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How do roles and permissions (RBAC) work?

Topic
Organizations & RBAC
Asked by
Developers
AdminUpdated Sep 11, 2026

Atlas's RBAC lets you control who can do what:

  • Permissions — granular capabilities you define (for example billing:read, members:invite).

  • Roles — named bundles of permissions (for example admin, member, viewer).

  • Assignment — members are given roles within an organization, so the same user can be an admin in one org and a viewer in another.

  • Enforcement — the user's roles and permissions are included in the session and JWT. The SDKs expose helpers (like has({ permission })) for the frontend, and your backend can check the same claims.

For relationship-based, fine-grained authorization beyond roles (for example per-document access), Atlas also offers fine-grained authorization (FGA). See the RBAC guide.

Atlas has role-based access control: you define roles, each role grants a set of granular permissions, and members are assigned roles per organization. Permissions surface in the session so your app and backend can enforce them.

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How do roles and permissions (RBAC) work?