What are AI permissions?
Permissions are the specific actions and files an app or agent is allowed to use. They are granted by an admin, often through OAuth scopes or a role.
Also called: access control
In plain English
Read mail is not send mail. See this folder is not see the whole drive. Meta says Muse asks before certain actions and lets you allow once, always, or never. That pattern is the one to copy even in tools that do not phrase it as kindly: start narrow. Write the permission in a sentence a dispatcher could read: 'This connection may read the job calendar. It may not see key codes or send texts.' If you cannot write that sentence, you do not understand the click you are about to make. Use a separate login for the automation so turning it off does not lock a person out. Review connections when you review payroll. Both are lists of who can still act in the company's name. Remove the ones you cannot explain in one breath. Prune the mystery ones at payroll.
How an owner would use it
Write the permission on a sticky note before you click allow. If the vendor asks for more than the job needs, stop and find a smaller scope or a different tool.
Common mistakes
Granting a company-wide admin scope because the smaller scope was confusing is how an assistant sees HR. Access control is the same topic. Read versus send is the line that matters. Do not reuse one person's login for the agent. Do not leave a contractor's connection up after the project. If the allow screen lists actions you cannot explain, cancel and ask the vendor what each line does before you continue.
A worked example
A locksmith
The assistant can see the schedule, not the keys
This is an illustration, not a customer result. The owner connects the assistant to the job calendar so it can draft a 'we are on the way' text. The connection is read-only on that calendar. It cannot open the key-code notes or send the text. The dispatcher still hits send.
Related terms
Prompts and guides
Questions owners ask
What are permissions for an AI tool?
Permissions are the access you grant: which account, which files, and which actions, such as read versus send.
How do I set permissions?
Grant the smallest access that does the job, on a company account, and remove it when the person or the project ends.
What is least privilege?
It means giving only the access the job needs, and nothing nearby. For an agent, that is one folder and read access, not the whole drive and a send button. It is a permission habit, not a separate product.
Product guides are on AI apps for business.