Admin settings - Roles

Roles, permission sets, and model sets are used together to manage what users can do and what they can see. The Roles page in the Users section of the Admin panel lets you view, configure, and assign roles, permission sets, and model sets.

You can search for specific roles, permission sets, and model sets by entering a search term into the search box in the upper right and pressing Enter.

Definitions

  • A role defines the privileges that a user or group will have for a specific set of models in Looker. You create a role by combining one permission set with one model set.
  • A permission set defines what a user or group can do. You select a combination of permissions that you want to assign to a user or group. It must be used as part of a role to have any effect.
  • A model set defines what data and LookML fields a user or group can see. You select a combination of LookML models to which a user or group should have access. It must be used as part of a role to have any effect.

Assigning roles

A role is a combination of one permission set and one model set. It's a common convention to name roles after types of people or groups of people in your organization — administrator, Looker developer, Finance team — although you can certainly follow your own naming conventions.

A user can have more than one role in Looker. This can be useful when you have users who play multiple roles in your company or when you want to create complex systems of access to your models.

Adding users to multiple roles has important implications for how their permissions are applied. For example, if you allow someone to manage_models (an instance-wide permission) in only one of their roles, they will be allowed to manage any model. In contrast, if you allow someone to access_data (a model-specific permission) in only one of their roles, they can access only the models that are specified in that role.

Multiple roles can also cause unexpected effects on dashboards. See the Managing business user features documentation page for information about dashboards and multiple roles.

To create a role, click the New Role button at the top of the Roles page. Looker will display a page where you can enter a name for the role, choose a permission set, and choose a model set. You will also be able to assign the role to a set of users or groups. Once you've configured the role as desired, click the New Role button at the bottom of the page.

After a role has been created, you can edit it by clicking the Edit button to the right of the role on the Roles page. This will take you to that role's page, where you can:

  • Rename the role
  • Assign or edit the permission set associated with that role
  • Assign a model set to the role
  • Assign the role to users and/or groups

To delete a role, click the Delete button to the right of the role on the Roles page.

Default roles

For new instances, Looker creates the following default roles, each of which includes a default permission set of the same name:

  • Admin
  • Developer
  • User
  • Viewer

Permission sets

A permission set defines what a user or group can do. Admins can use Looker's default permission sets or create original permission sets, keeping in mind permission dependencies.

All the available permissions, and their types, are discussed in more detail below.

Default permission sets

For new installations, Looker includes several default permission sets that you can start with:

Permission Set Included Permissions
Admin All permissions
Developer access_data, can_create_forecast, clear_cache_refresh, create_custom_fields, create_table_calculations, deploy, develop, download_without_limit, explore, manage_spaces, mobile_app_access, save_content, schedule_look_emails, see_drill_overlay, see_lookml, see_lookml_dashboards,see_looks, see_pdts, see_sql, see_user_dashboards, send_to_integration, use_sql_runner

NOTE: The see_pdts permission is included in the Developer default permission only for Looker installations that were created with Looker 21.18 or later. To verify whether the see_pdts permission is included in the Developer permission set on your instance, go to the Roles page in the Admin panel in the Looker UI.
LookML dashboard user access_data, clear_cache_refresh, mobile_app_access, see_lookml_dashboards, send_to_integration
User access_data, can_create_forecast, clear_cache_refresh, create_custom_fields, create_table_calculations, download_without_limit, explore, manage_spaces, mobile_app_access, save_content, schedule_look_emails, see_drill_overlay, see_lookml, see_lookml_dashboards, see_looks, see_sql, see_user_dashboards, send_to_integration
User who can't view LookML access_data, can_create_forecast, clear_cache_refresh, create_custom_fields, create_table_calculations, download_without_limit, explore, manage_spaces, mobile_app_access, save_content, schedule_look_emails, see_lookml_dashboards, see_looks, see_user_dashboards, send_to_integration
Viewer access_data, clear_cache_refresh, download_without_limit, mobile_app_access, schedule_look_emails, see_drill_overlay, see_lookml_dashboards, see_looks, see_user_dashboards

You'll see these permission sets appear as options when you create a new role. If you select one of these permission sets, Looker will display the list of permissions it includes.

The Admin permission set cannot be edited or deleted, and cannot be assigned to a role. It is assigned only to the Admin role, which also cannot be edited or deleted. The only way to grant the Admin permission set to a user or group is to add the admin role to that user or group.

Creating permission sets

To create a permission set, click the New Permission Set button at the top of the Roles page. Looker will display a page where you can enter a name for the permission set and select the permissions it should include. Once you've configured the set as desired, click the New Permission Set button at the bottom of the page.

After a permission set has been created, you can edit or delete it by clicking the Edit or Delete buttons to the right of the permission set on the Roles page.

Permissions and dependencies

Some permissions depend on others to work properly. For example, it makes sense that someone who wants to develop in LookML must first be able to see LookML.

When you create a permission set, you'll see the available permissions in an indented list. If a privilege is indented under another (parent) privilege, you must select the parent privilege first. The permission list may look like this:

☑️ access_data
  ☑️ see_lookml_dashboards
  ☑️ see_looks
    ☑️ see_user_dashboards

In this example, Looker uses indentation to indicate the following:

  • The access_data privilege can be selected at any time.
  • The see_lookml_dashboards and see_looks privileges require the access_data privilege to be selected first.
  • The see_user_dashboards privilege depends on the see_looks privilege, which in turn depends on access_data privilege.

You cannot select a child privilege without first selecting its parent.

Permissions and Looker licenses

Looker licenses classify users into three types:

  • Developer (Admin)
  • Standard (Creator)
  • Viewer

The permissions granted to a user determine how that user is classified under the Looker license:

Permissions list

The following permissions interact with model sets in a potentially unexpected way:

In Looker's IDE, a single project can contain multiple model files. If you assign the develop or see_lookml permissions to a user, and you've allowed that user to see any model that is a part of a project, they will be able to develop or see the LookML for all models in that project. However, they will still not be able to query models that you have not allowed.

If you assign the manage_models permission to a user, the user will be able to access all models in all projects in the instance.

If you assign the manage_project_connections_restricted or manage_project_connections permissions to a user, the user will be able to see, edit, and create project-scoped connections for any projects included in the model set.

Permissions can be classified as one of three types:

  • Model Specific: This type of permission is applied only to the model sets that are part of the same role. This permission is applied to individual models or model sets, rather than across the entire Looker instance.
  • Connection Specific: This type of permission is applied at the connection level. A user with this type of permission will see content on pages in the Admin panel that uses a connection associated with a model to which they have data access, even if that connection is used with another model to which they do not have data access.
  • Instance Wide: This type of permission applies to the Looker instance as a whole and has three types:
    • NN = No content access, No menu access: These permissions allow users to perform certain functions across the entire Looker instance, but do not allow users to access content based on models not included in their role's model set.
    • CN = Content access, No menu access: These permissions allow users to access content and query information across the entire Looker instance — even for content and queries based on models not included in their role's model set.
    • CM = Content access, Menu access: These permissions may expose parts of the Admin menu to non-admin users and allow users to see information about content and queries based on models not included in their role's model set.

The following list describes all the permissions that are available in Looker, in the order in which they appear on the New Permission Set page in the Admin section:

Permission Depends On Type Definition
access_data None Model Specific Users can access data from Looker, but only the data that admins specify. This permission is necessary for almost all Looker functions.

A user with this permission, if given access to any model in a given project, can access any file in the Data section of that project (such as a JSON custom map file).
see_lookml_dashboards access_data Model Specific Users can see the LookML Dashboards folder, which includes all LookML dashboards. Users must have explore permission for any relevant models to explore those dashboards. Users that also have the develop permission can create LookML dashboards.
see_looks access_data Model Specific Users can see saved Looks (but not dashboards) within folders. Users must have explore permission for any relevant models to explore those Looks. Users will also need the View content access level to see Looks in folders.
see_user_dashboards see_looks Model Specific Users can view user-defined dashboards in folders but must have explore permission for any relevant models to explore those dashboards. Users also need View content access to see dashboards in folders. Users who also have both the save_dashboards permission and the Manage Access, Edit content access to a folder can create user-defined dashboards in that folder.
explore see_looks Model Specific Users can access and use the Explore page to generate reports. Without this permission, users can view saved dashboards only (if see_lookml_dashboards or see_user_dashboards has been granted).
create_table_calculations explore Instance Wide NN Users can view, edit, or add table calculations.
create_custom_fields explore Instance Wide NN ADDED 22.4 Users can view, edit, or add custom fields; users with only the explore permission can only view custom fields.
can_create_forecast explore Instance Wide NN ADDED 22.12 Users can create and edit forecasts in visualizations; users without this permission can only view existing forecasts in the content to which they have access.
can_override_vis_config explore Instance Wide NN ADDED 23.8 Users can access the Chart Config Editor, which lets them modify the Highchart API JSON values of a visualization and customize the visualization appearance and format.
save_content see_looks Instance Wide NN This permission is a parent permission of save_dashboards, save_looks, and create_public_looks. This permission must be granted with either save_dashboards or save_looks.
save_dashboards save_content Instance Wide NN ADDED 24.4 Users can save and edit dashboards. Users must have explore permission for any relevant models to explore from those dashboards. Users must have download_with_limit and/or download_without_limit permissions to download the content.
save_looks save_content Instance Wide NN ADDED 24.4 Users can save and edit Looks. Users must have explore permission for any relevant models to explore from those Looks. Users must have download_with_limit and/or download_without_limit permissions to download the content.
create_public_looks save_content Model Specific Users can mark a saved Look as public, which will then generate URLs granting access to that report without authentication.
download_with_limit see_looks Model Specific Users can download queries (as CSV, Excel, and other formats) but must specify a row limit of 5,000 or fewer to avoid memory problems from large downloads on the instance.
download_without_limit see_looks Model Specific The same as download_with_limit, but does not require the user to specify a row limit. Downloading all results for some types of queries may require substantial memory, potentially causing performance issues or even crashing the Looker instance.
schedule_look_emails see_looks Model Specific Users can deliver any Looks, dashboards, and queries with visualizations to which they have data access to email. Users can schedule delivery to occur after a datagroup has been triggered, has managed the cache, and has rebuilt relevant PDTs.

To send or schedule System Activity dashboards, users must have access to all models.

Users who also have create_alerts permissions can send email alert notifications.

Looker admins can control the email domains that Looker users and embed users can send email deliveries to with the Email domain allowlist on the Settings page of the Admin panel.

This permission is applied to individual models or model sets, rather than across the entire Looker instance.
schedule_external_look_emails schedule_look_emails Model Specific Users can deliver any Looks, dashboards, and queries with visualizations to which they have data access to email. Users can schedule delivery to occur after a datagroup has been triggered, has managed the cache, and has rebuilt relevant PDTs.

To send or schedule System Activity dashboards, users must have access to all models.

Users who also have create_alerts permissions can send email alert notifications.

Users can email content deliveries or alert notifications to email addresses with any domain, regardless of whether the Email domain allowlist on the Settings page of the Admin panel contains any allowlisted email domains.

This permission is applied to individual models or model sets, rather than across the entire Looker instance.
create_alerts see_looks Instance Wide NN From the dashboard tile, users can create, duplicate, and delete their own alerts; and can see and duplicate alerts marked Public by other users. The user must be signed in to Slack to see dashboard tile alerts that send Slack notifications. Users can view, edit, disable, and enable alerts that they own on the Manage Alerts user page.
follow_alerts see_looks Instance Wide NN Users can view and follow alerts. View the alerts they have followed or for which they are listed as a recipient from the Manage Alerts user page.
send_to_s3 see_looks Model Specific Users can deliver any Looks, dashboards, and queries with visualizations to which they have data access to an Amazon S3 bucket. Users can schedule delivery to occur after a datagroup has been triggered, has managed the cache, and has rebuilt relevant PDTs.

This permission is applied to individual models or model sets, rather than across the entire Looker instance.
send_to_sftp see_looks Model Specific Users can deliver any Looks, dashboards, and queries with visualizations to which they have data access to an SFTP server. Users can schedule delivery to occur after a datagroup has been triggered, has managed the cache, and has rebuilt relevant PDTs.

This permission is applied to individual models or model sets, rather than across the entire Looker instance.
send_outgoing_webhook see_looks Model Specific Users can deliver any Looks, dashboards, and queries with visualizations to which they have data access to a webhook. Users can schedule delivery to occur after a datagroup has been triggered, has managed the cache, and has rebuilt relevant PDTs.

This permission is applied to individual models or model sets, rather than across the entire Looker instance.
send_to_integration see_looks Model Specific Users can deliver any Looks, dashboards, and queries with visualizations to which they have data access to the third-party services integrated with Looker via the Looker Action Hub. If using custom actions with user attributes, users must have this permission and have a non-null and valid user attribute value for the specified user attribute to deliver Looker content to that action destination. This permission is not related to data actions. Users can schedule delivery to occur after a datagroup has been triggered, has managed the cache, and has rebuilt relevant PDTs.

This permission is applied to individual models or model sets, rather than across the entire Looker instance.
see_sql see_looks Model Specific Users can access the SQL tab while exploring and any SQL errors caused by their queries.
see_lookml see_looks Model Specific Users have read-only access to LookML. Users must have this permission to see the Go to LookML link in the Admin panel.

If you want a user to be able to edit LookML you must also grant them the develop permission.

NOTE: This permission interacts with model sets in a potentially unexpected way. If you assign the see_lookml permission to a user, and you've allowed that user to see any model that is a part of a project, they will be able to see the LookML for all models in that project. However, they will still not be able to query models that you have not allowed.
develop see_lookml Model Specific Users can make local changes to LookML but will not let them make those changes available to everyone unless they also have the deploy permission.

This permission is required to see the Get support option in the Help menu, and to see metadata in the Looker IDE. Users also need this permission to access the Rebuild Derived Tables & Run option in the Explore gear menu. This is not model-specific, so if a user has this permission in one model, they will have access to Rebuild Derived Tables & Run in all models.

NOTE: This permission interacts with model sets in a potentially unexpected way. If you assign the develop permission to a user, and you've allowed that user to see any model that is a part of a project, they will be able to develop the LookML for all models in that project. However, they will still not be able to query models that you have not allowed.
deploy develop Instance Wide NN Users can push their local LookML changes to production so that those changes become available to everyone.
support_access_toggle develop Instance Wide NN Users can enable or disable access by Looker analysts to your Looker instance.
manage_project_models develop Model Specific ADDED 23.14 Users can add, edit, or delete model configurations for allowed models on the Edit Model Configuration page. When configuring a model, users can use only project-scoped connections.

NOTE: This permission interacts with model sets in a potentially unexpected way. If you create a role with the manage_project_models permission, the role will grant access to all models that share a project with any of the models in the role's model sets.
use_global_connections manage_project_models Model Specific ADDED 23.14 Users can configure allowed models with any project-scoped connection or any instance-wide connection.
manage_project_connections_restricted develop Model Specific CM ADDED 23.18 Users can see the Connections page in the Admin menu. They can see, edit, and create project-scoped connections for any projects in the model set. However, they can edit only the following connection settings: Users cannot edit any other settings in the Additional Settings section. They also may not edit any settings in the Persistent Derived Tables (PDTs) section.

NOTE: This permission interacts with model sets in a potentially unexpected way. If you assign the manage_project_connections_restricted permission to a user, the user will be able to see, edit, and create project-scoped connections for any projects included in the model set.
manage_project_connections manage_project_connections_restricted Model Specific CM ADDED 23.14 Users can see the Connections page in the Admin menu. They can see, edit, and create project-scoped connections for any projects included in the model set.

NOTE: This permission interacts with model sets in a potentially unexpected way. If you assign the manage_project_connections_restricted permission to a user, the user will be able to see, edit, and create project-scoped connections for any projects included in the model set.
use_sql_runner see_lookml Model Specific Users can use SQL Runner to run raw SQL against their allowed connections. Users will also be able to download results from the Download option in the SQL Runner gear menu, regardless of whether the user has the download_with_limit or download_without_limit permissions.
clear_cache_refresh access_data Model Specific Users can clear cache and refresh internal and embedded dashboards, dashboard tiles, Looks, and Explores.

The clear_cache_refresh permission is automatically added to any pre-existing permission sets that contain any of the following permissions: see_user_dashboards, see_lookml_dashboards, or explore. The clear_cache_refresh permission is not automatically applied to any embedded roles.
see_drill_overlay access_data Model Specific Users can see the results of drilling into a dashboard tile but cannot explore those results. If explore is granted, this permission is also automatically granted (even if it isn't checked). Users must also have explore permissions to download drill results in PNG format.
manage_spaces None Instance Wide CN Users can create, edit, move, and delete folders. Users will also need the Manage Access, Edit content access permission.
manage_homepage None Instance Wide NN Users can edit and add content to the sidebar that all Looker users see on the pre-built Looker homepage.
manage_models None Instance Wide CN Each LookML model is mapped to a specific set of database connections on the Manage LookML Projects page. With this permission, users can configure these mappings, create new projects, and delete projects. Non-admin users who are granted this permission will have access to all connections that are allowed by the models to which they have access.

NOTE: This permission interacts with model sets in a potentially unexpected way. If you assign the manage_models permission to a user, the user will be able to access all models in all projects in the instance.
create_prefetches None Instance Wide Prefetching is strongly discouraged. We recommend using datagroups instead.
login_special_email None Instance Wide Users can log in with traditional email/password credentials, even if other login mechanisms (such as Google, LDAP, or SAML) have been enabled on your instance. This can be useful for consultants or others who may not be a part of your normal authentication system.
embed_browse_spaces None Instance Wide NN Enables the content browser for signed embeds. If you are using signed embeds, you should grant this permission to users who have the save_content permission.
embed_save_shared_space None Instance Wide ADDED 21.4 Allows user with the save_content permission to save content to the organization's Shared folder, if there is one. Users who have the save_content permission but not the embed_save_shared_space permission will only have the option to save content to their personal embed folder.
manage_embed_settings None Instance Wide CM ADDED 24.0 Users can edit embed settings on the Embed page in the Platform section of the Admin menu.
manage_themes None Instance Wide CM ADDED 24.0 Users can configure theme settings on the Themes page in the Platform section of the Admin menu.

This permission is available only if themes have been enabled for your instance.
manage_privatelabel None Instance Wide CM ADDED 24.0 Users can configure private label settings on the Private Label page in the Platform section of the Admin menu.

This permission is available only if private label has been enabled for your instance.
see_alerts None Instance Wide CM ADDED 21.16 Users can access the Alerts and Alert History pages in the Admin section, allowing users to see all alerts on a Looker instance. Users can view, follow, edit, self-assign, and disable alerts that are owned by other users from the Alerts admin page.

Users must have permissions to access the alert's underlying content to view or explore from the alert's visualization (in the Alert Details page) or to navigate to its dashboard. This permission does not grant users the ability to view, create, follow, or delete alerts from the dashboard tile.
see_queries None Instance Wide CM Users can see the Queries page in the Admin section of Looker. This privilege does not give a user the ability to terminate a query on the Queries page.
see_logs None Instance Wide CM Users can see the Log page in the Admin section of Looker.
see_users None Instance Wide CM Users can see the Users page (but not the Groups page) in the Admin section of Looker. This privilege does not give a user the ability to create new users, see or create API credentials, reset passwords, or otherwise modify users or privileges. A user granted this permission can see all users in all groups on an instance, even on a closed system. A user can see all group names and all role names, which some companies may consider sensitive.
sudo see_users Instance Wide CM Users can sudo (in other words, act as and temporarily inherit the permissions of) another user by clicking the Sudo button on the Users page.

The sudo permission does not allow a non-admin to sudo as an admin, but a non-admin could potentially escalate their privileges by using sudo, so exercise caution.
manage_groups see_users Instance Wide CM ADDED 24.0 Users can create, edit, and delete groups on the Groups page in the Users section of the Admin menu, with the exception of any groups that are associated with the Admin role.
manage_roles manage_groups Instance Wide CM ADDED 24.0 Users can create, edit, and delete roles, except for the Admin role, on the Roles page in the Users section of the Admin menu. Users still cannot create, edit, or delete permission sets or model sets.
manage_user_attributes see_users Instance Wide CM ADDED 24.0 Users can create, edit, and delete user attributes on the User Attributes page in the Users section of the Admin menu.
see_schedules None Instance Wide CM Users can see the Schedules and Schedule History pages from the Admin panel in Looker. This privilege does not give a user the ability to reassign, edit, or delete other users' schedules on the Schedules and Schedule History pages.
see_pdts None Connection Specific Users can see the Persistent Derived Tables page in the Admin section of Looker and view information about PDTs from projects that use any connection associated with models for which they have data access.

ADDED 21.18 This permission is included in the Developer default permission set for new Looker installations.

This permission is applied to connections to which users have data access, rather than across the entire Looker instance or to individual models or model sets.
see_datagroups None Model Specific Users can see the Datagroups page in the Admin section of Looker. Users can see connection names, model names, and other information about datagroups defined in a model for which they have data access.

This permission is applied to individual models or model sets, rather than across the entire Looker instance or to connections.
update_datagroups see_datagroups Model Specific Users can trigger a datagroup, or reset its cache, via the Datagroups page in the Admin section of Looker. Like users with the see_datagroups permission, users with update_datagroups can see datagroups defined in projects that use a model for which they have data access.

This permission is applied to individual models or model sets, rather than across the entire Looker instance or to connections.
see_system_activity None Instance Wide CM Users can access the System Activity Explores and dashboards and the internal i__looker database to view usage, history, and other metadata about a Looker instance.
mobile_app_access None Instance Wide NN ADDED 21.16 Users can sign in to your instance on a mobile device using the Looker mobile app. For users to be able to sign in to the Looker mobile app, the Mobile Application Access option in the General Settings page in the Admin section of Looker first must be enabled.

The mobile_app_access permission can be added to a new or existing permission set, and it is part of all of Looker's default permission sets.

Model sets

A model set defines what data and LookML fields a user or group can see. Each set is a list of LookML models to which a user or group should have access. You can think of a model set as performing two functions:

  1. A model set controls which models in your LookML the permissions apply to (if those permissions are model specific).
  2. A model set limits what data and LookML fields a user can see, because each model is connected to a specific database connection and contains certain LookML fields.

Creating a model set

To create a model set:

  1. Click the New Model Set button at the top of the Roles page.

  2. Looker displays the New Model Set page. Enter a name for the new model set.

  3. Select the model or models that should be included in the new model set.

  4. Click the New Model Set button at the bottom of the page. The new model set will appear on the Roles page.

Models that are included in pending projects appear in the Models list on the New Model Set and Edit Model Set pages.

Deleting or renaming a model will not change any model sets that include that model. When a model is removed or renamed, we recommend that Looker admins also remove that model's name from any associated model sets, using the Edit Model Set page. Removing a deleted model's name from a model set prevents a new model with the same name from unintentionally being included in that model set.

To learn more about models, see the Model parameters documentation page.

Creating multiple models and model sets

The following example illustrates how you can use multiple model sets to limit access to data. Consider a scenario where you have two teams, Marketing and Support. In this example, these two teams should not have access to the entire model, so you would create a separate model for each team. To separate their data access, you would perform the following steps:

  1. Copy the model into two new models.
  2. In the first of the new models, include only the views, fields, and Explores that the Marketing team should have access to.
  3. Create a model set for the Marketing team that includes only this new model.
  4. Create a new role for the Marketing team that includes this new model set and the appropriate permissions for the Marketing team.
  5. Assign this new role to the Marketing team group.
  6. Repeat steps 2 through 5 to configure the second model for the Support team.

Editing a model set

After a model set has been created, perform the following steps to edit it:

  1. On the Roles page, click the Edit button to the right of the model set you want to edit.

  2. Looker displays the Edit Model Set page. If desired, enter a new name for the model set.

  3. Add or remove any models from the model set.

  4. Click the Update Model Set button at the bottom of the page.

Models that are included in pending projects appear in the Models list on the New Model Set and Edit Model Set pages.

Deleting or renaming a model will not change any model sets that include that model. When a model is removed or renamed, we recommend that Looker admins also remove that model's name from any associated model sets, using the Edit Model Set page. Removing a deleted model's name from a model set prevents a new model with the same name from unintentionally being included in that model set.

Deleting a model set

To delete a model set, on the Roles page, click Delete to the right of the model set that you want to delete.