Configure RBAC

Use roles for RBAC in Harness.

Role-based access control (RBAC) in Harness controls who can access your resources and what actions they can perform. This page walks you through the complete workflow to configure RBAC in your Harness account, from creating roles and resource groups to assigning them to users and user groups.

What you will learn in this topic

By the end of this topic, you will be able to:

• Set up the required permissions to configure RBAC in Harness.

• Follow the complete RBAC configuration workflow in the correct order.

• Create roles, resource groups, and user groups for different scenarios.

• Assign roles and resource groups to users, user groups, and service accounts.

• Use automated provisioning to import users and groups from your identity provider.

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Before you begin

Before you configure RBAC in Harness, ensure you have:

• Admin permissions: You must be an admin at the account, organization, or project scope where you want to configure RBAC. If your account is new, contact Harness Support to provision the first admin.

• RBAC knowledge: Familiarity with RBAC components (principals, roles, resource groups) and role binding.

• Harness hierarchy: Understanding of the account, organization, and project hierarchy and how scope affects permissions.

If you don't have admin permissions, you can still configure some aspects of RBAC with these granular permissions:

• Users: Requires View, Manage, and Invite permissions for Users

• User groups: Requires View and Manage permissions for User Groups

• Resource groups: Requires View, Create/Edit, and Delete permissions for Resource Groups

• Roles: Requires View, Create/Edit, and Delete permissions for Roles

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RBAC configuration workflow

Configuring RBAC in Harness requires creating roles (which grant permissions), resource groups (which grant access), and principals (users, user groups, or service accounts), then binding them together.

Complete RBAC workflow

To configure RBAC in Harness, you must:

1. Create roles.

2. Create resource groups and, optionally, apply ABAC.

3. Create user groups, create service accounts, and add users.

4. Assign roles and resource groups to users, user groups, and service accounts.

5. If you have not already done so, configure authentication.

AUTOMATED PROVISIONING

You can create users and user groups directly in Harness, and you can use automated provisioning, including:

• Okta SCIM

• Microsoft Entra ID SCIM

• OneLogin SCIM

• Just-in-time provisioning

With automated provisioning, users and user groups are imported from your IdP, and then you assign roles and resource groups to the imported principals in Harness. You manage group metadata, group membership, and user profiles in your IdP, and you manage role and resource group assignments in Harness.

You can also create users and user groups directly in Harness, but any users or groups imported from your IdP must be managed in your IdP. For imported users and group, you can only change their role and resource group assignments in Harness.

RBAC workflow examples

These examples walk through two specific RBAC configuration scenarios.

Example: Configure RBAC for account-level pipeline ownership

This example walks through an RBAC configuration that allows full control of pipelines and related resources (connectors, templates, and so on) across the entire account. This configuration uses a custom user group called Pipeline Owners, a custom role called Pipeline Admin, and a custom resource group called All Pipeline Resources.

The All Pipeline Resources resource group exists at the account scope and allows access to pipelines, secrets, connectors, delegates, environments, templates, and variables at the account level and in all organizations and projects under the account.

The Pipeline Admin role has the following permissions:

• Pipelines: View, create/edit, delete, and execute

• Secrets: View, create/edit, and access

• Connectors: View, create/edit, delete, and access

• Delegates: View and create/edit

• Environments: View, create/edit, and access

• Templates: View, create/edit, and access

• Variables: View and create/edit

Create the Pipeline Admin role

1. In Harness, select Account Settings, and then select Access Control.

2. Select Roles in the header, and then select New Role.

3. For Name, enter Pipeline Admin. Description and Tags are optional.

4. Select Save.

5. Select the following permissions:

   • For Pipelines, select View, Create/Edit, Delete, and Execute.

   • For Environments, select View, Create/Edit, and Access.

   • Under Shared Resources, select the following:

     • For Templates, select View, Create/Edit, and Access.

     • For Secrets, select View, Create/Edit, and Access.

     • For Connectors, select View, Create/Edit, Delete, and Access.

     • For Variables, select View and Create/Edit.

     • For Delegates, select View and Create/Edit.

   • Under Policies, select the following:

     • For Governance Policies, select View, Edit, Create and Delete.

     • For Governance Policy Sets, select View, Edit, Create and Delete.

     The video below gives an overview of Policies RBAC in Harness.

6. Select Apply Changes.

For more information about roles and permissions, go to Manage roles and the Permissions reference.

Create the custom resource group

1. In Harness, select Account Settings, and then select Access Control.

2. Select Resource Groups in the header, and then select New Resource Group.

3. For Name, enter All Pipeline Resources. Description, Tags, and Color are optional.

4. Select Save.

5. For Resource Scope, select All (including all Organizations and Projects). This means the resource group grants access to the specified resources at the account level and in all organizations and projects under the account.

   
6. For Resources, select Specified, and then select the following resources:

   • Environments

   • Variables

   • Templates

   • Secrets

   • Delegates

   • Connectors

   • Pipelines

   
7. Select Save.

For more information about creating resource groups, go to Manage resource groups.

Create the Pipeline Owners user group

1. In Harness, select Account Settings, and then select Access Control.

2. Select User Groups in the header, and then select *New User Group.

3. For Name, enter Pipeline Owners. Description and Tags are optional.

4. In Add Users, select users to add to the group.

5. Select Save.

For more information about user groups and users, go to Manage user groups and Manage users.

AUTOMATED PROVISIONING

You can create user groups and users directly in Harness, and you can use automated provisioning, including:

• Okta SCIM

• Microsoft Entra ID SCIM

• OneLogin SCIM

• Just-in-time provisioning

When you use automated provisioning, users and user groups are imported from your IdP, and then you assign roles and resource groups to the imported principals in Harness. For imported users and groups, you manage group metadata, group membership, and user profiles in your IdP, and you manage their role and resource group assignments in Harness. You can also create users and user groups directly in Harness, but any users or groups imported from your IdP must be managed in your IdP.

For example, if you use Okta as your IdP, you could create a Pipeline Owners group in Okta and assign users to that group in Okta. When the Pipeline Owners group is first imported into Harness, the group and the group members are not associated with any roles or resource groups. You would create the pipeline admin role and create the custom resource group in Harness, and then assign roles and resource groups to the user group. The group members inherit permissions and access from the role and resource group that is assigned to the user group.

Assign the role and resource group to the user group

1. Harness, select Account Settings, and then select Access Control.

2. Select User Groups in the header, locate the Pipeline Owners group, and select Manage Roles.

3. Under Role Bindings, select Add.

4. For Role, select the Pipeline Admin role.

5. For Resource Groups, select the All Pipeline Resources group.

6. Select Apply.

For more information about assigning roles and resource groups, go to Role binding.

Example: Configure RBAC to run pipelines in a specific project

This example walks through an RBAC configuration that provides only the ability to run pipelines in a specific project. This configuration uses a custom user group called Project Pipeline Runners, custom role called Pipeline Runner, and a custom resource group called All Project Pipelines and Connectors.

Because pipelines involve multiple resources, such as connectors, secrets, and variables, the Pipeline Runner role requires the following permissions:

• Execute permission for pipelines.

• Access permission for any resource types used in pipelines.

The All Project Pipelines and Connectors resource group exists at the project scope, and it only includes pipelines and resources related to pipelines (such as connectors). This restricts access to these specific resources within a specific project only.

Create the Pipeline Runner role

1. In Harness, go to the project where you want to configure RBAC.

   To configure RBAC for a specific project, you must navigate to that project first.

2. Select Project Setup, and then select Access Control.

3. Select Roles in the header, and then select New Role.

4. For Name, enter Pipeline Runner. Description and Tags are optional.

5. Select Save.

6. Select the following permissions:

   • For Pipelines, select Execute.

   • Under Shared Resources, select Access for Connectors and any other shared resources relevant to your pipelines, such as Templates, Secrets, Variables, or Delegates.

7. Select Apply Changes.

For more information about roles and permissions, go to Manage Roles and the Permissions reference.

Create the project resource group

1. In the same Harness project where you created the Pipeline Runner role, select Project Setup, and then select Access Control.

2. Select Resource Groups in the header, and then select New Resource Group.

3. For Name, enter All Project Pipelines and Connectors. Description, Tags, and Color are optional.

4. Select Save.

5. For Resources, select Specified, and then select Pipelines, Connectors, and any other shared resources relevant to your pipelines.

   After selecting resources, you can customize access further by configuring specific access for each resource type. For example, you can limit access to specific pipelines or connectors only.

6. Select Save.

In this example, the Resource Scope is locked to Project only, which means the resource group can only access the selected resources within this project. If your pipelines use connectors or other resources at a higher scope, you would need to configure RBAC at the account or org scope and then refine access by project. Similarly, if you wanted to create a user group that could run any pipeline in an organization or account, you would need to create the role, resource group, and user group at the account scope (by navigating to Account Settings and then selecting Access Control). Note that some refinement options, such as selecting specific pipelines, aren't available at higher scopes.

For more information about creating resource groups, go to Manage resource groups.

Configure the user group

1. In the same Harness project where you created the Pipeline Runner role, select Project Setup, and then select Access Control.

2. Select User Groups in the header, and then select *New User Group.

3. For Name, enter Project Pipeline Runners. Description and Tags are optional.

4. In Add Users, select users to add to the group.

5. Select Save.

6. Next to the Project Pipeline Runners group, select Manage Roles

7. Under Role Bindings, select Add.

8. For Role, select the Pipeline Runner role.

9. For Resource Groups, select the All Project Pipelines and Connectors group.

10. Select Apply.

For more information about user groups, users, and role/resource group assignments, go to Manage user groups, Manage users, and Role binding.

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Next steps

After you configure RBAC in Harness, you can:

• Set up authentication to control how users sign in to Harness

• Use attribute-based access control (ABAC) to add conditional access based on user attributes

• Provision users and groups automatically from your identity provider using SCIM

• Review the Permissions reference for a complete list of available permissions

• Learn about resource types you can include in resource groups