Manage roles

Roles can be created and managed using a set of Cypher administration commands executed against the system database.

When connected to the DBMS over bolt, administration commands are automatically routed to the system database.

Role management command syntax

For more details about the syntax descriptions, see Cypher syntax for administration commands.

Command

SHOW ROLES

Syntax

SHOW [ALL|POPULATED] ROLE[S]
  [YIELD { * | field[, ...] } [ORDER BY field[, ...]] [SKIP n] [LIMIT n]]
  [WHERE expression]
  [RETURN field[, ...] [ORDER BY field[, ...]] [SKIP n] [LIMIT n]]

Description

Lists roles.

When using the RETURN clause, the YIELD clause is mandatory and must not be omitted.

For more information, see Listing roles.

Required privilege

GRANT SHOW ROLE

See DBMS ROLE MANAGEMENT privileges.

Command

SHOW ROLES WITH USERS

Syntax

SHOW [ALL|POPULATED] ROLE[S] WITH USER[S]
  [YIELD { * | field[, ...] } [ORDER BY field[, ...]] [SKIP n] [LIMIT n]]
  [WHERE expression]
  [RETURN field[, ...] [ORDER BY field[, ...]] [SKIP n] [LIMIT n]]

Description

Lists roles and users assigned to them.

When using the RETURN clause, the YIELD clause is mandatory and must not be omitted.

For more information, see Listing roles.

Required privilege

GRANT SHOW ROLE

For more information, see DBMS ROLE MANAGEMENT privileges.

GRANT SHOW USER

For more information, see DBMS USER MANAGEMENT privileges.

Command

SHOW ROLE PRIVILEGES

Syntax

SHOW ROLE[S] name[, ...] PRIVILEGE[S] [AS [REVOKE] COMMAND[S]]
  [YIELD { * | field[, ...] } [ORDER BY field[, ...]] [SKIP n] [LIMIT n]]
  [WHERE expression]
  [RETURN field[, ...] [ORDER BY field[, ...]] [SKIP n] [LIMIT n]]

Description

Lists the privileges granted to the specified roles.

When using the RETURN clause, the YIELD clause is mandatory and must not be omitted.

The SHOW ROLE name PRIVILEGES command is described in Listing privileges.

Required privilege

GRANT SHOW PRIVILEGE

See DBMS PRIVILEGE MANAGEMENT privileges.

Command

CREATE [IMMUTABLE] ROLE

Syntax

CREATE ROLE name [IF NOT EXISTS] [AS COPY OF otherName]

Description

Creates a new role.

For more information, see Creating roles.

Required privilege

GRANT CREATE ROLE

For more information, see DBMS ROLE MANAGEMENT privileges.

Command

CREATE OR REPLACE ROLE

Syntax

CREATE OR REPLACE ROLE name [AS COPY OF otherName]

Description

Creates a new role, or if a role with the same name exists, replace it.

For more information, see Creating roles.

Required privilege

GRANT CREATE ROLE

GRANT DROP ROLE

For more information, see DBMS ROLE MANAGEMENT privileges.

Command

RENAME ROLE

Syntax

RENAME ROLE name [IF EXISTS] TO otherName

Description

Changes the name of a role.

For more information, see Renaming roles.

Required privilege

GRANT RENAME ROLE

For more information, see DBMS ROLE MANAGEMENT privileges.

Command

DROP ROLE

Syntax

DROP ROLE name [IF EXISTS]

Description

Removes a role.

For more information, see Deleting roles.

Required privilege

GRANT DROP ROLE

For more information, see DBMS ROLE MANAGEMENT privileges.

Command

GRANT ROLE TO

Syntax

GRANT ROLE[S] name[, ...] TO user[, ...]

Description

Assigns roles to users.

For more information, see Assigning roles to users.

Required privilege

GRANT ASSIGN ROLE

For more information, see DBMS ROLE MANAGEMENT privileges.

Command

REVOKE ROLE

Syntax

REVOKE ROLE[S] name[, ...] FROM user[, ...]

Description

Removes roles from users.

For more information, see Revoking roles from users.

Required privilege

GRANT REMOVE ROLE

For more information, see DBMS ROLE MANAGEMENT privileges.

Listing roles

You can view all available roles using the Cypher command SHOW ROLES, which returns a single column by default. Starting from 5.26, you can optionally use SHOW ROLES YIELD * to see if the role is immutable. See Immutable roles for more information.

Table 1. `SHOW ROLES` output
Column	Description	Type
role	Role name	`STRING`
immutable	`true` if the role is immutable, otherwise `false`.	`BOOLEAN`

Example 1. List all roles

SHOW ROLES

This is the same command as SHOW ALL ROLES.

Table 2. Result
role
`"PUBLIC"`
`"admin"`
`"architect"`
`"editor"`
`"publisher"`
`"reader"`
Rows: 6

When first starting a Neo4j DBMS, there are a number of built-in roles:

PUBLIC - a role that all users have granted. By default it gives access to the home database and to execute privileges for procedures and functions.
reader - can perform traverse and read operations in all databases except system.
editor - can perform traverse, read, and write operations in all databases except system, but cannot create new labels or relationship types.
publisher - can do the same as editor, but also create new labels and relationship types.
architect - can do the same as publisher as well as create and manage indexes and constraints.
admin - can do the same as all the above, as well as manage databases, aliases, users, roles, and privileges.

More information about the built-in roles and their privileges can be found in Built-in roles and privileges.

There are multiple versions of this command, the default being SHOW ALL ROLES. To only show roles that are assigned to users, the command is SHOW POPULATED ROLES. To see which users are assigned to which roles, WITH USERS can be added to the command. The command produces a row per role per user and yields the following column in addition to the one output by SHOW ROLES:

Table 3. `SHOW POPULATED ROLES WITH USERS` output
Column	Description	Type
member	User name	`STRING`

Since this gives a result with one row for each user, it shows up twice if a role is assigned to two users.

Example 2. Show roles with users

SHOW POPULATED ROLES WITH USERS

The table of results will show information about the role and what database it belongs to:

Table 4. Result
role	member
`"PUBLIC"`	`"neo4j"`
`"PUBLIC"`	`"bob"`
`"PUBLIC"`	`"user1"`
`"PUBLIC"`	`"user2"`
`"PUBLIC"`	`"user3"`
`"admin"`	`"neo4j"`
Rows: 6

It is also possible to filter and sort the results by using YIELD, ORDER BY and WHERE.

Example 3. Show roles with ordering and filtering

SHOW ROLES YIELD role
ORDER BY role
WHERE role ENDS WITH 'r'

In this example:

The results have been filtered to only return the roles ending in 'r'.
The results are ordered by the action column using ORDER BY.

It is also possible to use SKIP and LIMIT to paginate the results.

Table 5. Result
role
`"editor"`
`"publisher"`
`"reader"`
Rows: 3

Creating roles

Roles can be created using CREATE [IMMUTABLE] ROLE:

CREATE [IMMUTABLE] ROLE name [IF NOT EXISTS] [AS COPY OF otherName]

Roles can be created or replaced by using CREATE OR REPLACE [IMMUTABLE] ROLE:

CREATE OR REPLACE [IMMUTABLE] ROLE name [AS COPY OF otherName]

The following naming rules apply:

The first character must be an ASCII alphabetic character.
Subsequent characters can be ASCII alphabetic, numeric characters, and underscore.
Role names are case sensitive.

A role can be copied, keeping its privileges, using CREATE [IMMUTABLE] ROLE name AS COPY OF otherName.

Example 4. Copy a role

CREATE ROLE mysecondrole AS COPY OF myrole

Created roles will appear on the list provided by SHOW ROLES.

Example 5. List roles

SHOW ROLES

Table 6. Result
role
`"PUBLIC"`
`"admin"`
`"architect"`
`"editor"`
`"myrole"`
`"mysecondrole"`
`"publisher"`
`"reader"`
Rows: 8

The CREATE ROLE command is optionally idempotent, with the default behavior to throw an exception if the role already exists. Adding IF NOT EXISTS to the CREATE ROLE command will ensure that no exception is thrown and nothing happens should the role already exist.

Example 6. Create role if not exists

CREATE ROLE myrole IF NOT EXISTS

The CREATE OR REPLACE ROLE command will result in any existing role being deleted and a new one created.

Example 7. Create or replace role

CREATE OR REPLACE ROLE myrole

This is equivalent to running DROP ROLE myrole IF EXISTS followed by CREATE ROLE myrole.

The CREATE OR REPLACE ROLE command does not allow you to use the IF NOT EXISTS.

Immutable roles

Immutable roles are those that cannot be modified in the usual way. This means they cannot be created, renamed, dropped, or have privileges granted to or revoked from them under normal operating conditions. See Immutable roles and privileges for details of when and how the IMMUTABLE keyword may be used.

They are useful in cases where you need a permanent built-in system role that cannot be modified even by users who have ROLE MANAGEMENT privileges but yet can be granted to and revoked from users in the same way as an ordinary role.

Renaming roles

Roles can be renamed using RENAME ROLE command:

RENAME ROLE mysecondrole TO mythirdrole

SHOW ROLES

Table 7. Result
role
`"PUBLIC"`
`"admin"`
`"architect"`
`"editor"`
`"myrole"`
`"mythirdrole"`
`"publisher"`
`"reader"`
Rows: 8

The RENAME ROLE command is only available when using native authentication and authorization.

Assigning roles to users

Users can be given access rights by assigning them roles using GRANT ROLE:

GRANT ROLE myrole TO bob

The roles assigned to each user can be seen on the list provided by SHOW USERS:

SHOW USERS

Table 8. Result
user	roles	passwordChangeRequired	suspended	home
`"bob"`	`["myrole","PUBLIC"]`	`false`	`false`	`<null>`
`"neo4j"`	`["admin","PUBLIC"]`	`true`	`false`	`<null>`
`"user1"`	`["PUBLIC"]`	`true`	`false`	`<null>`
`"user2"`	`["PUBLIC"]`	`true`	`false`	`<null>`
`"user3"`	`["PUBLIC"]`	`true`	`false`	`<null>`
Rows: 5

It is possible to assign multiple roles to multiple users in one command:

GRANT ROLES role1, role2 TO user1, user2, user3

SHOW USERS

Table 9. Result
user	roles	passwordChangeRequired	suspended	home
`"bob"`	`["myrole","PUBLIC"]`	`false`	`false`	`<null>`
`"neo4j"`	`["admin","PUBLIC"]`	`true`	`false`	`<null>`
`"user1"`	`["role1","role2","PUBLIC"]`	`true`	`false`	`<null>`
`"user2"`	`["role1","role2","PUBLIC"]`	`true`	`false`	`<null>`
`"user3"`	`["role1","role2","PUBLIC"]`	`true`	`false`	`<null>`
Rows: 5

Common errors, such as attempts to grant roles to users who have already been granted those roles, will lead to notifications. Some of these notifications may be replaced with errors in a future major version of Neo4j. See Status Codes → Notification codes for details on notifications.

Revoking roles from users

Users can lose access rights by revoking their role using REVOKE ROLE:

REVOKE ROLE myrole FROM bob

The roles revoked from users can no longer be seen on the list provided by SHOW USERS:

SHOW USERS

Table 10. Result
user	roles	passwordChangeRequired	suspended	home
`"bob"`	`["PUBLIC"]`	`false`	`false`	`<null>`
`"neo4j"`	`["admin","PUBLIC"]`	`true`	`false`	`<null>`
`"user1"`	`["role1","role2","PUBLIC"]`	`true`	`false`	`<null>`
`"user2"`	`["role1","role2","PUBLIC"]`	`true`	`false`	`<null>`
`"user3"`	`["role1","role2","PUBLIC"]`	`true`	`false`	`<null>`
Rows: 5

It is possible to revoke multiple roles from multiple users in one command:

REVOKE ROLES role1, role2 FROM user1, user2, user3

Common errors, such as misspellings or attempts to revoke roles from users who have not been granted those roles, will lead to notifications. Some of these notifications may be replaced with errors in a future major version of Neo4j. See Status Codes → Notification codes for details on notifications.

Deleting roles

Roles can be deleted using DROP ROLE command:

DROP ROLE mythirdrole

When a role has been deleted, it will no longer appear on the list provided by SHOW ROLES:

SHOW ROLES

Table 11. Result
role
`"PUBLIC"`
`"admin"`
`"architect"`
`"editor"`
`"myrole"`
`"publisher"`
`"reader"`
Rows: 8

This command is optionally idempotent, with the default behavior to throw an exception if the role does not exist. Adding IF EXISTS to the command will ensure that no exception is thrown and nothing happens should the role not exist:

DROP ROLE mythirdrole IF EXISTS