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Users and roles

Give each person their own account with the right role (Read only, Operator, Superadmin), manage accounts, and change your own name, sign-in address and password.

Each person who opens the dashboard should have their own account. An account has a role that decides what it may do, and every sign-in and account change appears in the Activity log.

Accounts are managed in Settings > Users and roles. Your own account is in Settings > My account.

The three roles

Role In one sentence
Read only Can see everything, change nothing
Operator Sends, replies, and manages contacts, templates, rules, campaigns and webhooks, without touching accounts or settings
Superadmin Can do everything, including managing accounts, the licence, settings, API keys, backups and phone pairing

In detail:

What Read only Operator Superadmin
See conversations, contacts, campaigns, queue, devices, rules yes yes yes
Preview a template, use the rule tester yes yes yes
Export messages, contacts, conversations (CSV, JSON) yes yes yes
Send (quick send, conversation reply), retry a message no yes yes
Manage contacts, groups, templates, rules, campaigns, short links no yes yes
Manage the forwarding of received SMS and webhooks no yes yes
See the Activity log no yes yes
See the technical logs no no yes
Pair or remove a phone, change device settings no no yes
Change the settings (sending, pauses, time zone, auto-responder switch) no no yes
Create, change or revoke API keys no no yes
Backups, restore, full database download no no yes
Activate or re-check the licence no no yes
Create, change, disable or delete accounts no no yes

The dashboard hides or disables what your role cannot do, and a Read only account sees a banner saying so. The gateway enforces the same rules on its side, so a refused action is refused even if someone tries it another way.

Backups and the full database download are closed to the other roles even for reading: they contain every account.

Which role to give? Read only for a manager who follows the figures, Operator for the people who answer customers and run campaigns, Superadmin for one or two people responsible for the installation.

Manage accounts (Superadmin)

Settings > Users and roles lists every account with its Role, Status (Active or Disabled) and Last sign-in. Your own row is marked You. Other roles see the list but no button.

Create an account

Click New user:

Option Allowed values Effect
Name 1 to 100 characters Shown in the list and in the activity log
Sign-in email address A valid address, not used by another account What the person signs in with. Capitals do not matter
Role Read only, Operator, Superadmin What the account may do
Initial password 12 characters at least Share it through a safe channel: you cannot read it again. The person can change it from their profile

No email is sent: give the person the dashboard address, their sign-in address and the password.

Account actions

The menu of each row (except your own) offers:

Action Effect
Change role Applies from the person's next action, without signing them out
Set a new password For a person who forgot theirs. They are signed out everywhere and must use the new password
Disable Signs the person out at once and blocks sign-in. The account and its history are kept; Enable gives access back
Delete Deletes the account and its sessions for good. What the person did stays, with no author. To keep a trace, prefer Disable

Two safety rules apply:

  • You cannot change your own role, disable or delete yourself, nor reset your own password from this screen (use My account). Another Superadmin must do it.
  • The installation always keeps at least one active Superadmin. Demoting, disabling or deleting the last one is refused.

Keep two Superadmin accounts. There is no "forgot my password" email: a Superadmin who loses their password is unlocked by another Superadmin with Set a new password. With a single Superadmin, a lost password leaves nobody able to manage accounts.

Your own account: Settings > My account

Option Where Effect
Name Profile Your display name, 1 to 100 characters
Email address Profile The address you sign in with. Changing it asks for your Current password
Role Profile Shown only: a Superadmin changes it
Interface language Profile English, French, Spanish or Italian. Saved in this browser, not on your account
Password Password Current password, New password (12 characters at least, different from the current one), Confirm the new password

Click Save profile or Change password. Changing your password signs out all your other sessions (other computers, other browsers) and keeps this one open: useful if you signed in on a shared computer and forgot to sign out.

A long phrase makes a better password than a short complicated word.

Sign-in and sessions

  • A session stays open 7 days after your last activity, then asks you to sign in again. Sign out, in the menu, closes it at once.
  • After 5 failed attempts, from the same address or on the same account, sign-in is locked for 30 seconds, then twice as long after each new failure, up to 15 minutes. The counter is forgotten after 15 minutes without failure. The error message is the same for an unknown address, a wrong password and a disabled account, so nobody can test which addresses exist.
  • Refused sign-ins appear in the activity log, category Security, with their reason.

The first account

The very first account of an installation is created on the setup screen, with the setup code displayed by the installer (sms-gateway setup-code shows it again). That account is a Superadmin. See the installation guide.

Accounts and API keys

An API key is not an account: it belongs to a tool, not a person, and has its own scope. Keys are managed in API keys by a Superadmin. See API keys.

With the API

Method Path Who What it does
GET /api/v1/users Any session Lists the accounts
POST /api/v1/users Superadmin Creates an account (email, name, role, password)
PATCH /api/v1/users/{userId} Superadmin Changes name, role, disabled
POST /api/v1/users/{userId}/password Superadmin Sets a new password
DELETE /api/v1/users/{userId} Superadmin Deletes the account

Role values: viewer (Read only), operator, superadmin. Account changes need a signed-in Superadmin: an API key, even with the admin scope, can only read the list.

Troubleshooting

What you see Why, and what to do
"The installation must keep at least one active superadministrator." You are demoting, disabling or deleting the last Superadmin. Promote someone else first
"This address is already used by another account." Two accounts cannot share an address, even with different capitals
Sign-in refused with "Too many requests. Try again shortly." Wait for the lock to end (15 minutes at most), then check the address and password
A colleague cannot see Activity log Their account is Read only
The only Superadmin forgot the password Nobody can reset it from the dashboard: this is why a second Superadmin account matters

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