---
title: "Roles and capabilities — SimplifyGuide docs"
description: "Who can record, edit, publish, use AI, change settings and read guides in SimplifyGuide, and how to change it."
url: "https://simplifybase.com/product/simplifyguide/docs/roles-and-capabilities/"
---

# Roles and capabilities

Who can record, edit, publish, use AI, change settings and read guides in SimplifyGuide, and how to change it.

SimplifyGuide uses ordinary WordPress capabilities, so your existing roles — and any role editor plugin you already use — decide who can do what. Guides behave like posts: people edit their own, Editors edit everyone’s.

## At a glance

| Action | Capability | Default roles |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Record and create guides | `edit_posts` (filterable) | Contributor, Author, Editor, Administrator |
| Upload screenshots and narration, import guides | the above plus `upload_files` | Author, Editor, Administrator |
| Edit or delete a guide | `edit_post` / `delete_post` on that guide | Its author; Editors and Administrators for any guide |
| Publish a guide | `publish_posts` | Author, Editor, Administrator |
| Use AI writing and transcription | `publish_posts` (filterable) | Author, Editor, Administrator |
| Settings, Setup Wizard, AI agents page | `manage_options` | Administrator |
| Check or reveal AI keys | `manage_options` | Administrator |
| Read guides in the Help Center | logged in, and in the guide’s audience | Everyone, by default |

## Recording and authoring

Anyone with `edit_posts` can open **SimplifyGuide → Record a Guide**, see the **Record guide** toolbar button, and create and edit their own guides.

Screenshots and narration are Media Library uploads, so they also need `upload_files`. That makes **Author** the practical minimum: a Contributor can record steps, but the screenshots and narration cannot be saved.

Change who can author with the `simplifyguide_author_capability` filter:

```php
// Only Editors and Administrators may record guides.
add_filter( 'simplifyguide_author_capability', function () {
	return 'edit_others_posts';
} );
```

The filter controls the recorder, the toolbar button, the **Overview** screen and guide creation over the REST API. Editing a particular guide still follows WordPress’s normal post rules.

## Publishing

A guide goes live when it is published. Publishing needs `publish_posts`. A user without it can build a guide and save it as a draft for someone else to publish.

Drafts are visible only to people who can edit them.

## Using AI

AI calls cost the site owner money, so they need `publish_posts` — Authors and above — rather than `edit_posts`. Users below that still record normally; their steps are written by SimplifyGuide’s rules and their narration is saved as audio without being transcribed.

```php
// Only Editors and Administrators may spend AI credits.
add_filter( 'simplifyguide_ai_capability', function () {
	return 'edit_others_posts';
} );
```

Each user is also limited to 60 AI requests an hour; see [AI providers](https://simplifybase.com/product/simplifyguide/docs/ai-providers/).

## Managing settings

**Settings**, **Setup Wizard** and the **AI agents** preview are for Administrators (`manage_options`). So is choosing providers, saving keys, and checking or revealing a key.

## Reading guides

Who can read a published guide is set per guide, in the **Who sees this guide** box in the editor.

![The Who sees this guide box: role checkboxes under Show in the Help Center for, and the Public switch](https://simplifybase.com/_astro/editor-visibility-box.DrU8ZAE1_1fk7m8.webp)

| Setting | Who can read it |
| --- | --- |
| No roles ticked | Everyone who is logged in |
| Some roles ticked | Logged-in users with one of those roles |
| **Public** on | Also logged-out visitors, wherever the guide is embedded |

People who can edit a guide can always read it, whatever its audience.

New guides start with the roles chosen under **Settings → General → New guides are shown to**. The default is none ticked, meaning every logged-in user. The setup wizard offers three shortcuts for this: everyone, Editors and Administrators only, or roles you pick.

**Public** does not create a page on its own. Guides have no front-end URL; a public guide is visible to visitors only where you embed it with the block or shortcode. See [Embed](https://simplifybase.com/product/simplifyguide/docs/embed/) and [Public links](https://simplifybase.com/product/simplifyguide/docs/public-links/).

The same check applies everywhere a guide can be read — the Help Center, **Show me**, embeds, Markdown and HTML downloads, and the REST API. Readers who cannot edit a guide never receive its recorded page context.

## The readers’ Help Center menu

Authors see a **SimplifyGuide** menu with everything in it. Everyone else sees a **Help Center** menu near the top of the admin sidebar, listing the guides they can read, with **Show me** on each.

Readers who cannot see any guide get no menu at all, so the plugin stays out of the way of people it has nothing for. The dashboard **Help Center** widget follows the same rule and lists up to eight guides.

See [Help Center](https://simplifybase.com/product/simplifyguide/docs/help-center/).

[← Previous Privacy and Smart Blur](https://simplifybase.com/product/simplifyguide/docs/privacy-and-smart-blur/)[Next → Troubleshooting](https://simplifybase.com/product/simplifyguide/docs/troubleshooting/)

Last updated 27 September 2026