outline-mcp
User Guides

Permission Model

Design clear permission boundaries for agents and human operators.

Why permission modeling matters

Most production incidents are not caused by missing features. They are caused by excessive privileges in the wrong place.

outline-mcp gives you explicit action controls so each client can receive only the capabilities it needs.

Action model

ActionScopeTypical tools
readNon-mutating operationslist_collections, search_documents, read_document, list_events
writeMutating but non-destructive operationscreate_document, update_document, move_document, comments, memberships, leases
deleteDestructive operationsdelete_document, delete_comment, delete_collection, batch delete
adminReserved advanced controlRarely needed in standard flows
RoleActionsReasoning
Reader agentreadSafe default with zero mutation risk
Writer agentread,writeSupports creation/editing without destructive paths
Operator agentread,write,deleteOwns cleanup and lifecycle execution

Rollout governance

Use a progressive model:

  1. Start every new client at read.
  2. Promote to read,write only after successful validation.
  3. Grant delete only to explicit operator paths.
  4. Review action sets during each incident retrospective.

Example profiles

Read-only

OUTLINE_ALLOWED_ACTIONS=read

Read and write

OUTLINE_ALLOWED_ACTIONS=read,write

Full operator

OUTLINE_ALLOWED_ACTIONS=read,write,delete

Next step

Continue to Tool Reference.