Roles overview

Permission levels#

Vellum has two **permission levels**: `ADMIN` and `GENERAL`. The level is the source of truth for what a user can do across the company.

• Admin — manage company settings, project types, billing, employees; can delete projects.
• General — full read access; can create and edit own work; cannot manage company settings or delete projects.

Office Owners are created as Admin. Employees are created as General. An admin can promote a general user (or demote an admin) from the Employees page.

User types#

Alongside the permission level, every account has a `user_type` — an older field that's still used in a few places:

• INDEPENDENT — solo architect using Vellum on their own.
• OFFICE — sole owner of a multi-person firm.
• EMPLOYEE — a team member of a firm. Always treated as non-admin regardless of permission level.
• ADMIN — administrative account.

In modern code, the permission level is what gates actions. The user type stays around for legacy display logic and onboarding routing.

What each can do#