System Administrator Permissions
The System Admin (Super Admin) role provides unrestricted, system-wide access to BuildNinja. This role is intended for platform owners, DevOps administrators, and operations teams responsible for maintaining the overall health, security, and configuration of the platform.
Unlike project and build configuration roles managed through Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), the System Admin role is global and applies across the entire platform.
By default, the System Admin role is assigned to the user who initially configures and logs in to BuildNinja as the root user. In addition, System Admin access can be manually granted or revoked for other users by existing System Admins.
To learn how to assign or remove System Admin privileges, see Grant or Revoke Administrator AccessAdministrator access grants users system-wide permissions to manage global settings such as users, agents, authentication, integrations, and licensing..
This approach ensures controlled administrative access while maintaining platform security and accountability.
System Admin users can perform administrative actions that affect the entire platform, including:
- User management and administrative privileges
- Security and authentication configuration
- Infrastructure and agent management
- Licensing and system-wide configuration
- Operational troubleshooting and maintenance
These permissions are not restricted by project boundaries or build configurations.
System Admin–Only Operations
The following operations are available only to System Admin users and are not controlled by project-level RBAC permissions:
| Category | Capability | Description |
|---|---|---|
| User Management | Approve or reject user registrations | Control whether new users can access the platform. |
| Grant or revoke System Admin access | Assign or remove system-wide administrative privileges for users. | |
| Block and unblock user accounts | Temporarily disable or restore user access. | |
| Reset user passwords | Force password resets when required. | |
| Agent Management | Authorize new agents | Approve agents before they connect to the server. |
| Enable or disable agents | Control whether agents can execute jobs. | |
| Refresh agent status | Sync agent connectivity and runtime status. | |
| Reset agents | Reinitialize agent configuration and state. | |
| Monitor agent availability | Track operational health. | |
| Security and Authentication | Configure and manage SSO | Manage identity providers and authentication integrations. |
| Manage SMTP configuration | Configure outbound email delivery. | |
| System Configuration | Manage mail templates | Customize system email templates. |
| Update and manage licenses | Apply and manage licensing. | |
| Configure global platform settings | Maintain platform-wide operational settings. |
Relationship to RBAC
System Admin permissions operate independently of project-level roles. Project and build configuration access is managed using RBAC. For managing user access within projects and build configurations, see Manage Project and Configuration Access (RBAC)BuildNinja provides Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) that allows you to control who can view, run, modify, and manage projects and build configurations..