---
title: "Manage roles"
description: "Learn how to work with roles and permissions in authentik."
---

Roles are a collection of permissions, which can then be assigned, en masse, to a user or a group. Using roles is a way to quickly grant permissions; by adding a user to a group with the appropriate assigned roles, any user in that group then inherits all of those permissions that are assigned to the role.

:::info
Roles are intended to be assigned to groups, not to individual users. However, in some cases it's practical to assign a role straight to a user, so authentik implements that functionality.
:::

## Create a role

To create a new role, follow these steps:

1. In the Admin interface, navigate to **Directory > Roles**.
2. Click **New Role**, enter the name of the role, and then click **Create Role** to save.
3. Next, [assign permissions for the role](../access-control/manage_permissions.md#assign-or-remove-permissions-for-a-specific-role).

## Modify a role

To modify a role, follow these steps:

- To edit the name of the role, click the Edit icon beside the role's name.

- To modify the permissions that are assigned for the role, click the role's name to go to the role's detail page. There you can add or remove permissions. For more information, refer to ["Assign or remove permissions for a specific role"](../access-control/manage_permissions.md#assign-or-remove-permissions-for-a-specific-role).

## Delete a role

To delete a role, follow these steps:

1. In the Admin interface, navigate to **Directory > Roles**.
2. Select the checkbox beside the name of the role that you want to delete.
3. Click **Delete**.

## Assign a role to a group

1. To assign the role to a group, navigate to **Directory > Groups**.
2. Click the name of the group to which you want to add a role.
3. On the group's detail page, on the Overview tab, click **Edit** in the **Group Info** area.
4. On the **Update Group** box, in the **Roles** field, select the roles you want to assign to the group from the list of **Available Roles** in the left box (you can select multiple roles at once by holding the Shift key while selecting the roles), and then click the appropriate arrow icon to move them into the **Selected Roles** box.
5. Click **Update** to add the role(s) and close the box.

## Assign a role to a user

See [add user to a role](../user/user_basic_operations.md#add-a-user-to-a-role).
