Roles

Roles define a set of permissions within a specific namespace. They specify what actions can be performed on which resources.

Overview

The Roles view displays all roles across your namespaces with the following information:

Column	Description
Name	The role identifier
Namespace	The namespace where the role is defined
Rules	Number of permission rules in the role
Permissions	Resources and actions the role grants access to
Age	When the role was created
Actions	Edit or delete the role

Features

Filtering by Namespace

Use the All Namespaces dropdown to filter roles by a specific namespace. This helps you focus on roles relevant to your current work.

Search

Use the search bar to quickly find roles by name.

Create Role

Click + Create Role to define a new role with custom permissions.

Creating a Role

When creating a role, you’ll specify:

Name - A unique identifier for the role
Namespace - Where the role will be created
Rules - Permission rules that define:
- API Groups - The API group containing the resources (e.g., "" for core, apps, batch)
- Resources - What resources to grant access to (e.g., pods, services, deployments)
- Verbs - What actions are allowed (e.g., get, list, create, update, delete)

Example Role

A role that allows reading pods and services:

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: Role
metadata:
  name: pod-reader
  namespace: default
rules:
- apiGroups: [""]
  resources: ["pods", "services"]
  verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]

Common Use Cases

Read-only access - Allow viewing resources without modification
Developer access - Allow creating and managing deployments in specific namespaces
Operator access - Allow managing specific custom resources

Overview Cluster Roles