Roles and what they let you do | Doghouse SaaS Knowledge Base [Skip to content](#main) [ ![Doghouse SaaS Knowledge Base](/storage/branding/01M3N8PQ7PSDNQBBKKJM6XGW03.svg) ](https://nginx.deploy-lagoon-production.districtcms-docs.dh1.amazee.io) [Product documentation](/articles) [Roadmap](/roadmap) Toggle navigation [Product documentation](/articles) [Roadmap](/roadmap) 1. [Home](/) › 2. [Product documentation](/articles) › 3. [Getting started](/articles?category=16) › 4. Roles and what they let you do Roles and what they let you do ============================== Updated 5 days ago · 4 min read Search Search Overview -------- A role is a named bundle of permissions. Rather than deciding what each person may do one by one, Doghouse SaaS groups those decisions into roles and gives accounts a role. This is why two people can sign in to the same site and see different things. Neither is broken; they hold different roles. --- The roles your site starts with ------------------------------- A new site starts with four, listed here from least to most access. The first two are automatic. Nobody assigns them. Role Who holds it What it allows Anonymous user Every visitor who is not signed in. Reading published pages and media. Nothing else. Authenticated user Everyone who is signed in, whatever else they hold. Reading, plus seeing their own unpublished content. It is the floor everyone stands on, not a working role. Content editor The people who write and maintain the site day to day. Creating, editing and publishing content and media. The working role. Administrator The people responsible for the site as a whole. Everything, including accounts, roles and site configuration. ![The Roles screen listing Anonymous user, Authenticated user, Content editor and Administrator, outlined in red.](/storage/WAG8Db1XlfLsZuJz0Q8WzdnBnKbXTLApproaVE9g.png) Roles stack rather than replace. A Content editor is also an Authenticated user, so they keep everything that role gives them. Four is where a site starts, not a limit. An administrator can add a role for a job these do not cover, and choose exactly what it may do. See [**Creating a role and setting what it can do**](/articles/creating-a-role). > **💡 Note:** Administrator is unusual: rather than listing permissions, it is flagged as an administrative role and receives every permission automatically, including any added later by a new feature. That is exactly why it should be given sparingly. --- What a Content editor can do ---------------------------- Content editor carries 69 permissions. Grouped, they come to this: Area What the role allows Getting in Reaching administration pages, the Content list, the media library, the block library and the trash. Writing Creating, editing and deleting articles, events and landing pages, and the hero, site alert and acknowledgement blocks, using the **Full HTML** and **Content** text formats. Media Adding, editing and deleting all five kinds of media (image, document, video, remote video and SVG image), including bulk uploads. Publishing Moving content between Draft, Published and Unpublished. The role can also schedule content, although scheduling is not yet switched on for any content type. History Viewing every revision of a page and reverting to an earlier one. Navigation Managing menus, URL aliases and redirects. Just as telling is what the role does not include: creating or editing user accounts, changing roles or permissions, altering content types or fields, installing modules, using the accessibility checker, or touching site configuration. Those are deliberately an administrator's job, because they change how the site works for everyone rather than what is on a page. ![The Permissions screen, with a column for each role and the Content editor column outlined in red.](/storage/exGM6xKOlez5ag9MqVdT1jBBcGB7GtyZpBypjZpG.png) > **⚠️ Important:** Permissions on your own site may have been tailored, so treat the list above as the standard shape rather than a guarantee. The Roles screen is always the authority for your site. --- Checking which role an account holds ------------------------------------ To see who holds what: 1. Go to **People**. It is in the sidebar. 2. Read the **Roles** column. It lists every role each account holds. ![The People screen filtered to Content editor, with the Roles column outlined in red.](/storage/WeH4pIsoF6Y68NTSxjXYJB2u8ozycKggdO7thLcb.png) The other columns are worth knowing when you are working out whether an account is still in use: - **Status**: whether the account is active or blocked. - **Member for**: how long the account has existed. - **Last access**: when the person last signed in. ### Seeing one account's roles Press **Edit** on a row and the account's roles appear as tick boxes. ![The account form for a content editor, with the Roles tick boxes outlined in red: Authenticated user, Content editor and Administrator.](/storage/PHlLMLCdEr5FeuZLLrHjNRyuhWB18ulCs8xPVcvu.png) Only three are listed: **Authenticated user**, **Content editor** and **Administrator**. Anonymous user is absent because nobody is ever assigned it; it applies automatically to anyone who is not signed in. > **⚠️ Important:** Changing roles is an administrator's job, and worth pausing over. An account with no working role cannot do anything useful, and an account with **Administrator** can do everything, including undoing your work. If someone reports that a button has vanished, check their role before assuming a fault. Most "it disappeared" reports are a permission working exactly as intended. Related articles ------------------ - [ Signing in → ](/articles/signing-in) - [ Finding your way around the editing interface → ](/articles/finding-your-way-around-the-editing-interface) - [ Creating a role and setting what it can do → ](/articles/creating-a-role) - [ Glossary → ](/articles/glossary) - [ Create a user account → ](/articles/create-a-user-account) - [ Activity log → ](/articles/activity-log) Was this article helpful? ------------------------- Your feedback helps us prioritise what to rewrite. Yes No [ Back to Getting started ](/articles?category=16) On this page **Need additional help?** Submit a support request through the [**support portal** ](https://doghouse.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portals)or email © 2026 [Doghouse SaaS](https://doghouse.agency) [Glossary](/articles/glossary)