Ranks and permissions

The rank ladder, the five ways to hold a rank, immunity flags and overrides.

The ladder

Permissions.Ranks = {
    { Name = "Owner",     DisplayName = "Owner",      Level = 5, Color = "#EF233C", Flags = { … } },
    { Name = "HeadAdmin", DisplayName = "Head Admin", Level = 4, Color = "#9B59B6", Flags = { … } },
    { Name = "Admin",     DisplayName = "Admin",      Level = 3, Color = "#3498DB", Flags = { … } },
    { Name = "Mod",       DisplayName = "Mod",        Level = 2, Color = "#1ABC9C", Flags = {} },
    { Name = "VIP",       DisplayName = "VIP",        Level = 1, Color = "#F1C40F", Flags = {} },
    { Name = "NonAdmin",  DisplayName = "Non Admin",  Level = 0, Color = "#95A5A6", Flags = {} },
}

Field	Does
`Name`	What commands and config reference
`DisplayName`	What players see
`Level`	The ordering. Higher is more powerful
`Color`	The badge colour
`Flags`	Immunities, described below

Add and remove ranks freely. A command's permission is a rank name, and the check is "my level is at least that rank's level", so inserting a rank between two others works without touching a single command.

Who holds a rank

Permissions.Assignments = {
    Admin = {
        Players    = { 12345678 },
        Gamepasses = { 987654321 },
        Assets     = { 1122334455 },
        Groups     = { {5018901, 100} },
        Teams      = { "Staff" },
    },
}

Source	Matches when
`Players`	Their user id is in the list
`Gamepasses`	They own any pass in the list
`Assets`	They own any asset in the list
`Groups`	Their rank in the group matches
`Teams`	They are on one of the named teams

Any single match is enough. When several ranks match, the highest level wins.

Group ranks are matched exactly, not as a minimum

Groups = { {5018901, 100} } grants the rank to players who are exactly rank 100 in that group. Rank 101 does not match, and neither does 255.

This trips people up constantly, because most Roblox systems treat a group rank as a floor. List every rank number you want to grant:

Groups = { {5018901, 100}, {5018901, 150}, {5018901, 255} },

The special grants

Permissions.AutoRankOwner      = true
Permissions.FriendsRank        = nil
Permissions.VipServerOwnerRank = nil
Permissions.FreeAdminRank      = "NonAdmin"

Setting	Effect
`AutoRankOwner`	The game creator is Owner, checked before anything else
`FriendsRank`	The creator's friends hold this rank
`VipServerOwnerRank`	Whoever paid for a private server holds this rank inside it
`FreeAdminRank`	The floor rank every joining player gets

Set any of the last three to nil to disable it, or to a rank name to enable it.

FreeAdminRank is a floor, not a default

It is added to the match list for every player, so setting it to "Mod" gives moderator powers to everybody in the game. It ships as "NonAdmin", which is the harmless value.

"VIP" is the interesting one: it turns the VIP tier into a free-for-all baseline, which is only what you want if VIP commands are toys.

Immunity flags

Flags are defender-side. They are read on the target of an action, not the actor.

{ Name = "Owner", Level = 5, Flags = {
    Bannable = false, Kickable = false, Mutable = false,
    Jailable = false, Warnable = false,
} },

Flag	Blocks
`Bannable`	Bans and temp bans
`Kickable`	Kicks
`Mutable`	Mutes
`Jailable`	Jails
`Warnable`	Warnings
`Killable`	Kills
`Configurable`	Configuration changes

A missing flag means allowed. false means denied, and the denial is absolute: another Owner cannot ban an Owner either.

Only some flags are wired up

Bannable, Kickable, Mutable, Warnable and Jailable are checked by the moderation commands, and Configurable by four of the chat-tag commands.

Killable is listed in the config comment but nothing asks about it: the kill, damage, explosion and fling commands do not consult the flags at all. An Owner can be killed by a Mod.

Adding the check is one line in the command implementation, and the flag machinery is already generic enough to accept any name.

The shipped ladder reads as a sensible policy: Owners are untouchable, Head Admins can be jailed but not banned or kicked, Admins can be kicked and muted but not banned, and Mods and below have no protection at all.

Flags are the answer to the admin war problem

Two admins of equal rank banning each other is the classic failure of an open admin system. Setting Bannable = false on every staff rank ends it, and leaves the ban button working for the people it is meant for.

Extend the list freely: the check is generic, so a flag named for any action works as soon as a command asks about it.

Overrides

Two levels, both applied on top of the assignments.

Command	Does	Survives
`u!rank <player> <rank>`	Sets a rank for this server	Until the server restarts
`u!permrank <player> <rank>`	Sets a rank permanently	Saved to a DataStore
`u!unrank <player>`	Clears the runtime override
`u!unpermrank <player>`	Clears the saved override

All four are Owner-only. The saved override is stored in uxrAPS_PermRanks_v1 and loaded when the player joins.

An override beats every assignment, in both directions

It is checked before the assignment list, so it can promote somebody who matches nothing and demote somebody who matches Admin.

The exception is AutoRankOwner: the game creator is checked first and cannot be demoted by an override.

Page gating

Permissions.NavSeeRank      = "NonAdmin"
Permissions.CommandBarRank  = "VIP"
Permissions.LogsViewRank    = "Mod"
Permissions.PunishViewRank  = "Mod"
Permissions.PostMessageRank = "Mod"
Permissions.GlobalPostRank  = "Admin"

Setting	Controls
`NavSeeRank`	Whether the panel loads at all
`CommandBarRank`	The command bar popup
`LogsViewRank`	The Logs page
`PunishViewRank`	The punishment views
`PostMessageRank`	Posting a message to this server
`GlobalPostRank`	Posting across every server

NavSeeRank = "NonAdmin" means everybody's panel loads, which is why everybody sees the welcome toast. Raise it to "Mod" if you want the panel to be invisible to players.

Gating hides, the server decides

Each of these hides part of the interface, and every one of them is also enforced on the server when the request arrives. A player who bypasses the interface gets a refusal and a warning in the server log.

Where a rank is read

Place	Uses
The panel	Which pages and commands to show
The dispatcher	Whether the actor may run the command
Immunity checks	Whether the target may be acted on
The badge	The colour and display name next to a name

Permissions.luau is replicated, so a client can read the whole rank table including the user ids in it. That is fine for a rank list and worth knowing before you put anything else in that file.

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