Roles and permissions

One data core does not mean everyone sees everything. A superintendent, a controller, a subcontractor and an AI agent all work on the same records, but each should see and do only what their job requires. This page explains how permissions are being designed in os.construction.

Three questions every permission answers

Every permission decision comes down to three questions:

1. Who? A person, a group of people or an agent.
2. Where? The whole company, a set of projects, or a single project.
3. What? Which record types they can see, create, edit and approve, and whether financial fields are visible.

A super might be able to create daily logs and RFIs on their two projects, see the schedule and drawings, and never see job cost. A project manager might approve change orders up to a set value on their projects. A controller might see every job’s financials but not approve field records.

Starting roles

We are designing os.construction to start with roles that match how construction companies already work. You can adjust them.

Role	Typical access
Company admin	Users, roles, company settings, integrations
Executive	All projects, read access to everything, portfolio views and WIP
Project manager	Their projects: RFIs, submittals, COs, commitments, budget, cost-to-complete, billing drafts
Superintendent	Their projects: daily logs, photos, RFIs, punch, drawings. Limited or no financials
Project accountant	AP coding, commitment matching, billing, retainage on assigned projects
Controller / CFO	All financials, period close, WIP sign-off, GL
Outside collaborator	Subs, architects, owners: only records shared with their company

Approval limits

Many approvals depend on value, not just role. Common examples:

• A PM can approve commitment change orders up to an amount; above that, a project executive approves.
• AP invoices over the remaining commitment (like INV-4471 against PO-118 on the sample job) route to the PM, not straight to payment.
• Pay apps go to the PM for progress and to accounting for retainage and totals before release.

os.construction is designed to express these as approval rules tied to the record type, the project and the amount.

Outside companies

Subcontractors, suppliers, architects and owners often need to work in the same records: answering RFIs, submitting pay applications, uploading lien waivers and COIs. Outside users only see what is shared with their company. A subcontractor sees its own commitment, change orders, payment status and retainage held, not your budget or margin.

Agents have permissions too

AI agents are not superusers. Each agent works with a scoped set of permissions, like a role, limited to the records and projects it is deployed on. And separately from what an agent can read, no agent can post or send anything without a human approving it. The person who approves needs the permission to take that action themselves. An agent’s proposal does not let anyone skip their own approval limits.

See How agents work and Approvals and audit trail.

Everything is recorded

Every change to a record, by a person or an agent, is written to the record’s history: who, what, when and, for approvals, under which rule. Permission changes themselves are recorded too, so you can answer “who could see this job’s margin in March?” as well as “who changed it?”.

Single sign-on and security details

Security, hosting and identity details (such as single sign-on) are being shaped with the founding cohort. We will publish specifics when they are real, not before. If your company has specific requirements, tell us when you join or email hello@os.construction.