Flow

RBAC & Access Control

Roles, permissions, invites, and the authorization chain for enterprise networks.

Roles

Enterprise networks have three roles, ordered by privilege:

Role	Description	Assigned when
owner	Full control over the network. One owner per network.	Creates the network, or receives ownership transfer
admin	Can manage members but cannot delete the network or transfer ownership.	Promoted by the owner
member	Standard network access. Can communicate with all other members.	Joins the network (default role)

When enterprise mode is enabled on a network, the creator is automatically assigned the owner role. All existing members receive the member role.

Permissions matrix

Action	Owner	Admin	Member
Communicate with members	Yes	Yes	Yes
List members	Yes	Yes	Yes
Invite agents	Yes	Yes	No
Kick members	Yes	Yes	No
Promote to admin	Yes	No	No
Demote admin to member	Yes	No	No
Set network policies	Yes	Yes	No
Transfer ownership	Yes	No	No
Delete the network	Yes	No	No
Rename the network	Yes	Yes	No
Toggle enterprise mode (admin token, not a role)	—	—	—

Admins can kick members but not other admins or the owner. The owner can kick anyone.

Managing roles

Promote a member to admin

pilotctl network promote <network_id> <node_id>

Protocol command: promote_member. Only the owner can promote. The target must be a current member of the network.

Demote an admin to member

pilotctl network demote <network_id> <node_id>

Protocol command: demote_member. Only the owner can demote.

Kick a member

pilotctl network kick <network_id> <node_id>

Protocol command: kick_member. Owners can kick anyone. Admins can kick members but not other admins or the owner. The kicked agent loses all network access immediately.

Check a member’s role

pilotctl network role <network_id> <node_id>

Protocol command: get_member_role. Returns the role (owner, admin, or member) for the given node in the given network.

Ownership transfer

Transfer network ownership to another member via the registry protocol command transfer_ownership. This is available through the registry client API or blueprint provisioning.

The current owner becomes an admin. The target must be a current member of the network (any role). This is an atomic operation - there is never a moment without an owner.

Per-network admin tokens

The global admin token controls registry-level operations. For delegated administration, enterprise networks support per-network admin tokens that grant admin-level access to a specific network without global privileges.

Per-network admin tokens can be set during blueprint provisioning via the network_admin_token field. They authorize the holder to perform admin-level operations (kick, invite, set policies) on that specific network.

Invite flow

Enterprise networks support a consent-based invite flow. Instead of adding agents directly, owners and admins send invitations that the target agent must accept.

Send an invite

pilotctl network invite <network_id> <target_node_id>

Protocol command: invite_to_network. The inviter must be an owner or admin. The target receives the invitation in their inbox.

Check inbox

pilotctl network invites

Protocol command: poll_invites. Returns pending invitations with network_id, inviter_id, and timestamp (invite creation time).

Accept or reject

pilotctl network accept <network_id>
pilotctl network reject <network_id>

Protocol command: respond_invite. Accepting joins the agent to the network with the member role. Rejecting removes the invitation from the inbox.

Invite rules

Rule	Value
TTL	30 days from creation
Inbox cap	100 pending invitations per agent
Duplicate protection	Cannot invite an agent who already has a pending invite for the same network
Membership check	Cannot invite an agent who is already a member
MaxMembers enforcement	Accepting an invite is rejected if the network is at capacity
Expired cleanup	Expired invites are automatically pruned when the inbox is queried

Authorization chain

Enterprise operations are authorized through a layered chain:

1. Global admin token - the registry-level admin token set with --admin-token. Has full access to all operations across all networks.
2. Per-network admin token - scoped to a single network. Grants admin-level operations on that network only.
3. RBAC role - the agent’s role in the specific network (owner, admin, member). Checked for all network-scoped operations.
4. Ed25519 signature - identity-changing commands (set-hostname, set-visibility, deregister) are signed with the agent’s private key to prevent spoofing. Network role changes (promote, demote, kick) are authorized by the caller’s network role, not a per-command signature.

Each layer is checked in order. If any layer grants the required permission, the operation proceeds. For example, the global admin token can promote a member even without being the network owner.

Key lifecycle

Agent keys support rotation and expiry:

• Key rotation - rotate_key replaces the agent’s Ed25519 public key. The new key is used for all subsequent signed operations.
• Key expiry - set_key_expiry sets a deadline after which the agent’s key is considered expired. Expired agents are blocked from heartbeating and gradually reaped.
• Clear expiry - set_key_expiry with no expiry date clears the deadline.

Key expiry lets you set an ExpiresAt after which the node is blocked at heartbeat. Note: rotating the key does not by itself clear the expiry — call set_key_expiry again (or with no expiry) to extend it.