---
title: "Define custom permissions"
showtoc: true
---

Vendure uses a fine-grained access control system based on roles & permissions. This is described in detail in the [Auth guide](/core-concepts/auth/). The built-in [`Permission` enum](/reference/typescript-api/common/permission/) includes a range of permissions to control create, read, update, and delete access to the built-in entities.

When building plugins, you may need to define new permissions to control access to new functionality. This guide explains how to do so.

## Defining a single permission

For example, let's imagine you are creating a plugin which exposes a new mutation that can be used by remote services to sync your inventory. First of all we will define the new permission using the [`PermissionDefinition`](/reference/typescript-api/auth/permission-definition/) class:

```ts title="src/plugins/inventory-sync/constants.ts"
import { PermissionDefinition } from '@vendure/core';

export const sync = new PermissionDefinition({
    name: 'SyncInventory',
    description: 'Allows syncing stock levels via Admin API'
});
```

This permission can then be used in conjuction with the [@Allow() decorator](/reference/typescript-api/request/allow-decorator/) to limit access to the mutation:

```ts title="src/plugins/inventory-sync/api/inventory-sync.resolver.ts"
import { Mutation, Resolver } from '@nestjs/graphql';
import { Allow } from '@vendure/core';
import { sync } from '../constants';

@Resolver()
export class InventorySyncResolver {

    @Allow(sync.Permission) // [!code highlight]
    @Mutation()
    syncInventory(/* ... */) {
        // ...
    }
}
```

Finally, the `sync` PermissionDefinition must be passed into the VendureConfig so that Vendure knows about this new custom permission:

```ts title="src/plugins/inventory-sync/inventory-sync.plugin.ts"
import gql from 'graphql-tag';
import { VendurePlugin } from '@vendure/core';

import { InventorySyncResolver } from './api/inventory-sync.resolver'
import { sync } from './constants';

@VendurePlugin({
    adminApiExtensions: {
        schema: gql`
            input InventoryDataInput {
              # omitted for brevity
            }
        
            extend type Mutation {
              syncInventory(input: InventoryDataInput!): Boolean!
            }
        `,
        resolvers: [InventorySyncResolver]
    },
    configuration: config => {
        config.authOptions.customPermissions.push(sync); // [!code highlight]
        return config;
    },
})
export class InventorySyncPlugin {}
```

On starting the Vendure server, this custom permission will now be visible in the Role detail view of the Dashboard, and can be assigned to Roles.

## Custom CRUD permissions

Quite often your plugin will define a new entity on which you must perform create, read, update and delete (CRUD) operations. In this case, you can use the [CrudPermissionDefinition](/reference/typescript-api/auth/permission-definition/#crudpermissiondefinition) which simplifies the creation of the set of 4 CRUD permissions. 

For example, let's imagine we are creating a plugin which adds a new entity called `ProductReview`. We can define the CRUD permissions like so:

```ts title="src/plugins/product-review/constants.ts"
import { CrudPermissionDefinition } from '@vendure/core';

export const productReviewPermission = new CrudPermissionDefinition('ProductReview');
```

These permissions can then be used in our resolver:

```ts title="src/plugins/product-review/api/product-review.resolver.ts"
import { Mutation, Resolver } from '@nestjs/graphql';
import { Allow, Transaction } from '@vendure/core';
import { productReviewPermission } from '../constants';

@Resolver()
export class ProductReviewResolver {

    @Allow(productReviewPermission.Read) // [!code highlight]
    @Query()
    productReviews(/* ... */) {
        // ...
    }
    
    @Allow(productReviewPermission.Create) // [!code highlight]
    @Mutation()
    @Transaction()
    createProductReview(/* ... */) {
        // ...
    }
    
    @Allow(productReviewPermission.Update) // [!code highlight]
    @Mutation()
    @Transaction()
    updateProductReview(/* ... */) {
        // ...
    }
    
    @Allow(productReviewPermission.Delete) // [!code highlight]
    @Mutation()
    @Transaction()
    deleteProductReview(/* ... */) {
        // ...
    }
}
```

Finally, the `productReview` CrudPermissionDefinition must be passed into the VendureConfig so that Vendure knows about this new custom permission:

```ts title="src/plugins/product-review/product-review.plugin.ts"
import gql from 'graphql-tag';
import { VendurePlugin } from '@vendure/core';

import { ProductReviewResolver } from './api/product-review.resolver'
import { productReviewPermission } from './constants';

@VendurePlugin({
    adminApiExtensions: {
        schema: gql`
            # omitted for brevity
        `,
        resolvers: [ProductReviewResolver]
    },
    configuration: config => {
        config.authOptions.customPermissions.push(productReviewPermission); // [!code highlight]
        return config;
    },
})
export class ProductReviewPlugin {}
```

## Custom permissions for custom fields

Since Vendure v2.2.0, it is possible to define custom permissions for custom fields. This is useful when you want to 
control access to specific custom fields on an entity. For example, imagine a "product reviews" plugin which adds a
`rating` custom field to the `Product` entity. 

You may want to restrict access to this custom field to only those roles which have permissions on the product review
plugin.

```ts title="src/plugins/product-review.plugin.ts"
import { VendurePlugin } from '@vendure/core';
import { productReviewPermission } from './constants';

@VendurePlugin({
    configuration: config => {
        config.authOptions.customPermissions.push(productReviewPermission);
        
        config.customFields.Product.push({
            name: 'rating',
            type: 'int',
            requiresPermission: [ // [!code highlight]
                productReviewPermission.Read, // [!code highlight]
                productReviewPermission.Update, // [!code highlight]
            ], // [!code highlight]
        });
        return config;
    },
})
export class ProductReviewPlugin {}
```
