Resource hierarchy
Resources are organized in a tree structure:Role inheritance
Within each resource type, roles inherit from more privileged to less privileged:How permissions flow
Organization to project
The Member role is unique—it grants organization membership without any inherited project access. Use it when you want to manually control access to each project.
Project to repository
Additionally, Artifact Store-specific roles provide scoped access:
These roles let you grant registry access without broader project permissions. A CI service account that only needs to push images can receive Artifact Store Editor without access to other project resources.
Artifact Store permissions
The Artifact Store adds a parallel set of roles that flow through the hierarchy specifically for registry access.At the organization level
At the project level
At the repository level
Combined inheritance
Permissions combine from all levels. A principal’s effective access is the union of:- Roles directly assigned on the repository
- Artifact Store roles on the parent project
- General roles on the parent project (which include Artifact Store access)
- Artifact Store roles on the parent organization
- General roles on the parent organization
Special principals
Repositories support two special principals for public access scenarios:
These principals can only be assigned the Viewer role, ensuring public repositories remain read-only.
Global administrators
Global administrators bypass the normal permission hierarchy. They have full access to:- Create and manage organizations
- Create and manage users
- Access all projects and repositories
- Modify any IAM settings
Common patterns
Centralized team with project isolation
Assign users as organization Members, then grant project-specific roles:- Team A: Artifact Store Editor on Project A
- Team B: Artifact Store Editor on Project B
Read-only access for stakeholders
Grant organization Viewer role to stakeholders who need to browse but not modify resources. They can view all projects and pull images but cannot push or change settings.CI/CD service accounts
Create service accounts per project with Artifact Store Editor role. This provides push access to all repositories in the project without granting broader permissions.Public image distribution
AddallUsers as Viewer on specific repositories intended for public consumption. Anyone can pull these images without authentication.