Algolia Enterprise Rbac

Algolia Enterprise RBAC

Overview

Algolia's access control is built on API keys with ACL (Access Control Lists). Each key has specific permissions, index restrictions, and rate limits. For multi-tenant apps, Secured API Keys provide per-user filtering without creating individual keys. For team management, Algolia's dashboard supports team members with role-based access.

Prerequisites

• An Algolia organization or application administrator authorized to inspect and change API-key ACLs.
• A current inventory of services, users, and indices that require access.
• A safe rotation path for any key whose ACL or validity will change.

API Key ACL Permissions

Instructions

Examples

The API-key and role examples below show least-privilege grants for common service and tenant boundaries. Start with the narrowest index and ACL set, then verify it against the caller's actual operation.

Step 1: Define Application Roles

import { algoliasearch } from 'algoliasearch';

const client = algoliasearch(process.env.ALGOLIA_APP_ID!, process.env.ALGOLIA_ADMIN_KEY!);

// Role definitions with minimal permissions
const ROLES = {
  // Backend search service: search only, scoped to specific indices
  searchService: {
    acl: ['search'] as const,
    description: 'Search service — production read-only',
    indexes: ['products', 'articles'],
    maxQueriesPerIPPerHour: 100000,
  },

  // Indexing pipeline: write records, no search or delete
  indexingPipeline: {
    acl: ['addObject', 'editSettings', 'listIndexes'] as const,
    description: 'Indexing pipeline — write-only, no delete',
    indexes: ['products', 'articles'],
    maxQueriesPerIPPerHour: 10000,
  },

  // Analytics dashboard: read analytics, no data access
  analyticsDashboard: {
    acl: ['analytics', 'usage', 'listIndexes'] as const,
    description: 'Analytics reader — no record access',
    indexes: ['products', 'articles'],
    maxQueriesPerIPPerHour: 5000,
  },

  // Data admin: full CRUD, restricted to non-production
  dataAdmin: {
    acl: ['search', 'browse', 'addObject', 'deleteObject', 'editSettings', 'listIndexes', 'deleteIndex'] as const,
    description: 'Data admin — full access, staging only',
    indexes: ['staging_*'],
    maxQueriesPerIPPerHour: 50000,
  },
};

async function createRoleKey(roleName: keyof typeof ROLES) {
  const role = ROLES[roleName];
  const { key } = await client.addApiKey({
    apiKey: {
      acl: [...role.acl],
      description: role.description,
      indexes: role.indexes,
      maxQueriesPerIPPerHour: role.maxQueriesPerIPPerHour,
    },
  });
  console.log(`Created ${roleName} key: ...${key.slice(-8)}`);
  return key;
}

Step 2: Multi-Tenant RBAC with Secured API Keys

// Secured API Keys embed filters the client cannot bypass.
// Generate on YOUR server, send to the frontend.

interface UserContext {
  userId: string;
  tenantId: string;
  role: 'admin' | 'editor' | 'viewer';
}

function generateUserSearchKey(user: UserContext): string {
  // Base filter: tenant isolation
  let filters = `tenant_id:${user.tenantId}`;

  // Role-based visibility
  switch (user.role) {
    case 'admin':
      // Admins see everything in their tenant
      break;
    case 'editor':
      // Editors see published + their own drafts
      filters += ` AND (status:published OR author_id:${user.userId})`;
      break;
    case 'viewer':
      // Viewers see published only
      filters += ' AND status:published';
      break;
  }

  return client.generateSecuredApiKey({
    parentApiKey: process.env.ALGOLIA_SEARCH_KEY!,
    restrictions: {
      filters,
      validUntil: Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + 3600, // 1 hour
      restrictIndices: ['products', 'articles'],
    },
  });
}

// API endpoint: generate key for authenticated user
// GET /api/algolia/key
// Response: { appId: "...", searchKey: "secured_key_here" }

Step 3: Permission Checking Middleware

// Validate that the calling service has required Algolia permissions
async function validateKeyPermissions(
  apiKey: string,
  requiredAcl: string[]
): Promise<boolean> {
  try {
    const keyInfo = await client.getApiKey({ key: apiKey });
    const hasAll = requiredAcl.every(perm => keyInfo.acl.includes(perm));

    if (!hasAll) {
      const missing = requiredAcl.filter(p => !keyInfo.acl.includes(p));
      console.warn(`Key missing permissions: ${missing.join(', ')}`);
    }

    return hasAll;
  } catch (e) {
    console.error('Failed to validate API key:', e);
    return false;
  }
}

// Express middleware
function requireAlgoliaPermission(requiredAcl: string[]) {
  return async (req: any, res: any, next: any) => {
    const key = req.headers['x-algolia-api-key'];
    if (!key || !(await validateKeyPermissions(key, requiredAcl))) {
      return res.status(403).json({ error: 'Insufficient Algolia permissions' });
    }
    next();
  };
}

Step 4: API Key Audit and Rotation

// List all API keys and audit their permissions
async function auditApiKeys() {
  const { keys } = await client.listApiKeys();

  console.log(`Total API keys: ${keys.length}\n`);

  for (const key of keys) {
    const ageMs = Date.now() - new Date(key.createdAt * 1000).getTime();
    const ageDays = Math.floor(ageMs / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24));

    console.log(`Key: ...${key.value.slice(-8)}`);
    console.log(`  Description: ${key.description || '(none)'}`);
    console.log(`  ACL: ${key.acl.join(', ')}`);
    console.log(`  Indices: ${key.indexes?.join(', ') || 'ALL'}`);
    console.log(`  Rate limit: ${key.maxQueriesPerIPPerHour || 'unlimited'}/hr`);
    console.log(`  Age: ${ageDays} days`);

    // Flag old keys
    if (ageDays > 90) {
      console.log(`  WARNING: Key is ${ageDays} days old — consider rotation`);
    }
    // Flag overly permissive keys
    if (key.acl.includes('deleteIndex') && !key.description?.includes('admin')) {
      console.log(`  WARNING: Has deleteIndex permission — verify this is intentional`);
    }
    console.log('');
  }
}

Step 5: Dashboard Team Management

Algolia Dashboard Team Roles (configured in dashboard.algolia.com > Team):

| Dashboard Role | Can Do                                    | Can't Do              |
|----------------|-------------------------------------------|-----------------------|
| Owner          | Everything + billing + team management    | N/A                   |
| Admin          | All index operations + API key management | Billing               |
| Editor         | Search, index data, edit settings         | API key management    |
| Viewer         | Search, view analytics                    | Modify anything       |

Configure at: dashboard.algolia.com > Settings > Team
Enterprise plans support SSO (SAML 2.0) for team authentication.

Security Checklist

• Each microservice has its own scoped API key (not shared admin key)
• Frontend keys are search-only with referers restriction
• Multi-tenant apps use Secured API Keys with filters
• maxQueriesPerIPPerHour set on all non-admin keys
• Keys restricted to specific indexes (not all)
• Key rotation scheduled (every 90 days)
• Dashboard team members have appropriate roles
• API key audit runs monthly

Output

The application has documented role-to-ACL mappings, restricted keys for each actor, and an auditable rotation path. Failed authorization attempts can be traced to a missing or excessive grant instead of being worked around with an Admin key.

Error Handling

Resources

• API Keys Guide
• Secured API Keys
• Team Management
• Enterprise SSO

Next Steps

For major platform migrations, see algolia-migration-deep-dive.