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NEMAR User Roles and Responsibilities

Version: 1.0.0 Date: 2026-01-18

User Accounts

NEMAR system uses dedicated service accounts for different operational tasks:

Account Email Role Responsibilities
Owner yahya@osc.earth Super User System ownership, full access, policy decisions
nemarAdmin nemarAdmin@osc.earth Administrator User approval, dataset creation, routine admin
nemarRestore nemarRestore@osc.earth Restore Agent Dataset restoration, git commits for recovered data

Role Details

Owner (yahya@osc.earth)

Purpose: Ultimate system authority and oversight

Responsibilities: - System ownership and governance - Policy and architectural decisions - Super-user access to all systems - Emergency interventions - Delegation of administrative tasks

Access: - Full access to all GitHub organizations - AWS root/admin credentials - Cloudflare admin access - All database permissions

Notes: - Retains ownership but delegates routine operations to nemarAdmin - Involved in critical decisions and emergencies - Not used for day-to-day operations

nemarAdmin (nemarAdmin@osc.earth)

Purpose: Day-to-day administrative operations

Responsibilities: - Approve new user registrations - Create dataset repositories - Manage user permissions - Create concept DOIs for datasets - Handle routine administrative tasks - Monitor system health

Access: - Admin role in backend database - GitHub organization admin (nemarDatasets) - Dataset creation permissions - User management interface - Zenodo DOI creation

Typical Operations: 

# Approve pending user
nemar admin approve <username>

# Create concept DOI
nemar admin doi create <dataset_id>

# List pending users
nemar admin users --pending

# Revoke user access
nemar admin revoke <username>

Notes: - Primary contact for user support - Handles dataset lifecycle management - Does NOT have super-user/owner privileges - Escalates to Owner for policy decisions

nemarRestore (nemarRestore@osc.earth)

Purpose: Automated dataset restoration and recovery operations

Responsibilities: - Restore datasets from Zenodo archives - Recreate GitHub repositories after deletion - Git commit attribution for restored datasets - Documentation of restoration process - Verification of restored data integrity

Access: - Git commit identity - GitHub push access (via scripts) - AWS read access to S3 (for verification) - No interactive login (service account)

Usage: This account is used only for git commit identity during restoration:

# Git configuration in restoration scripts
git config user.name "NEMAR Restore"
git config user.email "nemarRestore@osc.earth"

# Commits appear as:
Author: NEMAR Restore <nemarRestore@osc.earth>
Date:   Sat Jan 18 18:30:00 2026 +0000

    Restore nm000105 from Zenodo archive
    ...
    Restored by: NEMAR Restore

Notes: - Service account, not for human login - Used exclusively for restoration commits - Provides clear audit trail for recovered datasets - Commits are signed "Restored by: NEMAR Restore"

Workflow Examples

New User Registration

  1. User submits registration via CLI
  2. Email verification sent
  3. nemarAdmin receives notification
  4. nemarAdmin reviews and approves
  5. System generates credentials
  6. User receives approval email

Dataset Creation

  1. User validates BIDS dataset locally
  2. User runs nemar dataset upload
  3. System creates GitHub repo
  4. System uploads to S3
  5. nemarAdmin creates concept DOI
  6. Dataset published

Dataset Restoration

  1. Dataset accidentally deleted
  2. Owner or nemarAdmin identifies need
  3. Run restoration script (uses nemarRestore identity)
  4. Script commits as "NEMAR Restore nemarRestore@osc.earth"
  5. Verification performed
  6. Database entries restored by nemarAdmin

Security Considerations

Principle of Least Privilege

  • nemarAdmin: Can manage users and datasets, cannot modify system architecture
  • nemarRestore: Can only commit to git, no database or user management access
  • Owner: Retains full access but delegates routine operations

Access Separation

Owner (yahya)
    ├── Full system access
    ├── Policy decisions
    └── Emergency interventions

nemarAdmin
    ├── User management
    ├── Dataset management
    └── DOI creation

nemarRestore (Service Account)
    └── Git commit identity only

Audit Trail

All operations are logged with appropriate attribution:

  • User approvals → Logged to nemarAdmin
  • Dataset restorations → Git commits by NEMAR Restore
  • System changes → Logged to Owner
  • API usage → Logged per user's API token

Future Enhancements

Two-Tier Admin Permissions (Issue #35)

Planned enhancement to dataset deletion:

Tier 1: nemarAdmin - Can delete datasets they created - Cannot delete owner-created datasets - Requires confirmation for deletions

Tier 2: Owner - Can delete any dataset - Requires double confirmation - Logged with full audit trail

Automated Restore Triggers

Future automation could: - Detect accidental deletions - Trigger restoration automatically - Notify nemarAdmin of recovery - Update database entries

Contact

For Administrative Questions: - Email: nemarAdmin@osc.earth - Role: Day-to-day operations, user management

For System/Policy Questions: - Email: yahya@osc.earth - Role: System owner, architectural decisions

For Technical Documentation: - See: NEMAR_RESTORATION_GUIDE.md - See: Repository CLAUDE.md files

References

Maintained by: NEMAR Development Team Last Updated: 2026-01-18