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Store and share knowledge · GUIDE 02

Zones and permissions

A zone is an area of company knowledge, such as Finance, Customers or Hiring. You choose who can open each area and whether they can view it, suggest a change or approve one.

SYSTEM MAP · 02 How the Mind checks access The Mind checks who is asking and what they want to do before it opens any company information.
Person or AI asks who and what they want
Check their access area and action
Show or change it only when allowed
Stop and record why protected information stays closed

01

What a zone is

Zones keep different parts of the company separate. Payroll can sit in Finance, interview notes in Hiring and account plans in Customers.

People see the zone names. They do not need to know where the files sit on the server.

02

One account for each user

Every team member signs in with their own account. Each AI tool and app gets its own access too.

This lets the Mind record who asked for information or tried to change it.

03

Choose what they can do

You can let someone view Finance without letting them edit it. Another person might be able to suggest a change but need an owner to approve it.

Saved access profiles make this easier. A Sales profile, for example, can give the whole sales team the same access to customer information.

04

When access is blocked

The Mind checks access before it searches or changes a file. If the user is not allowed, it stops.

It records what was requested and why it was blocked without showing the protected information.

NEXT GUIDE · 03 Multiplayer Give each team member their own account and access. →
Request a Mind

The founding cohort is small on purpose. Each Mind is brought up with its owner.

MENSARA.AI · ZONES AND PERMISSIONS · MACHINE SURFACE · TEXT/MARKDOWN

---
title: Zones and permissions
canonical_url: https://app.mensara.ai/how-it-works/zones-and-permissions
feature: zones-and-permissions
audience: llm-agent
last_verified: 2026-08-11
availability: available-now
signup_supported: false
interfaces:
  - portal
  - mcp
  - cli
---

# Zones and permissions

Defines zones, principals, verbs, access profiles, deterministic authorization, revocation, and refusal behavior.

## Concept model

- A zone is a stable, named access boundary over knowledge.
- A principal is a human, agent, app, or automation with its own identity.
- A grant authorizes named verbs in named zones; absence of a grant means denial.

## Capabilities

- List zones visible to the current identity.
- Grant and revoke explicit verbs through owner-controlled administration.
- Produce receipts for allowed and refused requests.

## Prerequisites

- A provisioned Mind and authenticated principal.
- At least one owner-created zone.
- An access profile or direct grant.

## Authorization

- Authorization is deterministic and happens before retrieval.
- Agents and apps cannot self-grant.
- Revocation applies to subsequent requests and credential rotation may be required.

## Connection or use flow

1. Authenticate the principal.
2. Resolve the requested resource to a zone.
3. Check the requested verb against effective grants.
4. Allow or hold the operation and emit a receipt.

## Refusals and recovery

- Unknown identity: stop and request owner-issued credentials.
- Missing zone or verb: return HELD; do not retry against adjacent zones.
- Revoked credential: discard it and ask the owner to issue a replacement if access is intended.

## Ownership and data boundaries

- Zone definitions and grants are controlled by the owner and delegated administrators.
- A caller cannot infer the existence or contents of zones it cannot list.
- Receipts may name the operation without copying protected content.

## Availability and limits

**Available now** Zone-based reads, writes, grants, revocation, and receipt-backed refusals are available on provisioned Minds.
- A grant must be created by an authorised human; an agent cannot enlarge its own access.
- Fine-grained team profiles continue to gain additional Portal controls.

## Signup and provisioning

`signup_supported: false`

A human owner provisions the Mind, defines initial zones, and issues each principal a scoped credential.

No autonomous signup or provisioning endpoint is documented because none is offered today. An agent must stop and involve the human owner.

## System diagram

```mermaid
flowchart LR
  A[Request: identity + action] --> B{Access gate}
  B -->|zone and verb granted| C[Allowed operation]
  B -->|missing or revoked grant| D[HELD: refusal receipt]
```

## Runnable example

```text
Request: search the customers zone for Acme renewal
Principal: agent:renewal-brief
Required grant: customers + search
Denied behavior: return HELD without customer content
```

## Related

- [Multiplayer](https://app.mensara.ai/how-it-works/multiplayer)
- [Portal, MCP and CLI](https://app.mensara.ai/how-it-works/portal-mcp-cli)
- [Changes, approvals and receipts](https://app.mensara.ai/how-it-works/changes-approvals-receipts)