Users, Roles & Permissions

SnapOtter ships three built-in roles, 17 granular permissions, and support for custom roles with optional per-tool access control. This page covers the full authorization model, API key scoping, team management, and audit logging.

Related pages

OIDC / SSO | SAML SSO | SCIM Provisioning | Security & Hardening

Users

Creating users

Admins can create users through the admin panel or the POST /api/auth/users endpoint. Each user has a username, role, team assignment, and an optional email address.

Default admin

On first startup SnapOtter creates a default admin account. The credentials come from environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
DEFAULT_USERNAME	admin	Username for the initial admin account
DEFAULT_PASSWORD	admin	Password for the initial admin account

The default admin is required to change their password on first login.

Authentication providers

Users can authenticate through several methods:

• Local -- username and password stored in the SnapOtter database
• OIDC -- any OpenID Connect provider (see OIDC / SSO)
• SAML -- SAML 2.0 identity providers (see SAML SSO)
• SCIM -- automated provisioning from an identity provider (see SCIM Provisioning)

Disabling authentication

Set AUTH_ENABLED=false to disable authentication entirely. In this mode a synthetic anonymous user with the admin role is used for all requests. No login is required.

WARNING

Disabling authentication grants full admin access to anyone who can reach the instance. Only use this in trusted environments.

Built-in roles

SnapOtter includes three built-in roles. They cannot be modified or deleted.

Admin

All 17 permissions. Full control over the instance.

tools:use files:own files:all apikeys:own apikeys:all pipelines:own pipelines:all settings:read settings:write users:manage teams:manage features:manage system:health audit:read compliance:manage webhooks:manage security:manage

Editor

7 permissions. Can use all tools and manage all files and pipelines, but cannot access admin functions.

tools:use files:own files:all apikeys:own pipelines:own pipelines:all settings:read

User

5 permissions. Can use tools and manage their own resources.

tools:use files:own apikeys:own pipelines:own settings:read

Permissions reference

Permission	Description
tools:use	Use any processing tool
files:own	View and manage own files
files:all	View and manage all users' files
apikeys:own	Create and manage own API keys
apikeys:all	View all users' API keys
pipelines:own	Create and manage own pipelines
pipelines:all	View and manage all users' pipelines
settings:read	View instance settings
settings:write	Modify instance settings
users:manage	Create, update, and delete user accounts
teams:manage	Create, update, and delete teams
features:manage	Install and manage AI feature bundles
system:health	Access health and readiness endpoints
audit:read	View the audit log and list roles
compliance:manage	Manage GDPR lifecycle and compliance features
webhooks:manage	Configure outbound webhooks
security:manage	Manage security settings (IP allowlist, SSO enforcement)

Custom roles

Admins with the users:manage permission can create custom roles through the admin panel or the roles API.

Creating a custom role

curl -X POST http://localhost:13490/api/v1/roles \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer si_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "reviewer",
    "description": "Can use tools and view all files",
    "permissions": ["tools:use", "files:own", "files:all", "settings:read"]
  }'

Role names must be 2-30 characters, lowercase alphanumeric with hyphens and underscores.

Admin-reserved permissions

Three permissions are reserved for built-in roles and cannot be assigned to custom roles:

• compliance:manage
• webhooks:manage
• security:manage

The roles API rejects any request that includes these permissions. Only the built-in admin role has access to them.

Tool-level permissions

Custom roles can optionally restrict which tools users may access. Two modes are available:

Mode	Behavior	License requirement
category	Restrict by modality (image, video, audio, document, file)	None (free)
tool	Restrict by individual tool ID	Requires the per_tool_permissions enterprise feature

When tool mode is set but the enterprise feature is not available, SnapOtter degrades gracefully and allows access to all tools.

{
  "name": "image-only",
  "permissions": ["tools:use", "files:own"],
  "toolPermissions": {
    "mode": "category",
    "allowed": ["image"]
  }
}

Deleting a custom role

When a custom role is deleted, all users assigned to it are automatically reassigned to the user role.

Teams

Teams group users for storage and retention management. A Default team is created on first startup.

Field	Type	Description
name	string	Unique team name (1-50 characters)
storageQuota	number	Per-team storage limit in bytes (works without enterprise)
retentionHours	number	Auto-delete outputs after this many hours (requires team_retention_overrides, enterprise)
legalHold	boolean	Prevent automatic deletion of team members' files (requires legal_hold, enterprise)

INFO

The Default team cannot be deleted. Teams that still have members cannot be deleted. Reassign members first.

API keys

Users can generate API keys for programmatic access. Each key uses the si_ prefix and is shown only once at creation time.

Scoped permissions

API keys can optionally carry a permissions array. When set, the effective permissions for a request are the intersection of the user's role permissions and the key's scoped permissions. This means an API key can never escalate beyond the user's own permissions.

curl -X POST http://localhost:13490/api/v1/api-keys \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer si_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "CI pipeline key",
    "permissions": ["tools:use", "files:own"],
    "expiresAt": "2027-01-01T00:00:00Z"
  }'

Expiration

Keys accept an optional expiresAt timestamp. Expired keys are rejected at authentication time.

Audit log

SnapOtter records security-relevant events in a structured audit log stored in the audit_log database table.

Viewing the audit log

GET /api/v1/audit-log?page=1&limit=50&action=LOGIN_FAILED&from=2026-01-01T00:00:00Z&to=2026-12-31T23:59:59Z

Requires the audit:read permission. Supports pagination (page, limit) and filters (action, ip, from, to).

Tool operation auditing

WARNING

TOOL_EXECUTED events are not logged by default. They are opt-in through either of two paths:

1. Set the auditToolOperations admin setting to true.
2. Hold an active license with the audit_export feature (available on both team and enterprise plans).

Without one of these, individual tool executions are not recorded in the audit log.

Exporting

GET /api/v1/enterprise/audit/export?format=csv&from=2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Requires the audit:read permission and the audit_export enterprise feature (available on both team and enterprise plans). Supports CSV and JSON formats, filtered by action, actorId, targetType, targetId, from, and to.

Tamper-resistant signing

When enabled, each audit log entry is signed with an HMAC derived from DATA_ENCRYPTION_KEY. This requires:

1. Setting DATA_ENCRYPTION_KEY in your environment.
2. Enabling the tamperResistantAudit admin setting.
3. An enterprise license with the tamper_resistant_audit feature.

Retention

Set AUDIT_RETENTION_DAYS to automatically purge old entries. The default is 0, which means entries are kept indefinitely.

Event reference

Event	Category
LOGIN_SUCCESS, LOGIN_FAILED	Authentication
OIDC_LOGIN_SUCCESS, OIDC_LOGIN_FAILED	Authentication
SAML_LOGIN_SUCCESS, SAML_LOGIN_FAILED	Authentication
LOGOUT	Authentication
USER_CREATED, USER_UPDATED, USER_DELETED	User management
PASSWORD_CHANGED, PASSWORD_RESET	User management
MFA_ENROLLED, MFA_DISABLED, MFA_VERIFIED, MFA_VERIFY_FAILED	MFA
MFA_CHALLENGE_ISSUED, MFA_RECOVERY_USED, MFA_RESET	MFA
ROLE_CREATED, ROLE_UPDATED, ROLE_DELETED	Roles
API_KEY_CREATED, API_KEY_DELETED	API keys
SETTINGS_UPDATED, IP_ALLOWLIST_UPDATED	Settings
FILE_UPLOADED, FILE_DELETED	Files
TOOL_EXECUTED	Tools (opt-in)
SCIM_USER_PROVISIONED, SCIM_USER_UPDATED, SCIM_USER_DEPROVISIONED	SCIM
SCIM_GROUP_SYNCED	SCIM
LEGAL_HOLD_APPLIED, LEGAL_HOLD_RELEASED	Compliance
GDPR_EXPORT_INITIATED, GDPR_USER_PURGED, GDPR_TEAM_PURGED	Compliance
CONFIG_EXPORTED, CONFIG_IMPORTED	Configuration

Session management

Sessions are cookie-based, controlled by SESSION_DURATION_HOURS (default: 168 hours / 7 days).

Role changes invalidate sessions

When an admin changes a user's role, all of that user's active sessions are deleted. The user must log in again to pick up their new permissions.

Safety guards

• Last-admin protection: the last remaining admin cannot be demoted to a lower role. The API returns an error if you try.
• Self-delete prevention: admins cannot delete their own account through the API.