Source roles

A source role belongs to one source and lists what an agent holding it may do there. Roles are the only thing that grants access: without a role that allows a request, it is denied. Role permission does not bypass policy rules or write safety: a request a role allows still goes through policy, and a risky write still waits for approval.

Statements

A role is a list of statements. Each statement has:

Part	Meaning	Example
Effect	allow or deny	allow
Action	what is being done	db.table.select, storage.object.get, collab.message.read
Resource type	what kind of thing	db.table, db.column, storage.object
Resource pattern	which ones, with * wildcards	sales.customers.*, s3://bucket/reports/*
Conditions	optional narrowing	{"risk_levels": ["low"]}

Each connector has its own vocabulary of actions and resource types; the role editor offers only those, and refuses a statement that uses an action or condition the connector does not have. Role conditions lists the conditions.

How a request is decided

1. Every resource the request touches is collected: for SQL, each table and, where the catalog resolves them, each column.
2. If any deny statement in any held role matches, the request is denied. Explicit deny always wins.
3. Every resource must be matched by some allow statement. One unallowed resource denies the whole request.

A pattern’s * matches across dots, so sales.* covers sales.customers and every column in it. A db.table statement also covers requests for that table’s columns.

Templates

Each connector ships role templates (for PostgreSQL: read, analyst, write, owner, blocked). The console can create them when a source is registered, and a new role starts from the connector’s reader template. Edit them to fit.

SQL and non-SQL sources

For SQL sources (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Snowflake) patterns are enforced down to columns. For object storage, Slack and GitHub, agents are gated by action; resource patterns on those roles are evaluated in dry-runs but not yet on agent paths, and the role editor says so.

Deleting a role

A role cannot be deleted while any identity holds an active grant of it: revoke the grants first. The deletion is recorded with the role’s statements and grant history. Policies that named the role key stop matching it.

See Write source roles for the editor, and Column-level governance for column rules.