Location permissions in Firebolt control who can modify, and use LOCATION objects. These permissions are managed through Firebolt’s Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) system.

For account-level location permissions, see Account permissions.

The following table outlines the privileges that can be granted for managing locations within a particular account:

PrivilegeDescriptionGRANT SyntaxREVOKE Syntax
MODIFYGrants the ability to modify location objects owned by the role.GRANT MODIFY ON LOCATION <location_name> TO <role>;REVOKE MODIFY ON LOCATION <location_name> FROM <role>;
USAGEGrants the ability to use location objects without seeing credentials.GRANT USAGE ON LOCATION <location_name> TO <role>;REVOKE USAGE ON LOCATION <location_name> FROM <role>;

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Secret management

Location permissions provide a secure way to manage access to sensitive credentials. When a role has USAGE permission on a location:

  • The role can use the location’s credentials to access external data sources
  • The role cannot view or extract the actual credentials stored in the location
  • The credentials remain hidden in all system views and logs

This separation between usage and visibility ensures that sensitive credentials are protected while still allowing authorized roles to access the data they need.

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Examples of granting location permissions

The following code examples show how to grant various location-related permissions:

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MODIFY permission

The following code example grants role my_role permission to modify the loc location:

-- Grant ability to create new locations
GRANT MODIFY ON LOCATION loc TO my_role;

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USAGE permission

The following code example grants role my_role permission to use the loc location:

-- Grant ability to create new locations
GRANT USAGE ON LOCATION loc TO my_role;

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Additional location permissions example

-- Create a role for data engineers
CREATE ROLE data_engineer;

-- Grant ability to create and manage locations
GRANT CREATE LOCATION ON ACCOUNT "my_account" TO data_engineer;
GRANT MODIFY ANY LOCATION ON ACCOUNT "my_account" TO data_engineer;

-- Grant ability to use locations
GRANT USAGE ANY LOCATION ON ACCOUNT "my_account" TO data_engineer;

-- Create and use a location
CREATE LOCATION production_data WITH
  SOURCE = 'AMAZON_S3'
  CREDENTIALS = (AWS_ROLE_ARN = 'arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/DataAccess')
  URL = 's3://company-data/';

-- Create an external table using the location
CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE sales_data (
  customer_id INT,
  purchase_date DATE,
  amount DECIMAL(10,2)
)
LOCATION = production_data
OBJECT_PATTERN = 'sales/*.parquet'
TYPE = PARQUET;