Administrators & Access Levels
An administrator is someone who manages your iCure backend in Cockpit — projects, users, processes, configuration. Administrators are different from the end users (HCPs, patients, devices) your application serves: admins work in the control plane, end users in the data plane.
Not every administrator has the same reach. Each one has an access level that decides what they can see and do. Cockpit exposes two:
| Environment Access | Project Access | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | the whole Environment | a single Project |
| Can do | manage environment data & settings, all projects and tenants, and the authentication (communication) processes | manage that project's settings, roles & permissions, and view its metrics |
| Can't do | — | view or manage environment data, the authentication processes, or any sensitive project actions (transfer / delete) |
When you register, you become the sole administrator with Environment Access over the Environment that registration creates (see Register & Log In). From there you can add more administrators.
The access badge
Your current access level is always visible: a coloured badge sits on your user button in the header. Its tooltip spells out four things — Administrator (your name), Access level, a Description of what that level allows, and the Restrictions that apply to it. It's the quickest way to confirm "what am I allowed to do right now," especially if your email has access to more than one place (see Switch Environment).
Adding administrators
You manage a project's administrators from its Administrators page. Click Add and provide the new admin's Name, Email, and optionally a Mobile phone — there's no access-level picker, because an administrator added from a project's page gets Project Access scoped to that project. You can also Import administrators in bulk from a spreadsheet (the same CSV/XLSX import used for users).
Environment-Access administrators can't be created from Cockpit. Adding admins in Cockpit only ever grants Project Access. To get another administrator with full Environment Access, you contact the iCure team — they grant it directly. (This mirrors how access to multiple Environments is granted; see Environment.)
Managing existing administrators
The Administrators table lists each admin's Name, Email, Phone number, and Account Status. From a row you can Edit their details, Disable or Activate the account, manage their authentication tokens, or Delete them. You cannot change an administrator's access level after creation — the level is fixed when the account is created (or granted by iCure).
What Project Access can't do
Several areas are Environment-Access only. A Project-Access admin still sees them, but they're read-only or blocked, with a clear message — "Only administrators with 'Environment Access' can view and manage this data. Please contact them to request changes…" (and on individual controls, "This action is restricted to administrators with 'Environment Access'."). These include:
- External services and the Spec ID (the Environment-level gateways and config);
- Operation tokens (used to transfer project ownership);
- Authentication processes — "Only administrators with 'Environment Access' can view and manage Processes." — at both project and tenant level;
- Transfer ownership and Delete a project (the project's Danger zone).
Everything else inside a project — its users, roles & permissions, custom properties, metrics — is open to a Project-Access admin for that project.
The last Environment-Access administrator
Because an Environment must always have someone who can manage it, Cockpit protects the last administrator with Environment Access. If you're that person and you try to delete your account (from Manage Account → Danger zone), Cockpit warns you:
This account is the last Administrator with Environment Access. Deleting this account will permanently remove the entire environment, including all projects, data and configurations.
It points you to two safe alternatives: Contact iCure to create another Environment-Access admin first, or use Transfer ownership to move your projects elsewhere before leaving. See Manage Account.
Where to go next
- Environment — the scope an Environment-Access admin controls.
- Project — the scope a Project-Access admin controls.
- Administrators — the practical how-to for adding, importing, and managing admins.
- Switch Environment — using one email across several environments and access levels.
Cardinal SDK reference: an administrator is a
User; what it can do comes from its roles.