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Manage permissions with command line tool

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Azure DevOps Services

Permissions grant access to perform a specific action on a specific resource as described in Get started with permissions, access, and security groups. You manage most permissions through the web portal. However, you can manage permissions using command line tools or the REST API.

Azure DevOps grants a number of permissions by default to members of default security groups. You can add and manage permissions at a more granular level with the az devops security permission commands. Use these commands to:

  • View the permissions associated with security namespaces
  • View details about those permissions
  • Update or reset permissions

Note

Namespaces and tokens are valid for all versions of Azure DevOps. Those listed here are valid for Azure DevOps 2019 and later versions. Namespaces are subject to change over time. To get the latest list of namespaces, exercise one of the command line tools or REST API. Some namespaces have been deprecated as listed in the Security namespace and permission reference, Deprecated and read-only namespaces..

Prerequisites

  • To manage tokens and namespaces, you must be a member of the Project Collection Administrators security group. For more information on tokens, see Security namespace and permission reference.
  • You must have installed the Azure DevOps CLI extension as described in Get started with Azure DevOps CLI.
  • Sign into Azure DevOps using az login.
  • For the examples in this article, set the default organization as follows:
    • For Azure DevOps Services: az devops configure --defaults organization=YourOrganizationURL.
    • For Azure DevOps Server: az devops configure --defaults organization=https://ServerName/CollectionName

Security permission commands

Enter the following command to list all available commands.

az devops security permission -h

For more information on concepts related to security permissions, see the Security REST API documentation

Command Description
az devops security permission list List tokens for specified user or group and namespace.
az devops security permission namespace list List all available namespaces for an organization.
az devops security permission namespace show Show details of permissions available in each namespace.
az devops security permission reset Reset permission for specified permission bit(s).
az devops security permission reset-all Clear all permissions of this token for a user or group.
az devops security permission show Show permissions for specified token, namespace and user or group.
az devops security permission update Assign allow or deny permission to specified user or group.

The following parameters are optional for all commands, and not listed in the examples provided in this article.

  • detect: Automatically detect organization. Accepted values: false, true. Default is true.
  • org: Azure DevOps organization URL. You can configure the default organization using az devops configure -d organization=ORG_URL. Required if not configured as default or picked up via git config. Example: --org https://dev.azure.com/MyOrganizationName/.

List security namespaces

You can list all available namespaces for an organization with the az devops security permission namespace list command. For a description of all security namespaces and associated tokens, see Security namespace and permission reference.

az devops security permission namespace list [--local-only]

Parameters

  • local-only: Optional. If true, retrieve only local security namespaces.

    Security namespaces may have their data mastered in one microservice, but still be visible in other microservices. If a security namespace's data is mastered in microservice X, it is said to be local to that microservice. Otherwise, it is said to be remote.

Enter az devops security permission namespace list to list the namespaces defined for your organization or on-premises server.

Note

Some namespaces listed are deprecated and should not be used. For a list of deprecated namespaces, see the Namespace reference, Deprecated and read-only namespaces.

az devops security permission namespace list --org https://dev.azure.com/OrganizationName --output table
 
Id                                    Name
------------------------------------  ------------------------------
c788c23e-1b46-4162-8f5e-d7585343b5de  ReleaseManagement
58450c49-b02d-465a-ab12-59ae512d6531  Analytics
d34d3680-dfe5-4cc6-a949-7d9c68f73cba  AnalyticsViews
62a7ad6b-8b8d-426b-ba10-76a7090e94d5  PipelineCachePrivileges
7c7d32f7-0e86-4cd6-892e-b35dbba870bd  ReleaseManagement
a6cc6381-a1ca-4b36-b3c1-4e65211e82b6  AuditLog
5a27515b-ccd7-42c9-84f1-54c998f03866  Identity
445d2788-c5fb-4132-bbef-09c4045ad93f  WorkItemTrackingAdministration
101eae8c-1709-47f9-b228-0e476c35b3ba  DistributedTask
71356614-aad7-4757-8f2c-0fb3bff6f680  WorkItemQueryFolders
2e9eb7ed-3c0a-47d4-87c1-0ffdd275fd87  Git Repositories
3c15a8b7-af1a-45c2-aa97-2cb97078332e  VersionControlItems2
2bf24a2b-70ba-43d3-ad97-3d9e1f75622f  EventSubscriber
5a6cd233-6615-414d-9393-48dbb252bd23  WorkItemTrackingProvision
49b48001-ca20-4adc-8111-5b60c903a50c  ServiceEndpoints
cb594ebe-87dd-4fc9-ac2c-6a10a4c92046  ServiceHooks
bc295513-b1a2-4663-8d1a-7017fd760d18  Chat
3e65f728-f8bc-4ecd-8764-7e378b19bfa7  Collection
cb4d56d2-e84b-457e-8845-81320a133fbb  Proxy
bed337f8-e5f3-4fb9-80da-81e17d06e7a8  Plan
2dab47f9-bd70-49ed-9bd5-8eb051e59c02  Process
11238e09-49f2-40c7-94d0-8f0307204ce4  AccountAdminSecurity
b7e84409-6553-448a-bbb2-af228e07cbeb  Library
83d4c2e6-e57d-4d6e-892b-b87222b7ad20  Environment
52d39943-cb85-4d7f-8fa8-c6baac873819  Project
58b176e7-3411-457a-89d0-c6d0ccb3c52b  EventSubscription
83e28ad4-2d72-4ceb-97b0-c7726d5502c3  CSS
9e4894c3-ff9a-4eac-8a85-ce11cafdc6f1  TeamLabSecurity
fc5b7b85-5d6b-41eb-8534-e128cb10eb67  ProjectAnalysisLanguageMetrics
bb50f182-8e5e-40b8-bc21-e8752a1e7ae2  Tagging
f6a4de49-dbe2-4704-86dc-f8ec1a294436  MetaTask
bf7bfa03-b2b7-47db-8113-fa2e002cc5b1  Iteration
fa557b48-b5bf-458a-bb2b-1b680426fe8b  Favorites
4ae0db5d-8437-4ee8-a18b-1f6fb38bd34c  Registry
c2ee56c9-e8fa-4cdd-9d48-2c44f697a58e  Graph
dc02bf3d-cd48-46c3-8a41-345094ecc94b  ViewActivityPaneSecurity
2a887f97-db68-4b7c-9ae3-5cebd7add999  Job
73e71c45-d483-40d5-bdba-62fd076f7f87  WorkItemTracking
4a9e8381-289a-4dfd-8460-69028eaa93b3  StrongBox
1f4179b3-6bac-4d01-b421-71ea09171400  Server
e06e1c24-e93d-4e4a-908a-7d951187b483  TestManagement
6ec4592e-048c-434e-8e6c-8671753a8418  SettingEntries
302acaca-b667-436d-a946-87133492041c  BuildAdministration
2725d2bc-7520-4af4-b0e3-8d876494731f  Location
83abde3a-4593-424e-b45f-9898af99034d  UtilizationPermissions
c0e7a722-1cad-4ae6-b340-a8467501e7ce  WorkItemsHub
0582eb05-c896-449a-b933-aa3d99e121d6  WebPlatform
66312704-deb5-43f9-b51c-ab4ff5e351c3  VersionControlPrivileges
93bafc04-9075-403a-9367-b7164eac6b5c  Workspaces
093cbb02-722b-4ad6-9f88-bc452043fa63  CrossProjectWidgetView
35e35e8e-686d-4b01-aff6-c369d6e36ce0  WorkItemTrackingConfiguration
0d140cae-8ac1-4f48-b6d1-c93ce0301a12  Discussion Threads
5ab15bc8-4ea1-d0f3-8344-cab8fe976877  BoardsExternalIntegration
7ffa7cf4-317c-4fea-8f1d-cfda50cfa956  DataProvider
81c27cc8-7a9f-48ee-b63f-df1e1d0412dd  Social
9a82c708-bfbe-4f31-984c-e860c2196781  Security
a60e0d84-c2f8-48e4-9c0c-f32da48d5fd1  IdentityPicker
84cc1aa4-15bc-423d-90d9-f97c450fc729  ServicingOrchestration
33344d9c-fc72-4d6f-aba5-fa317101a7e9  Build
8adf73b7-389a-4276-b638-fe1653f7efc7  DashboardsPrivileges
a39371cf-0841-4c16-bbd3-276e341bc052  VersionControlItems

Example: List local security namespaces

The following command lists only the local security namespaces for your organization and shows the results in table format.

az devops security permission namespace list --local-only --output table

Id                                    Name
------------------------------------  ------------------------------
71356614-aad7-4757-8f2c-0fb3bff6f680  WorkItemQueryFolders
fa557b48-b5bf-458a-bb2b-1b680426fe8b  Favorites
4ae0db5d-8437-4ee8-a18b-1f6fb38bd34c  Registry
c2ee56c9-e8fa-4cdd-9d48-2c44f697a58e  Graph
dc02bf3d-cd48-46c3-8a41-345094ecc94b  ViewActivityPaneSecurity
2a887f97-db68-4b7c-9ae3-5cebd7add999  Job
73e71c45-d483-40d5-bdba-62fd076f7f87  WorkItemTracking
4a9e8381-289a-4dfd-8460-69028eaa93b3  StrongBox
1f4179b3-6bac-4d01-b421-71ea09171400  Server
e06e1c24-e93d-4e4a-908a-7d951187b483  TestManagement
6ec4592e-048c-434e-8e6c-8671753a8418  SettingEntries
302acaca-b667-436d-a946-87133492041c  BuildAdministration
2725d2bc-7520-4af4-b0e3-8d876494731f  Location
83abde3a-4593-424e-b45f-9898af99034d  UtilizationPermissions
c0e7a722-1cad-4ae6-b340-a8467501e7ce  WorkItemsHub
0582eb05-c896-449a-b933-aa3d99e121d6  WebPlatform
66312704-deb5-43f9-b51c-ab4ff5e351c3  VersionControlPrivileges
93bafc04-9075-403a-9367-b7164eac6b5c  Workspaces
093cbb02-722b-4ad6-9f88-bc452043fa63  CrossProjectWidgetView
35e35e8e-686d-4b01-aff6-c369d6e36ce0  WorkItemTrackingConfiguration
0d140cae-8ac1-4f48-b6d1-c93ce0301a12  Discussion Threads
5ab15bc8-4ea1-d0f3-8344-cab8fe976877  BoardsExternalIntegration
7ffa7cf4-317c-4fea-8f1d-cfda50cfa956  DataProvider
81c27cc8-7a9f-48ee-b63f-df1e1d0412dd  Social
9a82c708-bfbe-4f31-984c-e860c2196781  Security
a60e0d84-c2f8-48e4-9c0c-f32da48d5fd1  IdentityPicker
84cc1aa4-15bc-423d-90d9-f97c450fc729  ServicingOrchestration
33344d9c-fc72-4d6f-aba5-fa317101a7e9  Build
8adf73b7-389a-4276-b638-fe1653f7efc7  DashboardsPrivileges
445d2788-c5fb-4132-bbef-09c4045ad93f  WorkItemTrackingAdministration
101eae8c-1709-47f9-b228-0e476c35b3ba  DistributedTask
2e9eb7ed-3c0a-47d4-87c1-0ffdd275fd87  Git Repositories
a39371cf-0841-4c16-bbd3-276e341bc052  VersionControlItems
3c15a8b7-af1a-45c2-aa97-2cb97078332e  VersionControlItems2
2bf24a2b-70ba-43d3-ad97-3d9e1f75622f  EventSubscriber
5a6cd233-6615-414d-9393-48dbb252bd23  WorkItemTrackingProvision
49b48001-ca20-4adc-8111-5b60c903a50c  ServiceEndpoints
cb594ebe-87dd-4fc9-ac2c-6a10a4c92046  ServiceHooks
bc295513-b1a2-4663-8d1a-7017fd760d18  Chat
3e65f728-f8bc-4ecd-8764-7e378b19bfa7  Collection
cb4d56d2-e84b-457e-8845-81320a133fbb  Proxy
bed337f8-e5f3-4fb9-80da-81e17d06e7a8  Plan
2dab47f9-bd70-49ed-9bd5-8eb051e59c02  Process
11238e09-49f2-40c7-94d0-8f0307204ce4  AccountAdminSecurity
b7e84409-6553-448a-bbb2-af228e07cbeb  Library
83d4c2e6-e57d-4d6e-892b-b87222b7ad20  Environment
52d39943-cb85-4d7f-8fa8-c6baac873819  Project
58b176e7-3411-457a-89d0-c6d0ccb3c52b  EventSubscription
83e28ad4-2d72-4ceb-97b0-c7726d5502c3  CSS
9e4894c3-ff9a-4eac-8a85-ce11cafdc6f1  TeamLabSecurity
fc5b7b85-5d6b-41eb-8534-e128cb10eb67  ProjectAnalysisLanguageMetrics
bb50f182-8e5e-40b8-bc21-e8752a1e7ae2  Tagging
f6a4de49-dbe2-4704-86dc-f8ec1a294436  MetaTask
bf7bfa03-b2b7-47db-8113-fa2e002cc5b1  Iteration

List tokens for a security namespace

You can list the tokens for a specified namespace and user or group with the az devops security permission list command.

az devops security permission list --id
                                   --subject
                                   [--recurse]
                                   [--token]

Parameters

  • subject: Required. The email address or group descriptor of the user.
  • recurse: Optional. If true, and the namespace is hierarchical, this parameter returns the child ACLs of the tokens.
  • token: Optional. Specify an individual security token.

Example

The following command lists the tokens in table format for the specified namespace, which corresponds to Analytics, and associated with the user contoso@contoso.com.

az devops security permission list --id 58450c49-b02d-465a-ab12-59ae512d6531 --subject contoso@contoso.com --output table

Token                                   Effective Allow    Effective Deny
--------------------------------------  -----------------  ----------------
$/0611925a-b287-4b0b-90a1-90f1a96e9f1f  0                  0
$/087572e2-5569-49ec-af80-d3caf22b446c  0                  0
$/131271e0-a6ad-49ba-837e-2d475ab2b169  0                  0
$/14c92f9d-9fff-48ec-8171-9d1106056ab3  0                  0
$/1965830d-5fc4-4412-8c71-a1c39c939a42  0                  0
$/4b80d122-a5ca-46ec-ba28-e03d37e53404  0                  0
$/4fa8e9de-e86b-4986-ac75-f421881a7664  0                  0
$/5417a1c3-4b04-44d1-aead-50774b9dbf5f  0                  0
$/56af920d-393b-4236-9a07-24439ccaa85c  0                  0
$/69265579-a1e0-4a30-a141-ac9e3bb82572  0                  0

Show namespace details

You can show details of permissions available in each namespace with the az devops security permission namespace show command.

az devops security permission namespace show --namespace-id <NAMESPACE_ID>

Parameters

  • id or namespace-id: Required. ID of security namespace.

Example

The following command shows details of the available permissions for the specified namespace ID and returns the results in table format.

az devops security permission namespace show --namespace-id 58450c49-b02d-465a-ab12-59ae512d6531 --output table

Name                      Permission Description                                    Permission Bit
------------------------  --------------------------------------------------------  ----------------
Read                      View analytics                                            1
Administer                Manage analytics permissions                              2
Stage                     Push the data to staging area                             4
ExecuteUnrestrictedQuery  Execute query without any restrictions on the query form  8
ReadEuii                  Read EUII data                                            16

Reset permissions

You can reset the permission bits for a specified user or group with the az devops security permission reset command.

az devops security permission reset --id
                                    --permission-bit
                                    --subject
                                    --token

Parameters

  • id or namespace-id: Required. ID of security namespace.
  • permission-bit: Required. Permission bit or addition of permission bits which needs to be reset for given user or group and token.
  • subject: Required. The email address or group descriptor of the user.
  • token: Required. Individual security token.

Example

The following command resets a token's permission bit 8 for the user contoso@contoso.com in the specified namespace and returns the results in table format.

az devops security permission reset --id 58450c49-b02d-465a-ab12-59ae512d6531 --permission-bit 8 --subject contoso@contoso.com --token 0611925a-b287-4b0b-90a1-90f1a96e9f1f --output table

Name                      Bit    Permission Description                                    Permission Value
------------------------  -----  --------------------------------------------------------  ------------------
ExecuteUnrestrictedQuery  8      Execute query without any restrictions on the query form  Not set

Reset all permissions

You can clear all permissions of a token for a user or group with the az devops security permission reset-all command.

az devops security permission reset-all --id
                                        --subject
                                        --token
                                        [--yes]

Parameters

  • id or namespace-id: Required. ID of security namespace.
  • subject: Required. The email address or group descriptor of the user.
  • token: Required. Individual security token.
  • yes: Optional. Don't prompt for confirmation.

Example

The following command clears all permissions for the user contoso@contoso.com in the specified namespace without requiring confirmation. The result is shown in the CLI.

az devops security permission reset-all --id 58450c49-b02d-465a-ab12-59ae512d6531 --subject contoso@contoso.com --token 0611925a-b287-4b0b-90a1-90f1a96e9f1f --yes --output table

Result
--------
True

Show permissions

You can show the permissions for a specified token, namespace, and user or group with the az devops security permission show command.

az devops security permission show --id
                                   --subject
                                   --token

Parameters

  • id or namespace-id: Required. ID of security namespace.
  • subject: Required. The email address or group descriptor of the user.
  • token: Required. Individual security token.

Example

The following command shows a token's permission details for the user contoso@contoso.com in the specified namespace and returns the results in table format.

az devops security permission show --id 58450c49-b02d-465a-ab12-59ae512d6531 --subject contoso@contoso.com --token 0611925a-b287-4b0b-90a1-90f1a96e9f1f --output table

Name                      Bit    Permission Description                                    Permission Value
------------------------  -----  --------------------------------------------------------  ------------------
Read                      1      View analytics                                            Not set
Administer                2      Manage analytics permissions                              Allow
Stage                     4      Push the data to staging area                             Not set
ExecuteUnrestrictedQuery  8      Execute query without any restrictions on the query form  Not set
ReadEuii                  16     Read EUII data                                            Deny

Update permissions

You can assign allow or deny permissions to a specified user or group with the az devops security permission update command.

az devops security permission update --id
                                     --subject
                                     --token
                                     [--allow-bit]
                                     [--deny-bit]
                                     [--merge {false, true}]

Parameters

  • id or namespace-id: Required. ID of security namespace.
  • subject: Required. The email address or group descriptor of the user.
  • token: Required. Individual security token.
  • allow-bit: Optional. Allow bit or addition of bits. Required if --deny-bit is missing.
  • deny-bit: Optional. Deny bit or addition of bits. Required if --allow-bit is missing.
  • merge: Optional. If set, the existing access control entry (ACE) has its allow and deny merged with the incoming ACE's allow and deny. If unset, the existing ACE is displaced. The accepted values are false or true.

Example

The following command updates the permissions for ExecuteUnrestrictedQuery (bit 8) for the user contoso@contoso.com in the specified namespace, and shows the results in table format.

az devops security permission update --allow-bit 8 --id 58450c49-b02d-465a-ab12-59ae512d6531 --subject contoso@contoso.com --token 56af920d-393b-4236-9a07-24439ccaa85c --output table

Name                      Bit    Permission Description                                    Permission Value
------------------------  -----  --------------------------------------------------------  ------------------
ExecuteUnrestrictedQuery  8      Execute query without any restrictions on the query form  Allow

Security namespaces and their IDs

See Security namespace and permission reference for Azure DevOps.