Permissions

Control who can access channels and user metadata in your chat app. Define permission schemas to protect against unauthorized access.

Examples:

• Restrict channel/profile modifications to specific users
• Allow only admins to remove users from channels

Unreal Chat SDK limitations (client-side only):

• Channel membership restrictions (direct, group, public)
• Feature availability errors in public chats (typing indicator, invites, read receipts)

Use Access Manager for strict server-enforced access rules. We recommend Unreal SDK's Access Manager for server-side operations.

Required configuration

1. Enable Access Manager in the Admin Portal.
2. Initialize Unreal SDK:
   • Server: with Secret Key to administer permissions
3. Initialize Unreal Chat SDK:
   • Client: with Auth Key to authenticate users

See Moderation for examples.

Secret key security

Never expose Secret Key to clients. If compromised, generate a new one in the Admin Portal.

Use Access Manager

Available Unreal SDK methods:

• GrantToken() - Generate time-limited token with access control list
• RevokeToken() - Disable token and revoke permissions
• ParseToken() - Decode token to view permissions
• SetToken() - Update authentication token

Channel group limitation

Unreal Chat SDK doesn't support channel groups. Set permissions only for channels and users.

Resource permissions

Define operations users can perform on PubNub resources:

Resource type	Permissions
channels	read, write, get, manage, update, join, delete
uuids	get, update, delete

Read the Moderation documentation to learn how you can mute and ban users in your chat app and secure these restrictions with Access Manager.

Check for permissions

You can use the AccessManager->CanI() method to check if the current user has permissions for particular operations on a specific resource. For more information, refer to Token permissions.