---
title: "What is a role?"
slug: "what-is-a-role"
tags: ["role", "permission", "access control"]
updated: 2024-08-22T06:47:09Z
published: 2024-08-22T06:47:09Z
canonical: "support.lusid.com/what-is-a-role"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.lusid.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What is a role?

A role models a real-world job function or responsibility within LUSID. [See how to create a role](/v1/docs/how-do-i-create-a-role).

For example:

- A data controller might require write access to all the data in LUSID.
- A portfolio manager might require write access to certain portfolios.
- A risk manager might require read-only access to all portfolios.

Each role has one or more [policies](/v1/docs/what-are-a-policy-and-a-policy-collection), each of which grants (or denies) access to a particular feature or dataset. You can combine policies in any way you like to precisely model the professional duties of a role, and edit policies as these professional duties evolve over time.

You assign a role to one or more LUSID [users](/v1/docs/what-are-a-personal-user-and-a-service-user). A user with that role inherits all the access rights granted by its policies. A user can have multiple roles. [See how to assign policies, roles and users](/v1/docs/how-do-i-assign-policies-roles-and-users-to-each-other-using-the-api).

![](https://cdn.document360.io/d575ad81-c0ed-4980-bbd1-d59ac5c3de82/Images/Documentation/e8ef9bc5-246b-4c35-9eb3-25b45210d44c.png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-04T02%3A14%3A05Z&se=2026-11-04T03%3A14%3A05Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=jtGQlv8N00UDO%2BL%2BoKJjKfF1Ig%2FDkJyEPcYKxTCQ2Pc%3D)

Note the following:

- If a person changes job function (for example, a risk manager is promoted to data controller), you should assign the data controller role to that user rather than change the risk manager role to encompass their new responsibilities. Such a change would affect all other risk managers.
- It’s possible for a user to inherit conflicting permissions from multiple roles. Each role therefore has a precedence, which determines which policies take effect. [See how to set precedence](/v1/docs/how-do-i-create-a-role#setting-precedence-for-a-role).

A [default set of roles](/v1/docs/what-default-roles-and-policies-are-provided-with-lusid) is provided with LUSID for you to adopt or adapt.