# Roles

Lenses IAM is built around Roles. Roles contain policies and each policy defines a set of actions a user is allow to take.

Roles are then assigned to groups.

## Role Policies

The Lenses policies are resource based. They are YAML based documents attached to a resource.

Each policy has:

1. Action
2. Resource
3. Effect

{% hint style="warning" %}
The resource is the **name** of the resource. This is defined by the creator of the resource.
{% endhint %}

### Action

The action describes the action or verb that a user can perform. The format of the action is

```
[entity type]:action
```

For example to list topics in Kafka

```yaml
policy
  - action:
    - kafka:ListTopics
```

{% hint style="info" %}
For a full list of the actions see [Permission Reference](https://github.com/lensesio-dev/docs/blob/release/6.0/user-guide/identity-and-access-management/permission-reference.md).

To allow all actions set '**\*'**
{% endhint %}

### Resource

To restrict access to resources, for example, only list topics being with ***red*** we can used use the **resource** field.

{% hint style="info" %}
For a full list of the actions see [Permission Reference](/latest/devx/6.0/user-guide/iam/iam-reference.md).

To allow all actions set '**\*'**
{% endhint %}

### Effect

Effect is either allow the action on the resource or deny. If allow is not set the action will be denied and if any policy for a resource has a deny effect it takes precedence.

## Create a Role

To Create Service Account go to **IAM->Roles->New Role.**

<figure><img src="/files/P3cSMtxiOnpI1qnqprUx" alt=""><figcaption><p>Create a roles &#x26; add permissions</p></figcaption></figure>

You can also manage Users via the CLI and YAML, for integration in your CI/CD pipelines.

{% code title="terminal" %}

```bash
➜  lenses roles
Manage Roles.

Usage:
  lenses roles [command]

Available Commands:
  create      Creates a new role.
  delete      Deletes a role.
  get         Returns a specific role.
  list        Returns all roles.
  metadata    Manages role metadata.
  update      Updates a role.
```

{% endcode %}


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