Frappe Permissions

Deterministic patterns for the five-layer Frappe permission system.

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Permission Layers

Layer	Controls	Configured Via	Version
Role Permissions	What users CAN do	DocType permissions table	All
User Permissions	WHICH records users see	User Permission DocType	All
Perm Levels	WHICH fields users see/edit	Field permlevel property	All
Permission Hooks	Custom deny logic	hooks.py	All
Data Masking	Masked field values	Field mask property	[v16+]

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Decision Tree

Need to control access?
├── Who can Create/Read/Write/Delete a DocType? → Role Permissions
├── Which specific records can a user see? → User Permissions
├── Which fields should be hidden? → Perm Levels (permlevel 1+)
├── Which fields show masked values? → Data Masking [v16+]
├── Custom runtime deny logic? → has_permission hook
├── Filter list queries dynamically? → permission_query_conditions hook
└── Share one document with one user? → frappe.share

Checking permissions in code?
├── Before action → frappe.has_permission() or doc.has_permission()
├── Raise on denial → doc.check_permission() or throw=True
├── System bypass → doc.flags.ignore_permissions = True (ALWAYS document why)
└── List query → ALWAYS use frappe.get_list() for user-facing data

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Permission Types

Type	API Check	Applies To
read	frappe.has_permission(dt, "read")	All DocTypes
write	frappe.has_permission(dt, "write")	All DocTypes
create	frappe.has_permission(dt, "create")	All DocTypes
delete	frappe.has_permission(dt, "delete")	All DocTypes
submit	frappe.has_permission(dt, "submit")	Submittable only
cancel	frappe.has_permission(dt, "cancel")	Submittable only
amend	frappe.has_permission(dt, "amend")	Submittable only
select	frappe.has_permission(dt, "select")	Link fields [v14+]
report	N/A	Report Builder access
export	N/A	Excel/CSV export
import	N/A	Data Import Tool
share	N/A	Share with other users
print	N/A	Print/PDF generation
email	N/A	Send email
mask	Role permission for unmasked view	Data Masking [v16+]

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Automatic Roles

Role	Assigned To	Notes
Guest	Everyone (including anonymous)	Public pages
All	All registered users	Basic authenticated access
Administrator	Only the Administrator user	ALWAYS has all permissions
Desk User	System Users only	[v15+]

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Essential API

Check Permission

# DocType-level
frappe.has_permission("Sales Order", "write")

# Document-level (by name or object)
frappe.has_permission("Sales Order", "write", "SO-00001")
frappe.has_permission("Sales Order", "write", doc=doc)

# For specific user
frappe.has_permission("Sales Order", "read", user="john@example.com")

# Throw on denial
frappe.has_permission("Sales Order", "delete", throw=True)

# Debug mode — prints evaluation steps
frappe.has_permission("Sales Order", "read", debug=True)
print(frappe.local.permission_debug_log)

Document Instance Methods

doc = frappe.get_doc("Sales Order", "SO-00001")

# Returns bool
if doc.has_permission("write"):
    doc.status = "Approved"
    doc.save()

# Raises frappe.PermissionError if denied
doc.check_permission("write")

Get Effective Permissions

from frappe.permissions import get_doc_permissions

perms = get_doc_permissions(doc)
# {'read': 1, 'write': 1, 'create': 0, 'delete': 0, ...}

perms = get_doc_permissions(doc, user="john@example.com")

---

User Permissions (Record-Level)

Restrict users to specific Link field values (e.g., specific Company, Territory).

from frappe.permissions import add_user_permission, remove_user_permission

# Restrict user to one company
add_user_permission(
    doctype="Company",
    name="My Company",
    user="john@example.com",
    is_default=1,            # auto-fill in new documents
    applicable_for="Sales Order"  # only for this DocType (optional)
)

# Remove restriction
remove_user_permission("Company", "My Company", "john@example.com")

# Query current restrictions
from frappe.permissions import get_user_permissions
perms = get_user_permissions("john@example.com")
# {"Company": [{"doc": "My Company", "is_default": 1}], ...}

---

Sharing (Document-Level)

Grant access to a single document for a specific user.

from frappe.share import add as add_share, remove as remove_share

add_share("Sales Order", "SO-00001", "jane@example.com",
          read=1, write=1, share=0, notify=1)

remove_share("Sales Order", "SO-00001", "jane@example.com")

# Share with everyone
add_share("Sales Order", "SO-00001", everyone=1, read=1)

---

Field-Level Permissions (Perm Levels)

Group fields by permlevel (0-9). Level 0 MUST be granted before higher levels.

{
  "fields": [
    {"fieldname": "employee_name", "permlevel": 0},
    {"fieldname": "salary",        "permlevel": 1}
  ],
  "permissions": [
    {"role": "Employee",   "permlevel": 0, "read": 1},
    {"role": "HR Manager", "permlevel": 0, "read": 1, "write": 1},
    {"role": "HR Manager", "permlevel": 1, "read": 1, "write": 1}
  ]
}

Rule: Levels do NOT imply hierarchy. Level 2 is not "higher" than level 1. They are independent field groups.

---

Data Masking [v16+]

Fields with mask=1 show masked values (e.g., ****, +91-811XXXXXXX) to users without mask permission.

{
  "fieldname": "phone_number", "fieldtype": "Data", "mask": 1
}

Grant mask permission to roles that MUST see unmasked values:

{"role": "HR Manager", "permlevel": 0, "read": 1, "mask": 1}

CRITICAL: Data masking does NOT apply to frappe.db.sql() or Query Reports with raw SQL. You MUST mask manually in custom SQL queries.

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Permission Hooks

has_permission: Custom Deny Logic

Can only deny access. NEVER returns True to grant. ALWAYS returns None to continue standard checks.

# hooks.py
has_permission = {
    "Sales Order": "myapp.permissions.check_order_permission"
}

# myapp/permissions.py
def check_order_permission(doc, ptype, user):
    if ptype == "write" and doc.docstatus == 2:
        if "Sales Manager" not in frappe.get_roles(user):
            return False
    return None  # ALWAYS return None by default

permission_query_conditions: Filter List Queries

Returns SQL WHERE clause fragment. Only affects get_list(), NOT get_all().

# hooks.py
permission_query_conditions = {
    "Customer": "myapp.permissions.customer_query"
}

def customer_query(user):
    if not user:
        user = frappe.session.user
    if "Sales Manager" in frappe.get_roles(user):
        return ""
    return f"`tabCustomer`.owner = {frappe.db.escape(user)}"

ALWAYS use frappe.db.escape() — NEVER use string concatenation with raw user input.

---

get_list vs get_all

Method	User Permissions	Query Hook	Use For
frappe.get_list()	Applied	Applied	User-facing queries
frappe.get_all()	Ignored	Ignored	System/background queries

ALWAYS use get_list() when returning data to users. get_all() bypasses ALL permission filtering.

---

Common Patterns

Owner-Only Edit

{"role": "Sales User", "read": 1, "write": 1, "create": 1, "if_owner": 1}

Role-Restricted Endpoint

@frappe.whitelist()
def sensitive_action():
    frappe.only_for(["Manager", "Administrator"])
    # Only reaches here if user has one of these roles

Bypass Permissions (Document Why!)

# On document — ALWAYS add a comment explaining the reason
doc.flags.ignore_permissions = True
doc.save()

# On method call
doc.save(ignore_permissions=True)
doc.insert(ignore_permissions=True)

---

Critical Rules

1. ALWAYS use frappe.has_permission() — NEVER check roles directly for access control
2. ALWAYS use frappe.get_list() for user-facing queries — NEVER get_all()
3. ALWAYS escape SQL in query hooks — frappe.db.escape(user)
4. ALWAYS prefix table names in query hooks — `tabDocType`.fieldname
5. ALWAYS return None in has_permission hooks by default — NEVER True
6. ALWAYS clear cache after permission changes — frappe.clear_cache()
7. ALWAYS document ignore_permissions usage with a comment
8. NEVER throw errors in has_permission hooks — return False to deny
9. NEVER grant permlevel 1+ without granting permlevel 0 first
10. NEVER assume data masking applies to custom SQL queries [v16+]

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Anti-Patterns

Do NOT	Do Instead
if "Role" in frappe.get_roles() for access	frappe.has_permission(dt, ptype)
frappe.get_all() for user queries	frappe.get_list()
return True in has_permission hook	return None
f"owner = '{user}'" in SQL	f"owner = {frappe.db.escape(user)}"
frappe.throw() in permission hooks	return False
frappe.db.set_value() for user-facing updates	doc.save() with permission check
Sensitive data in error messages	Generic frappe.PermissionError

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Version Differences

Feature	v14	v15	v16
select permission	Yes	Yes	Yes
Desk User role	No	Yes	Yes
Data Masking (mask field)	No	No	Yes
mask permission type	No	No	Yes
Custom Permission Types	No	No	Experimental

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Permission Precedence

1. Administrator — ALWAYS has all permissions (cannot be restricted)
2. Role Permissions — Based on assigned roles
3. User Permissions — Restricts to specific document values
4. has_permission hook — Can only deny (any False = denied)
5. Sharing — Grants access to shared documents
6. if_owner — Further restricts to owned documents

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Reference Files

File	Contents
permission-types-reference.md	All permission types with options
permission-api-reference.md	Complete API with all signatures
permission-hooks-reference.md	Hook patterns and examples
examples.md	Working implementation examples
anti-patterns.md	Common mistakes and fixes

Related Skills

• frappe-core-database — Database operations that respect permissions
• frappe-core-api — API endpoints with permission checks
• frappe-syntax-controllers — Controller permission validation
• frappe-syntax-hooks — Hook configuration patterns

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Verified against Frappe docs 2026-03-20 | Frappe v14/v15/v16