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The access ladder

Give a new hire or contractor a ladder: their area first, more access after 30 and 90 days, and an end date, with each step approved by you.

Short answer: An access ladder widens one person's access on a schedule. It starts with what you set, then adds paths, moves them to another group or ends access when a step is due. Nothing widens without an answer unless you turn that on.

Steps

  1. Open the ladder. While inviting someone, use How their access grows. For an existing person, open People, choose Access ladder for and choose Change ladder.
  2. Pick a preset. Contractor keeps access as set. New hire, 3 steps starts with their area, gives read access to the rest after 30 days, then full team access after 90 days. Trial task ends access after 7 days.
  3. Edit the steps. Each step has a when and a what:
    • When: After days, After weeks, On a date or When I approve.
    • What: Can read, Can edit, Types only, Move to a group, Full team access or Access ends.
    • For a path step, leave the folders box empty for the whole repository, and name protected folders in the except box. A step that opens everything shows a warning.
  4. Choose how steps are answered. Apply steps automatically is off by default. With it off, a due step waits on the Requests page under Access ladders until you choose Approve, Not yet or Skip. Not yet asks again in a week. With it on, steps with a date apply by themselves.
  5. Save the ladder. Choose Save ladder. The clock starts the day the person joins.

What happens

  • When a step is due you get one tap to approve it. An approval applies exactly the preview shown, then a normal git pull picks it up.
  • Approve now applies the next step early. Skip never applies that step; later steps keep their dates.
  • An end step is announced 7 days and 1 day before. You can choose Extend 30 days, move the end date, or choose End now. Ending starts offboarding for that repository.
  • The person sees a timeline on their Gitfence home and the words "This is the plan, not a promise."

Gotchas

  • A ladder has at most 12 steps and can end access once. An end step needs a date or a number of days, not When I approve.
  • A path step only raises access. It never lowers anyone, never opens secrets files and never makes CI or git plumbing files editable.
  • Changing a ladder keeps the start date it already had. Removing it leaves access as it is.

Next: offboarding and access levels.

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