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Roles, access, and content states

PCA separates access roles from content states. Your role determines which actions and representations you can access. A resource's state records where that resource is in its lifecycle.

Access at a glance

Access Interactive capabilities API capabilities
No PCA role Open Libraries and Search, search and filter content, open HTML content pages, and inspect status and relationships No API access
Reader Continue to use the interactive reading journey Search and retrieve supported machine-readable representations
Creator Use the Reader retrieval workflows, plus the Create workspace, Draft authoring, Draft editing, and submission for review Search and retrieve data, create and update supported content, then submit Draft resources
Reviewer Review submitted content, inspect effects on dependencies, and approve or reject with justification Governance operations intended for the review application

What is public

You can use these capabilities without a PCA role:

  • browse Libraries and Search;
  • open reference-data resources as HTML;
  • inspect their status, provenance, and relationships before deciding whether to use them.

What Reader adds

Reader is for programmatic consumption of protected data representations. Across PCA's supported endpoints, these include JSON, JSON-LD, Turtle, TriG, N-Triples, RDF/XML, and N-Quads. Not every endpoint supports every format; consult the API endpoint and error reference for the formats that apply to each endpoint family.

Reader does not add the Create workspace and does not authorize content changes.

What Creator adds

Creator enables the supported authoring workspaces and write APIs. A Creator can:

  • create a reference-data library or ontology;
  • create reference-data classes and properties;
  • create CFIHOS+ equipment classes, tag classes, properties, picklists, units of measure, and dimensions;
  • create IMF attribute, terminal, and block types;
  • create or edit engineering symbols;
  • save new content as Draft;
  • reopen and update supported Draft resources;
  • submit Draft resources for review.

Creator does not authorize approval or rejection. Submission hands the resource to a Reviewer workflow.

How authorization is applied

The PCA web application signs people in through Microsoft identity. API clients use an OAuth 2.0 bearer access token, whether the caller is a person or a PCA-registered application. The API checks the role in that identity. Authentication and authorization explains the user, Swagger, and registered-application flows.

Content states

State Meaning Available actions by role
Draft The resource exists and can be discovered, but has not entered formal review. It can be inspected in the browser. A Creator can edit, save, or submit supported content.
Submitted The resource is in the review queue. The UI may label this Pending review. Read only, editing not available. A Reviewer can assess it and record an outcome.
Approved An authorized review has accepted the resource and recorded its decision. It can be inspected and used. A Creator can prepare a later replacement but cannot edit the approved resource in place.
Rejected Review did not accept the proposal in its current form. The outcome remains visible. A Creator can prepare a new proposal when appropriate.
Deprecated The resource remains resolvable for traceability but is no longer preferred. It remains visible so users can follow replacement links to the preferred version.
ExternallyManaged PCA exposes content governed outside PCA's own lifecycle. The UI can display Externally managed when PCA provenance is absent. Read only. It cannot be edited or submitted through the PCA Draft workflow.

Draft content being searchable is not a quality approval. Always inspect status before reuse. If you create a replacement, verify the Replaces relationship carefully: the referenced resource is marked Deprecated as part of the replacement operation.

Next steps