Confusing documentation about instance-level permissions

nbelakovski · August 12, 2025, 3:05pm

Permissions can be set not only per type of object, but also per specific object instance. By using the has_view_permission(), has_add_permission(), has_change_permission() and has_delete_permission() methods provided by the ModelAdmin class, it is possible to customize permissions for different object instances of the same type.

But I think what they mean to say is “By overriding the …” because those methods don’t set the permissions for an object instance. In fact, there are no methods to set the permissions for an object instance. I’d like to submit a PR to update the docs, but I can’t find this phrase in any of the repos, if anyone can point me in the right direction that would be appreciated.

blighj · August 13, 2025, 5:42am

They will be in the docs folder of the repo,

github.com/django/django

docs/topics/auth/default.txt

main


      
          * Access to view objects is limited to users with the "view" or "change"
            permission for that type of object.
          * Access to view the "add" form and add an object is limited to users with
            the "add" permission for that type of object.
          * Access to view the change list, view the "change" form and change an
            object is limited to users with the "change" permission for that type of
            object.
          * Access to delete an object is limited to users with the "delete"
            permission for that type of object.
          
          Permissions can be set not only per type of object, but also per specific
          object instance. By using the
          :meth:`~django.contrib.admin.ModelAdmin.has_view_permission`,
          :meth:`~django.contrib.admin.ModelAdmin.has_add_permission`,
          :meth:`~django.contrib.admin.ModelAdmin.has_change_permission` and
          :meth:`~django.contrib.admin.ModelAdmin.has_delete_permission` methods provided
          by the :class:`~django.contrib.admin.ModelAdmin` class, it is possible to
          customize permissions for different object instances of the same type.
          
          :class:`~django.contrib.auth.models.User` objects have two many-to-many
          fields: ``groups`` and ``user_permissions``.

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Confusing documentation about instance-level permissions

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