edx-rbac

3.0.0 verified Mon Apr 27 auth: no python

Library for managing role-based access control (RBAC) for Django applications, used within the Open edX ecosystem. Current version: 3.0.0 (2025). Release cadence: sporadic, with minor and patch releases every few months.

pip install edx-rbac

Common errors

error ImportError: cannot import name 'get_user_role_permissions' from 'edx_rbac' ↓

cause Incorrect import path from edx_rbac instead of edx_rbac.utils.

fix

Change import to: from edx_rbac.utils import get_user_role_permissions

error AttributeError: module 'edx_rbac' has no attribute 'RoleAssignment' ↓

cause Trying to import RoleAssignment from the package root instead of edx_rbac.models.

fix

Use: from edx_rbac.models import RoleAssignment

error TypeError: user_has_role() missing 1 required positional argument: 'role' ↓

cause Called user_has_role(user) without specifying role.

fix

Provide the role string: user_has_role(user, 'admin')

error django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: The RBAC_BACKEND setting is not configured. ↓

cause Missing required Django setting for RBAC.

fix

Add RBAC_BACKEND to settings, e.g.: RBAC_BACKEND = 'edx_rbac.backends.RoleBackend'

Warnings

breaking Version 3.0.0 drops Python 3.11 support. Upgrade to Python 3.12+. ↓

fix Upgrade Python to 3.12 or later, then pin edx-rbac>=3.0.0.

breaking Version 2.0.0 drops Python 3.8 support. ↓

fix Upgrade Python to 3.9+.

gotcha Do not import from edx_rbac.helpers; that module is deprecated and will be removed. Use edx_rbac.utils instead. ↓

fix Change imports to edx_rbac.utils.

gotcha The default RoleAssignment model requires a valid `context` field; using an empty string may cause unexpected behavior. ↓

fix Always provide a meaningful context when creating RoleAssignment objects.

Imports

RoleAssignment

from edx_rbac.models import RoleAssignment

user_has_role

from edx_rbac.utils import user_has_role

get_user_role_permissions

from edx_rbac.utils import get_user_role_permissions

Quickstart

Create a user, assign a role, and verify role existence.

from django.contrib.auth.models import User
from edx_rbac.models import RoleAssignment
from edx_rbac.utils import user_has_role

# Create a user and assign a role
user = User.objects.create_user('testuser', 'test@example.com', 'password')
RoleAssignment.objects.create(user=user, role='admin', context='default')

# Check if user has a role
has_role = user_has_role(user, 'admin')
print(f'User has admin role: {has_role}')