Access controls
Access controls set who can read or edit files and folders in the context repository, for both workspace members and API keys.
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What are access controls in Qontext?
Access controls decide who can read, edit, or manage files and folders in the context repository. They apply to two kinds of actors, workspace members and API keys, and come in four levels: no access, can read, can edit, and full access, which adds the ability to manage access for others. Every file and folder carries its own access setting, layered on top of a workspace-wide default that applies unless someone overrides it lower in the tree.
Why access controls exist
A workspace role sets what someone can do across the workspace in general, not what they can reach inside one file or folder. Without a separate layer for that, anyone with edit rights on the workspace would have edit rights on every file in it, with no way to hand a teammate or a client access to a single folder without opening the whole repository. Access controls let an admin widen access on one part of the tree without touching the workspace-wide default, so a script or agent reaches exactly the files it needs and nothing else.
How do access controls work?
Access resolves as a chain: the workspace baseline set by a member's role, then the parent folder's setting, then the file or folder's own setting. Access can only get wider moving down the tree, never narrower, so a lower level can't revoke what a higher level already granted.
For users, a repository-wide default applies to every file and folder unless overridden in that item's own Access management section, where members get added with a permission level directly.
For API keys, an owner either lets the key inherit their own read and edit access automatically, or manages it independently per file and folder from the key's Access controls tab. Either way, a key can never reach full access, only read or edit. Combined with user permissions and groups, access controls keep the context repository safe to expose broadly.