create custom roles for your organization

RBAC integrates seamlessly with [User Provisioning (SCIM)](./user-provisioning), automatically assigning roles based on your IdP groups and claims.

---

## Roles & Permissions

Navigate to **Governance** → **Roles & Permissions** in the Bifrost dashboard to manage roles.

<Frame>
  <img src="/media/rbac/rbac-list.png" alt="Roles & Permissions management interface showing system roles" />
</Frame>

### System Roles

Bifrost includes three pre-configured system roles that cover common access patterns:

| Role | Permissions | Description |
|------|-------------|-------------|
| **Admin** | 42 | Full access to all resources and operations |
| **Developer** | 27 | CRUD access to technical resources, view access to logs and cluster |
| **Viewer** | 14 | Read-only access to all resources |

System roles cannot be deleted, but their permissions can be customized to fit your organization's needs.

### Custom Roles

Create custom roles when system roles don't match your organizational structure. Custom roles are useful for:

- **Specialized Teams** - Create roles for QA, Security, or Compliance teams
- **Project-Based Access** - Limit access to specific resources per project
- **Temporary Access** - Grant limited permissions for contractors or auditors

**To create a custom role:**

1. Click **Add Role** in the top-right corner
2. Enter a **Role Name** (e.g., "Auditor", "QA Team")
3. Add a **Description** explaining the role's purpose
4. Click **Create Role**
5. Assign permissions using the Manage Permissions dialog

---

## Resources & Operations

RBAC permissions are defined as combinations of **Resources** and **Operations**.

### Protected Resources

Bifrost protects access to the following resources:

| Resource | Description |
|----------|-------------|
| **Logs** | Request and response logs |
| **ModelProvider** | AI model provider configurations |
| **Observability** | Monitoring and metrics dashboards |
| **Plugins** | Plugin configurations and management |
| **VirtualKeys** | Virtual key management |
| **UserProvisioning** | User and group provisioning settings |
| **Users** | User account management |
| **AuditLogs** | Audit trail and compliance logs |
| **GuardrailsConfig** | Guardrail configurations |
| **GuardrailRules** | Individual guardrail rules |
| **Cluster** | Cluster configuration and nodes |
| **Settings** | Workspace settings |
| **MCPGateway** | MCP Gateway configurations |
| **AdaptiveRouter** | Adaptive routing settings |

### Operations

Each resource supports up to four operations:

| Operation | Description |
|-----------|-------------|
| **View** | Read-only access to view the resource |
| **Create** | Ability to create new instances of the resource |
| **Update** | Ability to modify existing resources |
| **Delete** | Ability to remove resources |

---

## Managing Permissions

To assign or modify permissions for a role:

1. Navigate to **Governance** → **Roles & Permissions**
2. Click the **menu icon** (•••) on the role you want to modify
3. Select **Manage Permissions**

<Frame>
  <img src="/media/rbac/rbac-edit-role.png" alt="Manage Permissions dialog showing resource-based permission assignment" />
</Frame>

The Manage Permissions dialog provides a two-panel interface:

**Left Panel - Resources:**
- Lists all available resources
- Shows the count of enabled permissions per resource (e.g., "4/4 permissions")
- Click a resource to view its permissions

**Right Panel - Permissions:**
- Displays available operations for the selected resource
- Toggle switches to enable/disable each permission
- Shows operation descriptions for clarity

### Assigning Permissions

1. Select a **Resource** from the left panel
2. Toggle the **operations** you want to enable for this role
3. Repeat for other resources as needed
4. Click **Save Permissions** to apply changes

The footer shows the total permissions count (e.g., "42 of 42 permissions selected") to help track the role's access level.

---

## Best Practices

### Role Design

- **Start with System Roles** - Use Admin, Developer, and Viewer as templates
- **Follow Least Privilege** - Only grant permissions that are necessary
- **Document Role Purpose** - Use clear descriptions to explain each role's intent
- **Review Regularly** - Audit role assignments quarterly

### Permission Strategies

**For Development Teams:**
```
Developer role + specific resource access based on team focus
- Frontend team: VirtualKeys (View), Logs (View), Observability (View)
- Backend team: ModelProvider (CRUD), Plugins (CRUD), Logs (View)
```

**For Security/Compliance Teams:**
```
Custom "Auditor" role with:
- AuditLogs (View)
- Logs (View)
- GuardrailsConfig (View)
- Users (View)
```

**For Operations Teams:**
```
Custom "Ops" role with:
- Cluster (CRUD)
- Observability (View)
- Logs (View)
- Settings (View, Update)
```

---

## Integration with Identity Providers

When using [User Provisioning (SCIM)](./user-provisioning) with Okta, Entra, Zitadel, Keycloak, or Google Workspace, roles can be automatically assigned based on:

- **IdP Groups** - Map identity provider groups to Bifrost roles
- **App Roles** - Sync application roles from your IdP
- **Claims** - Use custom claims to determine role assignment

Users authenticated via SSO receive their role assignments automatically on first login, with permissions synchronized on each session.

---

## API Access

Roles and permissions can also be managed via the API:

**List all roles:**
```bash
curl -X GET http://localhost:8080/api/roles \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <admin_token>"
```

**Get role permissions:**
```bash
curl -X GET http://localhost:8080/api/roles/{role_id}/permissions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <admin_token>"
```

**Update role permissions:**
```bash
curl -X PUT http://localhost:8080/api/roles/{role_id}/permissions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <admin_token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "permission_ids": [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
  }'
```

**Create a custom role:**
```bash
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/roles \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <admin_token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Auditor",
    "description": "Read-only access for compliance auditing"
  }'
```

---

## Next Steps

- **[Setting up Okta](./setting-up-okta)** - Configure Okta for SSO with role sync
- **[Setting up Microsoft Entra](./setting-up-entra)** - Configure Entra ID for SSO with role sync
- **[Audit Logs](./audit-logs)** - Track permission usage and access patterns
- **[Advanced Governance](./advanced-governance)** - Learn about the complete governance framework