boundary/website/content/docs/domain-model/roles.mdx

---
layout: docs
page_title: Role resource
description: >-
  Learn about using the role resource to group permissions which are then granted to any principal assigned to the role. Understand role attributes.
---

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> [!IMPORTANT]  
> **Documentation Update:** Product documentation previously located in `/website` has moved to the [`hashicorp/web-unified-docs`](https://github.com/hashicorp/web-unified-docs) repository, where all product documentation is now centralized. Please make contributions directly to `web-unified-docs`, since changes to `/website` in this repository will not appear on developer.hashicorp.com.
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# Roles

A role is a resource
that contains a collection of [permissions][]
which are granted to any principal assigned to the role.
[Users][], [groups][], and [managed groups][] are principals
which allows either to be assigned to a role.
A role can be defined within any [scope][].
A role can be assigned to principals from any scope.

## Attributes

A role has the following configurable attributes:

- `name` - (optional)
  If set, the `name` must be unique within the role's [project][].

- `description` - (optional)

## Referenced by

- [Group][]
- [Managed group][]
- [Project][]
- [User][]

[group]: /boundary/docs/domain-model/groups
[groups]: /boundary/docs/domain-model/groups
[managed group]: /boundary/docs/domain-model/managed-groups
[managed groups]: /boundary/docs/domain-model/managed-groups
[permissions]: /boundary/docs/rbac
[project]: /boundary/docs/domain-model/scopes#projects
[scope]: /boundary/docs/domain-model/scopes
[user]: /boundary/docs/domain-model/users
[users]: /boundary/docs/domain-model/users

## Service API docs

The following services are relevant to this resource:

- [Role service](/boundary/api-docs/role-service)

## Tutorial

Refer to the [Managed Roles and Permissions with HCP Boundary](/boundary/tutorials/hcp-administration/hcp-manage-roles) tutorial to learn how to create a role in Boundary.