# Roles and permissions Source: https://docs.gryt.chat/docs/guide/roles What people are allowed to do on your server, and how to decide it A role is two things: a set of **permissions**, which is what somebody may do, and a **rank**, which is who they may act on. They answer different questions and are worth keeping apart in your head — a rank-90 auditor holding nothing but *view audit log* outranks your moderators without gaining any of their powers. Every server starts with five roles. You can rename them, recolour them, change what they hold, and add your own. | | Rank | Roughly | |---|---|---| | Owner | 100 | Everything. Cannot be edited or handed out. | | Admin | 80 | Everything except roles, server settings and identity replacement. | | Moderator | 60 | Kick, mute, deafen, pull people out of voice. | | Member | 40 | Talk, upload, join voice, change their own name. | | Guest | 10 | Read, and nothing else. | ## Reading is a permission This is the part that surprises people. *Read messages* is something a role can lack, and a role without it is somebody who is in your server and cannot see it. That is what makes a genuinely read-only tier possible — and it is why the Guest role is not empty. A read-only role that cannot read is not read-only. ## Who gets what when they join **Server settings → Role editor → When somebody joins.** Two settings, not one, and the split is the point: - **With an account** — a durable identity, vouched for by a certificate authority. Losing a device does not lose it. - **As a guest** — a key generated in the browser. Anybody can throw one away and mint another in about two seconds. A public server usually wants accounts on `Member` and guests on `Guest`: come in, read everything, and make an account if you want to talk. That combination is not expressible with a single default, which is why there are two. Whether a server accepts keys-without-accounts at all is `GRYT_IDENTITY_TIERS` on the server, and it does not include them by default. Where it does not, the guest default is never used. Changing a default only affects people who arrive afterwards. It never re-sorts the members you already have. ## Roles that hand themselves out A role can say what it asks of somebody before it grants itself: days since they joined, messages they have sent, or both. Fill in **both** and it means both — a fortnight *and* fifty messages. Time on its own is something a patient stranger also has, and it is exactly what somebody planning to abuse a server would wait out. It only ever promotes. Nobody is moved down for going quiet, and anybody already holding a higher role stays where they are. It is checked when somebody joins and after they post, so a role earned while they were away arrives the next time they turn up. Built-in roles do not offer this. A server that wants an automatic tier wants a new role for it, rather than `Moderator` quietly acquiring people. ## Rank, and who can act on whom Kicks, bans, mutes and role changes all refuse against an **equal or higher** rank. One admin cannot kick another; only the owner can act on an admin. The same rule applies to handing roles out. You cannot grant a role at or above your own rank, and you cannot put a permission into a role that you do not hold yourself — otherwise delegating *manage roles* would be delegating everything. ## A worked example Say you are running a public support server. 1. **Guests read.** Set the guest joining default to `Guest`. People can turn up with no account and read every answer already given. 2. **Accounts talk.** Set the account default to `Member`, then take *attach files* and *join voice* off it. New accounts can ask questions; nothing else. 3. **Regulars get more.** Make a `Regular` role at rank 45 with *attach files* and *join voice*, and have it grant itself after 14 days and 50 messages. 4. **Helpers moderate.** Make a `Helper` role at rank 50 with *manage messages* and *kick members*, and hand it out yourself. Nobody has to watch the door, and the only thing you decide by hand is who becomes a Helper.