Users

Users

Manage user accounts, authentication, and role assignments in Mantis.

Overview

User Model

Field	Type	Description
id	UUID	Unique identifier
email	String	Email address (unique platform-wide, case-insensitively)
username	String	Display username (unique platform-wide, case-insensitively)
password_hash	String	Argon2id hash (local auth only)
display_name	String	Optional display name
status	Enum	active, inactive, locked, pending_verification, pending_approval
email_verified	Boolean	Email verification status
tenant_id	UUID	Optional tenant scope
last_login_at	DateTime	Last successful login
created_at	DateTime	Account creation time
updated_at	DateTime	Last update time (nullable)

User Status

Status	Description
active	Account is active and can log in
inactive	Account is inactive (disabled by admin)
locked	Account is locked (too many failed logins)
pending_verification	Invited; waiting on the user to activate
pending_approval	Provisioned by an identity provider, awaiting approval

Only active can sign in.

API Operations

List Users

curl -X GET \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    "https://api.mantis.local/api/v1/admin/users?page=1&per_page=20"

Response:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "019b937d-4862-8e07-ac3a-1b8589d1b807",
      "email": "alice@example.com",
      "username": "alice",
      "display_name": "Alice Smith",
      "status": "active",
      "email_verified": true,
      "role_count": 2,
      "tenant_id": null,
      "last_login_at": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z",
      "created_at": "2024-01-01T08:00:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "total": 50,
    "page": 1,
    "per_page": 20,
    "total_pages": 3,
    "has_next": true,
    "has_prev": false
  }
}

Get User Details

curl -X GET \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    "https://api.mantis.local/api/v1/admin/users/$USER_ID"

Response includes roles, permissions, and external identities:

{
  "id": "019b937d-4862-8e07-ac3a-1b8589d1b807",
  "email": "alice@example.com",
  "username": "alice",
  "display_name": "Alice Smith",
  "status": "active",
  "email_verified": true,
  "roles": [
    {
      "id": "019b937d-4862-8e07-ac3a-1b8589d1b807",
      "name": "operator",
      "description": "Can manage deployments and targets",
      "is_system": true
    }
  ],
  "permissions": [
    "deployments:create",
    "deployments:read",
    "targets:create",
    "targets:read"
  ],
  "tenant_id": null,
  "tenant_name": null,
  "external_identities": [
    {
      "provider_id": "019b937d-4862-8def-4567-001122334455",
      "provider_name": "Okta",
      "external_username": "alice.smith",
      "external_email": "alice.smith@company.com",
      "last_login_at": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "last_login_at": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z",
  "created_at": "2024-01-01T08:00:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2024-01-10T14:00:00Z"
}

Create User

Creating a user sends an invitation. The account is created pending_verification with no usable password — the invitee sets their own through the emailed link, so an administrator never handles it. The request carries no password:

curl -X POST \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{
        "email": "bob@example.com",
        "username": "bob",
        "display_name": "Bob Jones",
        "tenant_id": null,
        "role_ids": ["019b937d-4862-84ae-9c2a-6ac230cc4c7e"]
    }' \
    "https://api.mantis.local/api/v1/admin/users"

The invitation needs a working platform mailer — see Platform email. Links expire after 7 days; POST /api/v1/admin/users/{id}/resend-invite issues a fresh one and invalidates the previous link.

Update User

curl -X PUT \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{
        "display_name": "Alice S.",
        "status": "active",
        "email_verified": true
    }' \
    "https://api.mantis.local/api/v1/admin/users/$USER_ID"

Delete User

curl -X DELETE \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    "https://api.mantis.local/api/v1/admin/users/$USER_ID"

Caution

Users cannot delete their own account. Another admin must perform this action.

Reset Password

curl -X POST \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{
        "new_password": "NewSecurePassword456!"
    }' \
    "https://api.mantis.local/api/v1/admin/users/$USER_ID/password"

An admin password reset is also the credential-containment action: it revokes the target user’s OAuth2 tokens, API keys and active sessions, not just the password. That is deliberate — an attacker holding a session or API key would otherwise keep access through a “lockout” reset — but it does mean resetting a password to help a user will break their running integrations.

Recovering an account locked out by 2FA

An account with a TOTP enrolment answers POST /auth/login with 200 and requires_2fa: true — no access token. If the authenticator is gone, no password reset recovers it: the second factor is checked after the password, so the account stays unreachable and any non-interactive caller (a deploy, a script) fails on the missing token rather than on a clear authentication error.

Clear the factor from the host, which needs database access rather than a login:

sudo -u mantis mantisctl user disable-two-factor --email admin@mantis.local

It is idempotent — an account with no enrolment reports zero. The user can enrol a new authenticator afterwards.

Deliberately separate from a password reset

reset-password does not clear a second factor. Resetting a password is a routine action and must not silently weaken an account’s protection; dropping MFA is a break-glass step you take knowingly.

Deploys never run this for you: your second factor is yours to keep. A deploy only authenticates when it has just recreated the database, and a freshly seeded admin has no enrolment — so an operator’s 2FA never blocks a converge.

Role Management

List User Roles

curl -X GET \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    "https://api.mantis.local/api/v1/admin/users/$USER_ID/roles"

Assign Roles

curl -X POST \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{
        "role_ids": ["019b937d-4862-8e07-ac3a-1b8589d1b807", "019b937d-4862-84ae-9c2a-6ac230cc4c7e"]
    }' \
    "https://api.mantis.local/api/v1/admin/users/$USER_ID/roles"

Remove Roles

curl -X POST \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{
        "role_ids": ["019b937d-4862-8e07-ac3a-1b8589d1b807"]
    }' \
    "https://api.mantis.local/api/v1/admin/users/$USER_ID/roles/remove"

User Provisioning

Local Users

An administrator invites the user; the user sets their own password:

SSO/OIDC Users

Users can be provisioned automatically on first SSO login, provided the identity provider is scoped to a tenant and has auto-provisioning enabled (auto_create_users). System-wide (global) identity providers do not auto-provision new users (SEC-OIDC-02); link the provider to a tenant to enable this:

Tenant Assignment

Assigning Users to Tenants

curl -X PUT \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{
        "tenant_id": "019b937d-4862-8387-9a86-df16bd76ca99"
    }' \
    "https://api.mantis.local/api/v1/admin/users/$USER_ID"

Removing Tenant Assignment

Set tenant_id to null to make user global:

curl -X PUT \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{
        "tenant_id": null
    }' \
    "https://api.mantis.local/api/v1/admin/users/$USER_ID"

Password Policy

Requirements

Password requirements are hardcoded and cannot be changed via configuration:

• Minimum 12 characters
• At least one uppercase letter
• At least one lowercase letter
• At least one digit
• At least one special character (!@#$%^&*()_+-=[]{}|;:,.<>?)

Password Storage

• Passwords hashed with Argon2id (library default parameters)
• Original passwords never stored
• Hash comparison for authentication

External Identities

Linked Accounts

Users can have multiple external identities:

Field	Description
provider_id	Identity provider reference
provider_name	Name of the identity provider
external_username	Username from external provider
external_email	Email from external provider
last_login_at	Last SSO login via this provider

Identity Linking

When a user logs in via SSO:

1. System checks for an existing external_identity match.
2. If found, updates last login and uses the linked user.
3. If not found, creation/linking is gated, not automatic:
   • Auto-provisioning a new user requires the IdP to be tenant-scoped (a system-wide / NULL-tenant provider cannot provision).
   • Linking to an existing user by email additionally requires the provider’s allow_email_linking = true and the ID token asserting a verified email; otherwise it fails closed with 403 Email is already associated with another account.

Unlink External Identity

Remove the link through the API, which also ends the account’s sessions; it needs users:update and is audited as user.external_identity_unlinked. It also revokes the roles the provider’s group mappings granted, in either role sync mode, which needs roles:manage and the authority to confer each of them, as removing them by hand does:

curl -X DELETE \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  "$API_URL/api/v1/admin/users/$USER_ID/external-identities/$PROVIDER_ID"

Audit Trail

All user operations are logged:

Event	Category	Severity
user.created	user_management	Info
user.updated	user_management	Info
user.deleted	user_management	Info
user.password_reset	user_management	Security
user.roles_assigned	authorization	Security
user.roles_removed	authorization	Security

Example audit entry:

{
  "event_type": "user.created",
  "event_category": "user_management",
  "actor_type": "user",
  "actor_id": "019b937d-4862-8e07-ac3a-1b8589d1b801",
  "actor_name": "admin",
  "resource_type": "user",
  "resource_id": "019b937d-4862-8e07-ac3a-1b8589d1b809",
  "outcome": "success",
  "outcome_reason": null,
  "occurred_at": "2026-01-15T14:23:01Z"
}

Best Practices

User Onboarding

1. Use SSO when possible - Reduces password management overhead
2. Assign minimum required roles - Follow least privilege principle
3. Set tenant scope appropriately - Limit access to necessary resources
4. Verify email addresses - Ensure contact information is accurate

User Offboarding

1. Set status to inactive - the containment action: it blocks new logins and token refresh, and revokes the account’s live credentials
2. Reset the user’s password - belt and braces; it performs the same revocation and stops the old password working if the account is ever reactivated
3. Remove role assignments - clear all permissions
4. Review owned resources - transfer ownership if needed
5. Delete account - after transition period

What deactivation actually cuts off

Setting status = inactive through PUT /api/v1/admin/users/{id} does more than write the column. In the same request Mandible revokes the account’s OAuth2 tokens and API keys, revokes its sessions, and blocklists in Redis every access token issued for those sessions — so a bearer JWT that is still inside its 1-hour lifetime is refused from the next request onward.

Independently of that, the auth middleware re-reads the owner on every API-key and opaque-OAuth2-token request and returns 401 unless can_login() holds. An API key belonging to a deactivated account therefore stops working at its next use even if the key row itself were somehow left un-revoked.

Regular Audits

• Review active users quarterly
• Verify role assignments match current responsibilities
• Check for unused accounts (no recent login)
• Audit external identity links

Troubleshooting

User Cannot Login

1. Check account status:

   SELECT status FROM users WHERE email = 'user@example.com';

2. Verify password (local auth):

   • Reset password via admin API
   • Check for caps lock / keyboard issues

3. Check external identity (SSO):

   • Verify provider is configured
   • Check role mappings exist
   • Review IdP logs for errors

User Missing Permissions

1. List user’s current roles:

   curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
       https://api.mantis.local/api/v1/admin/users/$USER_ID/roles

2. Check role permissions:

   curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
       https://api.mantis.local/api/v1/admin/roles/$ROLE_ID/permissions

3. Assign missing role:

   curl -X POST \
       -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
       -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
       -d '{"role_ids": ["019b937d-4862-84ae-9c2a-6ac230cc4c7e"]}' \
       https://api.mantis.local/api/v1/admin/users/$USER_ID/roles

Next Steps

• Roles - Role configuration
• Permissions - Permission reference
• Identity Providers - SSO setup