> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.der-connect.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Managing permissions

Each connected Entity has at least one owner, usually the <Tooltip tip="A person, logged-in with username and password">User</Tooltip> or <Tooltip tip="An application, logged-in with client ID and secret">Client</Tooltip> who onboarded it. Owners can share access to their Entities by assigning permissions to others.

## Assigning permissions to Principals

Permissions can be assigned to Principals, which represent individual actors or groups of actors on our platform, each uniquely identified by a `principalId`.

Principals include Users, Clients, Collectives, and Tenants. You can grant permissions to individual Users and Clients or to groups like Collectives and Tenants.

## Types of permissions

Each Entity supports four types of permissions that can be assigned to a Principal:

* **Viewer** – Can access Readings, settings, and previously triggered Commands.
* **Contributor** – Can trigger Commands.
* **Administer** – Can manage certain settings.
* **Owner** – Can manage permissions and all settings.

## Inheritance

Individual Users and Clients may automatically inherit **Viewer** and **Contributor** permissions on an Entity, when they are an administrator of it's Tenant or part of a shared Collective.