> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.pyck.cloud/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.pyck.cloud/development/service-roles.md).

# Service Roles

Per-service capability roles that gate access to individual pyck services

Audience: Programmer

## Overview

pyck gates access to individual backend services with a set of fixed **per-service capability roles**. This is a thin layer on top of the unchanged reader/writer/admin ladder: the ladder still governs what a user may do once past the gate, while a service role governs whether the user may reach the service at all.

The roles are sourced from ZITADEL project roles (seeded at bootstrap); pyck holds no separate database copy.

## Gated and open services

| Service    | Gated? | Required role       |
| ---------- | ------ | ------------------- |
| inventory  | yes    | `inventory_service` |
| picking    | yes    | `picking_service`   |
| receiving  | yes    | `receiving_service` |
| file       | yes    | `file_service`      |
| main-data  | yes    | `main_data_service` |
| management | no     | —                   |
| workflow   | no     | —                   |

A user who does not hold the relevant service role is denied with an HTTP `403 Forbidden` before the request reaches the gated service. `management` (including the role-assignment API below) and `workflow` are intentionally not gated.

## How the gate resolves which tenants it checks

The gate evaluates the service role against **the tenant(s) the request operates on**, which are derived from the [`X-Pyck-Tenant-Id`](/development/headers.md#x-pyck-tenant-id) header exactly as every other request is:

* A request **without** the header defaults to `all`, which expands to **every tenant the user holds a ladder role in**.
* A request **with** the header operates on the tenant(s) it names.

The gate then requires the service role in **every** tenant in that set (an AND, not an OR).

This has a consequence worth calling out explicitly:

> A user who holds, for example, `inventory_service` in only **some** of their tenants is **denied on the default (header-less) request**, because that request resolves to *all* of their tenants and the role is missing in at least one of them. To proceed, the caller must scope the request to a qualifying tenant with `X-Pyck-Tenant-Id: <tenant-uuid>`.

This is fail-closed but can be surprising — if a default request returns `403` where you expected access, narrow `X-Pyck-Tenant-Id` to the specific tenant where the user holds the service role.

System users and service tokens bypass the gate.

## Exception: the public file-alias route

One route is intentionally **outside** the gate and is therefore **not** subject to the per-service role restriction:

```
GET /api/v1/files/{tenantId}/{alias}
```

This is the pre-existing public-alias handler. It serves only files that have an explicit public alias, scoped to the `tenantId` in the path, and redirects to a short-lived pre-signed URL. It does not require the `file_service` role — its only access control is knowing a valid `(tenantId, alias)` pair. Do not assume the file service is fully gated: GraphQL traffic to the file service is gated, but this alias route is public by design.

## Managing service roles

Service roles are assigned and inspected through the management GraphQL API (tenant-admin only):

* `serviceRoles` — list the assignable per-service roles.
* `userServiceRoles` — list the roles a user currently holds in a tenant.
* `assignRoles` — add one or more service roles to a user (additive).
* `removeRoles` — remove one or more service roles from a user (idempotent).

Access is **opt-in with no backfill**: existing users are denied on the gated services until a tenant admin assigns them the relevant role.

## Related

* [HTTP Headers](/development/headers.md) — `X-Pyck-Tenant-Id` and tenant context.
* [Authentication](/development/authentication.md) — the reader/writer/admin/system ladder.


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