Create an operational-administrator role
/api/v1/admin-rolesCreates an active custom administrator role (is_system false) with the given scope (account or environment), which cannot be changed later. Duplicate keys in capabilities are removed. Every key must be a catalog capability that a role may carry (owner-only keys are refused) and must match the role's scope, otherwise the request answers 400. The name must be unique in the Account (409). Requires admin_governance.manage, and the creation is recorded in the audit log. An Account holds at most 50 administrator roles (409, admin_role.limit). An API key may only put in a role, or grant a role carrying, capabilities its own scopes cover; anything beyond answers 403 (admin_role.capability_beyond_key) naming them in error.data.capabilities. Two capabilities are beyond every key whatever it holds, because the person given one hands out authority without the key's bound: admin_governance.manage (any role) and api_keys.manage (a full-access Environment key). A developer's MCP client, when its approval names only some capabilities, is held to them the same way, and never hands out those two (403, admin_role.capability_beyond_mcp_grant).
Authentication
Authorization Option A JWT access token. Never send alongside X-API-Key: a request carrying both is refused.
X-API-Key Option B API key for management-tier access. Never send alongside an Authorization header: a request carrying both is refused.
admin_governance.manageAccountCreate administrator roles and grant them, carrying only capabilities this key's own scopes cover. A scoped API key must hold it as a scope; a full-access key holds every scope within its Environment except the named-only and account scopes; a developer's token needs the Console capability that covers it. A credential without it is refused with 403.
Request body
application/json
namestring Required Administrator role name
descriptionstring Optional Administrator role description
scopeenum Required How the role is granted. `account` roles apply account-wide and carry account-global capabilities (Console access, billing, who administers). `environment` roles are granted in one Environment, optionally narrowed to a hierarchy node, and carry the people work scoped to it. Immutable once created.
capabilitiesstring[] Required Capability keys the role grants. Every key must match the role's scope.
Responses
application/json
data *AdminRoleResponseDto
application/json
error *ApiErrorBodyDto
application/json
error *ApiErrorBodyDto
application/json
error *ApiErrorBodyDto
application/json
error *ApiErrorBodyDto
Errors
When the request can't be completed, the response body includes a stable error code you can branch on, and a correlation_id (also sent as the X-Correlation-Id header). Quote the correlation id when you contact support: it identifies the exact request in Canopy's logs. A request refused by an authorization check answers 403 with the code authorization.denied, and its data names the denial_reason and the permission checked.
authorization.deniedForbiddenThe credential does not hold the permission this operation checks: a scoped API key without the scope, a developer without the Console capability that covers it, or a permission granted somewhere other than the node the request targets. The error's data names the permission.
Add the permission named in the Authentication section to the key's scopes, or ask an account administrator to grant the covering capability, then retry. For a node-scoped operation, make sure the grant reaches the node you are acting on.
Returned object
curl -X POST "https://auth.canopy-io.com/api/v1/admin-roles" \ -H "X-API-Key: $CANOPY_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "name": "string", "description": "string", "scope": "account", "capabilities": [ "string" ] }'
{ "data": { "id": "string", "name": "string", "description": "string", "is_system": false, "system_key": "string", "is_active": false, "scope": "account", "capabilities": [ "string" ], "assignment_count": 0, "version": 0, "created_at": "2026-04-20T12:00:00.000Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-20T12:00:00.000Z" } }
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