Set object-level permissions

TFS 2018

As you manage security for your organization, you can set permissions at the organization/collection-level, project-level, and object-level. This article helps you go to the security dialogs for setting permissions at the object-level, as the user interface varies somewhat across Azure Devops. For more information, see Get started with permissions, access, and security groups.

The following items are considered objects:

• General: Dashboards, Analytic views, Wikis, and notifications
• Boards: Area Paths, Iteration Paths, Shared queries and query folders, and more
• Pipelines: Build and release pipelines, deployment groups, task groups, and more
• Repos: Git repositories and branches, TFVC folders or branches
• Artifacts: Artifacts and feeds

Work items, work item tags, Git repository tags, test plans, test suites, test cases, and other test artifacts aren't objects, but are subject to the security settings or permissions, typically set at the project level or for an area path.

To set most object-level permissions, you must be a member of the Project Administrators group, or granted explicit permission through the individual object security dialog. Any permissions granted to Project Administrators are also granted to members of the Project Collection Administrators group.

For more information, see Security concepts and Security tasks.

Open the permissions dialog for an object section

There are various ways to get to the Permissions dialog for an object. The simplest way is to start from the object, and then select More ... > Security.

Set permissions for Dashboards, Wikis, and Analytic views

You can set permissions at the project-level and organization/collection-level for some general items, such as creating, deleting, and renaming projects. The following table provides information about setting permissions at the object-level for Dashboards, Wiki, and Analytic views.

Set permissions for Boards objects

The following table provides information about setting permissions at the object-level for area and iteration paths, work items, and more.

Tips

For Team members by role, the following two roles are explained.

• Changed reviewers applies to any reviewer that's added or deleted, because of policies defined for the set of files. For example, a push to a pull request (PR) can introduce a change to File1.cs. If a policy says Person A needs to review changes to File1.cs, they're in the Changed reviewers role for that iteration of the PR.
• The Reset reviewers role is related to the “reset votes” policy. For example, the repo has configured the policy, “Reset votes on new pushes”. Person B, who was required on the PR, has already approved this PR. Because of the "reset votes policy", their vote gets reset. So, they're in the Reset reviewers role for that iteration.

Set permissions for Repos objects

The following table provides information about setting permissions at the object-level for repos, Git repos, Git branches, and TFVC repos.

Tips

• Branches inherit a subset of permissions from assignments made at the repository level. For more information about branch permissions and policies, see Set branch permissions and Improve code quality with branch policies
• Create a shared query folder for each team and provide permissions to create and edit queries under that folder to all members of the team.
• If you add a user to the Contributors group, they can add and modify work items. You can restrict user and group permissions based on the area path. For more information, see Set permissions and access for work tracking, Modify work items under an area path.

Set permissions for Pipelines objects

The following table provides information about setting permissions at the object-level for build pipelines, release pipelines, deployment groups, and more.

Set permissions for Artifacts objects

The following table provides information about setting permissions at the object-level for artifacts and feeds.

Set permissions for Test plans objects

• Test plans, test suites, test cases, and other test objects are managed similarly to work items. This is because they represent test-specific work item types, as discussed in Test objects and terms.
• You can manage test-level permissions through project-level settings or through Area Path object-level settings. For more information, see Set permissions and access for testing.

Set permissions for object notifications

Notifications can be set at the user, team, project, and organization/collection level. While there isn't a user interface for setting notification permissions, some permissions can be set through command line tools and the EventSubscription namespace. For more information, see Security namespace and permission reference.

Here are some additional tips for managing notifications.

• If you don't want to receive a notification for an event that you started, you can turn on the option, Skip initiator. For more information, see Exclude yourself from notification emails for events that you start.
• We don't support organization-wide notifications. As an alternative, you can provide an email distribution list that goes to your entire organization. Also, you can generate a banner with the az devops banner command that all users see when they sign in.

Related articles

• Change project-level permissions
• Change project collection-level permissions
• Download permissions report for a repository
• Manage permissions with command line tool
• Get started with permissions, access, and security groups
• Permissions lookup reference
• Manage teams and configure team tools
• Security and permission management tools