Frappe Core Permissions

Frappe Permissions

Deterministic patterns for the five-layer Frappe permission system.

Permission Layers

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

Permission Types

Automatic Roles

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.

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

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+]

Anti-Patterns

Version Differences

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

Reference Files

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

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