To change one person’s privileges in MediaWiki, open Special:UserRights, enter the username, load the account’s current groups, select groups to add or clear groups to remove, set an expiry when available, enter a reason, and save. Your account must have the userrights right; in a standard installation, that right belongs to the bureaucrat group.
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That procedure changes one account’s group memberships. If you need to change what every member of a group can do, edit $wgGroupPermissions in LocalSettings.php with server-administrator access. These are different operations, with different scopes, permissions and audit trails.
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MediaWiki separates a user’s membership in a group from the rights attached to that group. A user normally receives capabilities through group membership, while configuration determines what each group is allowed to do. The official documentation describes user rights and groups as the foundation of MediaWiki’s permission system: MediaWiki Help: User rights and groups.
User groups
Every logged-in account normally belongs to the Users group. Common privileged groups include Administrators (often called sysop) and Bureaucrats. A group is a label for a set of permissions; assigning the group to an account gives that account the rights configured for the group.
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Individual membership versus group policy
| Question | Individual assignment | Group-level configuration |
|---|---|---|
| What changes? | One account’s membership in one or more groups | The rights granted to every member of a group |
| Normal interface | Special:UserRights |
LocalSettings.php |
| Typical authority | userrights or a delegated group-management right |
Server access and permission to deploy MediaWiki configuration |
| Scope | One named user | All current and future members of the selected group |
| Duration | Permanent or expiring membership, where supported by the installation | Active until the configuration is changed |
| Audit trail | User rights log entry | Configuration or deployment history; the exact mechanism depends on your server workflow |
Changing a user’s group does not redefine the group. Conversely, changing $wgGroupPermissions does not add or remove anyone from that group.
Who can change privileges?
A regular logged-in user can generally view group memberships but cannot edit another account’s groups. The operator needs the userrights right, or a narrower capability delegated by the wiki’s configuration. In the default setup, bureaucrats receive userrights, so they can assign and revoke groups through the user-rights interface.
Group names, available rights and delegation can differ by MediaWiki release and by local configuration. If your wiki has a custom role, check its assigned rights rather than assuming that a familiar group name has standard powers.
Check your authority before starting
- Sign in to the account that will perform the change.
- Confirm that the account has
userrightsor another configured group-management capability. - If you plan to edit
LocalSettings.php, confirm that you have server-administrator access and a safe deployment path. - Know the exact username, including capitalization and any namespace or account naming convention used by your wiki.
How to change one user’s privileges in Special:UserRights
Use this workflow when the goal is to make one person an administrator, grant a temporary role, remove bureaucrat or sysop membership, or otherwise change a single account’s groups.
- Sign in with an authorized account. Use an account with
userrightsor a locally delegated group-management right. If you lack that right, the page may let you inspect memberships but will not let you save changes. - Open the user-rights page. Go directly to
Special:UserRights, or open the wiki’s Special pages list and select the user-rights page. The exact navigation skin can vary, but the special-page name remains the reliable route. - Enter the target username. Type the account name exactly as it appears on the wiki, then load the account’s current groups. Review the displayed memberships before changing anything.
- Select groups to add. Tick the group or groups that the account should receive. For example, selecting the administrator group gives the account the rights configured for that group; it does not create a new permission set.
- Clear groups to remove. Untick memberships that should end. Removing a group withdraws the rights supplied by that membership, while any rights from other groups remain in effect.
- Set an expiry when appropriate. If the installation supports expiring group membership, choose a preset duration or enter a custom expiry. Use an expiry for a temporary moderation assignment, project role or emergency elevation instead of relying on a calendar reminder.
- Enter a reason. Record why the change is being made, who approved it or what event it relates to. A precise reason makes later review much easier.
- Submit the change. Save the form and wait for the confirmation message. If the form reports a permission or validation error, do not assume that a partial change was applied; reload the account and verify its groups.
- Review the log entry. Open the User rights log and confirm the target account, groups added or removed, expiry and stated reason. MediaWiki records membership changes there, providing the audit trail for the operation.
Common privilege changes
Making someone an administrator
Open Special:UserRights for the account, select the administrator (sysop) group, add an expiry if the role is temporary, enter the approval or operational reason, and submit. The account receives whatever rights your wiki assigns to that group. Do not infer the exact capabilities from the group name alone: local configuration and MediaWiki release can change the set of rights.
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Granting a temporary role
Select the required group and choose a duration or custom end date when the expiry controls are available. State the end date and purpose in the reason field. After saving, verify that the expiry is shown in the account’s memberships and in the User rights log.
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Removing administrator or bureaucrat status
Load the account in Special:UserRights, clear the administrator, bureaucrat or other membership that should end, add a reason, and save. If the person belongs to multiple privileged groups, remove only the memberships that are no longer authorized; clearing one group does not remove rights supplied by another.
Changing several memberships at once
The form can add and remove multiple groups in one submission. Review the complete before-and-after state, because a group left selected remains assigned and a group left cleared remains removed. Use the reason field to describe the combined change rather than making an ambiguous note.
How to verify and audit a change
Verification should answer three separate questions: was the intended membership saved, did the membership carry the expected rights, and is the action recorded?
- Reload
Special:UserRightsfor the target account and confirm the selected groups and any expiry. - Check the User rights log for the actor, target, additions, removals, timestamp and reason.
- Have the user sign out and back in if your operational process requires a fresh session before testing access.
- Test only the capabilities the role is meant to provide. Avoid using a broad administrative action as a permission test when a low-risk page or function will do.
The log confirms the membership action; it does not replace a review of the rights assigned to the group. If the user still cannot perform an expected action, inspect the group policy and any other groups or restrictions affecting that account.
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How to change what a group can do with $wgGroupPermissions
Use configuration when the requirement concerns a role itself—for example, when every member of a custom group should be able to edit but not delete pages. This operation requires access to the server and the ability to deploy the wiki configuration.
The MediaWiki manual documents the syntax in Manual: User rights:
$wgGroupPermissions['group']['right'] = true; /* or false */Example: define rights for a custom group
In LocalSettings.php, a server administrator could set individual rights for a custom group:
$wgGroupPermissions['customgroup']['edit'] = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['customgroup']['delete'] = false;The first line grants the edit right to members of customgroup; the second explicitly withholds the delete right from that group. The group still needs to be assigned to users through the user-rights interface or another configured process.
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Deploy configuration safely
- Back up the current
LocalSettings.phpand record the intended change. - Confirm the group name and right spelling used by your MediaWiki version and extensions.
- Add or update the
$wgGroupPermissionsentries in the server’s configuration. - Deploy through the same review and change-control process used for other production configuration.
- Load the wiki and check for PHP or configuration errors before testing the role.
- Assign the group to a test account, verify the intended action, and confirm that disallowed actions remain unavailable.
- Record the change in your configuration history so another administrator can identify when and why the group policy changed.
Consult Manual: Setting user groups in MediaWiki for the broader process of defining groups and their rights.
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Limit which roles can manage groups
$wgAddGroups and $wgRemoveGroups can restrict which groups a role is allowed to add or remove. Use these settings when a role should manage a narrow set of memberships rather than every privileged group. Review the resulting delegation carefully: a role that can add a powerful group may effectively grant more authority than its name suggests.
When the user-rights page does not work
“You do not have permission” or no save control
Your account probably lacks userrights or a delegated group-management capability. Ask a bureaucrat or another authorized operator to perform the change, or have a server administrator review the group delegation. Being logged in, being an administrator in another system, or being able to edit pages does not automatically grant group-management rights.
The target account cannot be found
Check spelling, capitalization and the wiki instance. Usernames are looked up against the local wiki account database; an account on a different wiki or a differently formatted name will not load. Search the user list or user-contribution pages to confirm the exact account name before trying again.
The group you need is not listed
The group may not exist on this installation, may be hidden from the interface, or may be unavailable to your role under $wgAddGroups and $wgRemoveGroups. Ask a server administrator to inspect the group definitions and delegation rather than editing a similarly named group.
Expiry controls are missing
Expiring memberships depend on the MediaWiki version and local configuration. If no duration or custom-date control is offered, the installation may not support expiry for that workflow. Do not type an expiry into the reason field and assume it will be enforced; arrange a documented manual removal or have an administrator confirm the available feature.
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The user has the group but still lacks the expected capability
Inspect the rights assigned to that group in configuration, then check whether another policy or extension changes the behavior. Also review the account’s other memberships: removing one group may not remove an overlapping right, and adding a group cannot grant a right that the group policy does not contain.
A configuration edit causes an error
Restore the last known-good configuration, check PHP syntax and array keys, and redeploy through the normal server process. Keep the change isolated so you can identify whether the group name, right name or placement in LocalSettings.php caused the failure.
Security and administration practices
- Use least privilege. Assign only the group needed for the task, and prefer an expiry for temporary work.
- Separate assignment from policy. Use
Special:UserRightsfor a person-specific change; use$wgGroupPermissionsonly when the role’s policy should change for everyone. - Write specific reasons. Include the ticket, approval, incident or project context rather than a vague note such as “update permissions.”
- Review inherited authority. Before removing or granting a group, consider all other memberships that may continue to provide the same right.
- Protect configuration files. Restrict server access to trusted administrators, review changes before deployment and retain a rollback copy.
- Audit after deployment. Match the User rights log to the approved request, and match configuration history to the group-policy change.
- Document local differences. Record custom groups, delegated management rules and release-specific behavior so future operators do not rely on default-installation assumptions.
Choosing the correct method
Use the following decision path:
- If only one account’s membership should change, use
Special:UserRights. - If every member of a group should gain or lose a capability, edit
$wgGroupPermissionsinLocalSettings.php. - If another role should be allowed to manage only selected groups, review
$wgAddGroupsand$wgRemoveGroups. - If the role is temporary and expiry is supported, set the expiry during the membership change instead of relying solely on a reminder.
- If you cannot satisfy the required authority, stop and involve a bureaucrat for membership changes or a server administrator for configuration changes.
For the formal definitions and configuration details, see MediaWiki’s Manual: User rights, Manual: Setting user groups in MediaWiki and Help: User rights and groups.
Bottom line
Change a single person’s privileges through Special:UserRights with an account that has userrights; change a role’s capabilities in LocalSettings.php with $wgGroupPermissions. Set an expiry for temporary memberships when supported, document the reason, and verify the result in the User rights log.
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