# Documentation of pre-defined roles confusing

**URL:** <https://forum.opensearch.org/t/documentation-of-pre-defined-roles-confusing/5254>\
**Category:** Security\
**Created:** [March 7, 2021, 5:53pm UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/documentation-of-pre-defined-roles-confusing/5254 "2021-03-07T17:53:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![shivani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@shivani](https://forum.opensearch.org/u/shivani)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 5:53pm UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/documentation-of-pre-defined-roles-confusing/5254/1 "2021-03-07T17:53:09Z")

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There is a list of predefined roles documented at - [Users and Roles - Open Distro Documentation](https://opendistro.github.io/for-elasticsearch-docs/docs/security/access-control/users-roles/#predefined-roles)  
The description says that - the security plugin includes several predefined roles that serve as useful defaults.

But this list contains a **mix of static roles** i.e. [built-in roles](https://github.com/opendistro-for-elasticsearch/security/blob/main/src/main/resources/static_config/static_roles.yml) created by the security plugin, **and roles created by the [sample config files](https://github.com/opendistro-for-elasticsearch/security/blob/main/securityconfig/roles.yml)** at /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro\_security/securityconfig/. If user does not use the sample configuration files provided by the plugin as-is, then those roles will not be available, but it would contain all the static roles.

On the other hand, for action groups, list of [default-action-groups](https://opendistro.github.io/for-elasticsearch-docs/docs/security/access-control/default-action-groups/) on the documentation lists only those action groups that are [static](https://github.com/opendistro-for-elasticsearch/security/blob/main/src/main/resources/static_config/static_action_groups.yml).  
It would be better if the documentation could be updated with a bit more clarity and only list the available built-in roles so as to avoid confusion.  
Thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![searchymcsearchface](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.opensearch.org/searchymcsearchface/32/868_2.png) [@searchymcsearchface](https://forum.opensearch.org/u/searchymcsearchface)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2021, 2:28pm UTC](https://forum.opensearch.org/t/documentation-of-pre-defined-roles-confusing/5254/2 "2021-03-08T14:28:43Z")

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Thanks for bringing this up! I’ve alerted the documentation crew on this.

Also, [the docs are open source](https://github.com/opendistro/for-elasticsearch-docs) - if you want to make a go at it the [file you’re referencing a markdown file](https://github.com/opendistro/for-elasticsearch-docs/blob/master/docs/security/access-control/users-roles.md).