Folders and access

Every dashboard lives in one folder. A new install has one folder, General, and every dashboard that existed before folders is in it. General is open to everyone by role, and it cannot be renamed, deleted or restricted.

Editors and Admins create folders. Anyone with Edit on a folder moves its dashboards into another folder where they have Edit, on the Dashboards page, and deletes a dashboard from its row menu there or from the dashboard’s More menu, after a confirmation. A move needs Edit on both folders and saves no version. A folder can be deleted only when it is empty. A title is 1 to 100 characters and unique without regard to case.

A folder is open or restricted, and the folder’s settings page (Folder settings on the Dashboards page) switches it:

• An open folder has no list. Everyone sees it and has the access their role gives: Admins manage it, Editors edit, Commenters comment and Viewers view.
• A restricted folder has a list of people and groups, at most 50. Only the people on the list, the person who created the folder and Admins see it. Everyone else gets no trace of its dashboards: they are missing from lists, search, tags and datasource counts, their panel data, events and comments are refused, and the agent cannot reach them. Removing the last entry opens the folder to everyone again.

Each entry gives a level. A person gets the higher of the level their role gives and the highest entry that matches them, on the folder and on every dashboard in it. An entry can give a Viewer or Commenter more and never gives anyone less:

Restricted folders on the Dashboards page show Your access: <level> in their header. The Dashboards page shows 50 dashboards per page; a folder that runs onto the next page repeats its header there, marked “Continued from the previous page”. Folder settings tells a person who cannot manage the folder Your access to this folder is <level>. Only folder Admins can change it.

Some rules that follow:

• A Viewer or Commenter given Edit edits in that folder, including creating dashboards and starting them with the agent, and given Admin manages it.
• An Editor given View or Comment still edits, and an Admin entry makes them the folder’s Admin.
• Admins have the Admin level on every folder.
• The person who created a folder manages it while they are an Editor, and keeps seeing it when it is restricted, even if the list does not name them.
• Creating, duplicating and importing a dashboard need Edit on the target folder. Starting a dashboard with the agent needs Edit on some folder.
• Creating a folder needs the Editor role.

An entry names a person by email address or a group by its name. A person has to have signed in once before an entry can name them, and an unknown address is refused with 422 unknown_user. Groups come from the groups claim of the ID token, as in Roles, and a person’s groups are read at each sign-in, so a change to a group reaches folder access at the person’s next sign-in.

A service-account key matches no entry, because entries name people and groups. A key therefore sees a restricted folder only when its service account is an Admin or created the folder. To let automation work in a restricted folder, use a key of an Admin service account.

The agent works as the person or key that asked. The request needs Edit on the dashboard, and the server checks it when the request is queued and again when a worker starts it. A new dashboard from the chat needs Edit on some folder and goes to a folder where the requester has Edit. A request whose person lost access or was deleted in between fails with a message saying so.

Over the API, a dashboard in a folder the caller cannot see answers 403 forbidden_role and a folder answers 404 not_found; MCP tools answer not_found for both.

An entry used to give a Viewer or Commenter nothing beyond their role. Now an existing entry at Edit or Admin lifts them, so review the lists of restricted folders after you upgrade.