Last updated August 20, 2026
This article explains how roles and permissions work together across Heroku teams, apps, and pipelines. Understanding these relationships helps you manage access securely and efficiently.
Heroku uses a layered approach to access control. Each team, app, and pipeline, has its own roles and permissions. If you use Heroku Enterprise, there’s an additional account layer that provides advanced permission controls.
Enterprise Account Permissions
If you’re part of a Heroku Enterprise account, you have access to advanced permission controls at the organization level. Use these permissions to manage access to apps, pipelines, and resources across your entire enterprise.
See Enterprise Accounts Permissions Summary for details.
Team Roles
Many users interact with Heroku through teams. Teams assign roles that define what you can do across all associated apps and resources:
- Admins: Full control over team settings, billing, and app management.
- Members: Can create and manage apps, but have limited team settings access.
- Viewer: Can view apps, pipelines, spaces, users, and resources.
- Collaborators: Invited to specific apps, not the whole team.
Learn more in Team Roles and Allowed Actions and Managing Heroku Team Roles and App Access.
App Permissions
Each app has its own set of permissions, which are based on your team role or collaborator status. App permissions control actions like deploying code, managing config vars, and viewing logs.
For details, see App Permissions and Managing App Permissions.
Pipeline Permissions
Pipelines group apps into stages (development, staging, production) for continuous delivery. Pipeline permissions are distinct from app permissions and focus on actions related to review apps and CI.
- Only pipeline owners (for personal accounts) or admins (for teams) can modify pipeline-level permissions.
- Permissions include
view,deploy,operate, andmanage, each granting specific capabilities.
For a full breakdown, see Pipelines: Permissions and Capabilities.
Pipeline permissions don’t override app permissions. You need the right app-level access to perform certain actions, even if you have pipeline permissions.
How Roles and Permissions Work Together
- Your team role sets your baseline access.
- App permissions can further restrict or expand what you can do within a specific app.
- Pipeline permissions control your ability to manage review apps, CI, and promotion flows within a pipeline.
- Enterprise account permissions (if applicable) provide additional controls for large organizations.
For example, a team member with operate permission on a pipeline can manage review apps, but can’t deploy to production unless they also have deploy access on the production app.