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ADR-0009: RLS Enforcement via a Session-Scoped Authorized Scope Set
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Architecture
1. Introduction and Goals
2. Architecture Constraints
3. Context and Scope
4. Solution Strategy
5. Building Block View
6. Runtime View
7. Deployment View
8. Crosscutting Concepts
9. Architecture Decisions
10. Quality Requirements
11. Risks and Technical Debt
12. Glossary
The arrival bundle format
Decisions (ADRs)
Decisions (ADRs)
ADR-0001: Content-Addressed Document Storage with PostgreSQL as Source of Truth
ADR-0002: Single Instance with Scope Hierarchy and Copy-on-Derive
ADR-0003: Fixed Life Cycle States with Configurable Review Processes
ADR-0004: Global Catalogs for Roles and Document Types with Per-Scope Activation
ADR-0005: Modular Monolith
ADR-0006: Three-Layer Search with In-Database Index and Pluggable LLM
ADR-0007: Angular Frontend with Server-Side-Only Enforcement
ADR-0008: Flyway Migrations and jOOQ Codegen from the Migrated Schema
ADR-0009: RLS Enforcement via a Session-Scoped Authorized Scope Set
ADR-0009: RLS Enforcement via a Session-Scoped Authorized Scope Set
Table of contents
Context
Options Considered
Option A: Session variable carrying the authorized scope set (chosen)
Option B: Session variable carrying the authenticated user id; policies join role assignments
Option C: One database role per scope/mandator
Decision
Consequences
ADR-0010: Self-Managed QMS via an Internal Mandator
ADR-0011: Authentication via OIDC SSO with Server-Side (BFF) Sessions
ADR-0012: Permission-Based Authorization and System Bootstrap
ADR-0013: User Identity Lifecycle
ADR-0014: Electronic Signatures (Part 11 / Annex 11-Capable)
ADR-0015: Document Effectivity, Periodic Review & Validity
ADR-0016: Data Retention, Disposal & Privacy (FADP / GDPR)
ADR-0017: Multi-Part Version Content
ADR-0018: Non-Functional Targets (Capacity, Availability, Security)
ADR-0019: Notifications & Tasks
ADR-0020: Internationalization (Content Language, Time Zones, Formatting)
ADR-0021: General Typed Document Relationships
ADR-0022: Read-Acknowledgement & Questionnaires
ADR-0023: Migration / Import — Current Released State
ADR-0024: Draft / In-Review Cancellation
ADR-0025: Disposal & Erasure Mechanics (Storage, Index, Backups)
ADR-0026: RLS Runtime Safety — Connection-Pool Scope Isolation
ADR-0027: RLS Boundary — Content-Plane vs Control-Plane
ADR-0028: Stateless Encrypted Token-State Cookie (no server-side session store)
ADR-0029: Document Content Model — Draft-Freeze, Content-Table RLS, Append-Only Audit
ADR-0030: Review & Life-Cycle Realization Model
ADR-0031: Released-base readability enforcement & copy-on-derive mechanics
ADR-0032: Frontend realization — Quinoa, Angular Material, i18n & E2E
ADR-0033: CSRF control for the BFF session — SameSite + JSON content-type
ADR-0034: Notification realization — in-process domain events + system-context fan-out
ADR-0035: Fan-out contract as shipped — gate semantics, count disclosure, audit protocol
ADR-0036: Repository layer — services carry rules, repositories carry jOOQ
ADR-0037: Task scheduler — in-process tick, advisory-lock election, SQL sweep
ADR-0038: Periodic-review realization — derived due date, policy-gated confirmation
ADR-0039: Sweep & periodic-review contract as shipped — grants, guards, addressing
ADR-0040: Disposal-due surfacing — closure-anchored retention, scope-level legal hold
ADR-0041: Email channel & notification i18n — notification-as-outbox, structured messages
ADR-0042: Disposal execution — document tombstoning, single-actor hard-gated destruction
ADR-0043: Disposal blob deletion is post-commit, GC-backstopped
ADR-0044: Search FTS baseline — event-indexed, RLS-scoped search_index
ADR-0045: Image Attachments as Content Parts (Rich-Content Slice R2)
ADR-0046: Four-Eyes — Submitter Excluded from Approval
ADR-0047: Four-Eyes — Submitter-Only Exclusion
ADR-0048: Document Organization — Folder Tree per Scope
ADR-0049: Content Model Round 2 — Type Categories, Template Instantiation, Trace Relations, Completeness Rules
ADR-0050: Live Frontend — SSE State Push, CodeMirror 6, Draft Presence
ADR-0051: In-Text Document Links (doc: Scheme)
ADR-0052: Addressees & Read-Acknowledgement (REQ-TRN Realization)
ADR-0053: Addressees Per Document + Process Owner (amends ADR-0052 K-1)
ADR-0054: Process Owner Is a Role (amends ADR-0053 P-3)
ADR-0055: WYSIWYG Editing Mode over Markdown (editor step R4)
ADR-0056: Visual-Editor Chrome via Milkdown Crepe (gated adoption)
ADR-0057: Content Record Is the ProseMirror Document Tree; Markdown Becomes a Derived Projection
ADR-0058: PM_DOC Is the Only Content Format (pre-production cut; amends ADR-0057 §5)
ADR-0059: Editor Engine Switches to TipTap (spike-gated; supersedes the Milkdown/Crepe choice)
ADR-0060: Backup & Restore — Scripted Ordered Backup with Automated Restore Rehearsal
ADR-0061: CSV — Generated Validation Package per Release
ADR-0062: SBOM — CycloneDX over the Production Layers, Validated Against the Artifact
ADR-0063: User Identity Binds on Subject Only (Issuer Becomes Provenance)
ADR-0064: Per-Document Workflow Role Bindings (Author / Reviewer / Releaser), Enforced
ADR-0065: Diagrams — Excalidraw as the Manual Layer, Mermaid Stays for Text-First/UML
ADR-0066: WITHDRAW — the Author Side May Reclaim a Version from Review
ADR-0067: Review Comments — Anchored, Immutable, Resolvable
ADR-0068: Confluence/Jira QMS Import — Staged, Read-Only, Repeatable
ADR-0069: Arbitrary File Attachments — Download-Only Confinement
ADR-0070: Training Questionnaires — Versioned, Auto-Scored, Release-Gated
ADR-0071: Training Plans — Document Obligations + External Trainings & Certifications
ADR-0072: Diagrams — Self-Hosted draw.io Replaces Excalidraw
ADR-0073: Per-Scope QMS Configuration Surface
ADR-0074: PDF Export of Released Documents — Server-Side via Apache FOP over the Canonical Projection
ADR-0075: Source History Import — Continuity Without Forged Audit
ADR-0076: Periodic-review status visibility (completing MVP gap #2)
ADR-0077: Requirement Items — Keyed Blocks Inside Controlled Documents
ADR-0078: Generalized Trace Items (Traceability Model — Stage A)
ADR-0079: Risk & Risk-Control Items (Traceability Model — Stage B)
ADR-0080: Traceability Workspace — Hub, Sub-Pages, and Role-Gated Views
ADR-0081: Draft-Only Trace-Structure Changes, Server-Enforced
ADR-0082: Table-Shaped Risk Authoring over Risk Blocks
ADR-0083: The TD Dossier — a Versioned, Cross-Scope, Regulatory-Structured Deliverable
ADR-0084: Validation & Regulatory Axes (Traceability Model — Stage C)
ADR-0085: Relation-Layer Consolidation — One Trace Vocabulary, One Surface
ADR-0086: Requirement Traceability Chains — End-to-End Path View + Flat Path Export
ADR-0087: The Scope Traceability Report — One Derived Overview Artifact, Never a Controlled Document
ADR-0088: Verification Evidence Classes — Planned vs. Verified, Derived at the Read Layer
ADR-0089: Recurring Obligations — Periodic Tasks With Record Evidence, Not Calendar Series
ADR-0090: Release & Versioning Policy — Deliberate Releases, One Auditor-Facing Number
ADR-0091: Release Modes — Single-Person Record Release With a Structural Four-Eyes Floor
ADR-0092: Orphan-Blob Garbage Collection With a Quarantine Bin
ADR-0093: One Scope Context — the Toolbar Switcher Is the Only Scope Selector
ADR-0094: Calendar-Anchored Obligation Schedules (Clamped, Never Too Late)
ADR-0095: Key-Rule Governance — Free Until First Use, Then Frozen
ADR-0096: Transition Permissions — Always Visible, Deny Unless Granted
ADR-0097: A Governed Provisioning Surface — MANAGE_SCOPES
ADR-0098: Org Chart × Role System — Marriage at the Evidence Level, Never in Authorization
ADR-0099: The User Manual is an In-App Topic Reference, Not a Document
ADR-0100: LQMS Is the Living Quality Management System
ADR-0101: The Executable Validation Journey (PQ Evidence That Cannot Drift)
ADR-0102: Typed Template Variables (text | date | number — and Deliberately No Enum)
ADR-0103: npm audit Joins the Verification Gate as a Second Standing Input
ADR-0104: The Issued Dossier Is a Persisted Artifact of Record — and Clones to a New Draft
ADR-0105: Navigation Information Architecture — Group by Moment-of-Use
ADR-0106: The Client Reflection Follows Assignments, Not Only Content Reach
ADR-0107: The Audit Append Gate Follows Assignment Reach, Not Content Reach
ADR-0108: Mandator Membership — Invite-Accept, with Pre-Assigned Responsibilities
ADR-0109: Organization Founding Is Its Own Process
ADR-0110: The Audit Trail Is Not a Read Model
ADR-0111: The Imported-Person Model, and Project Portability's First Doctrines
ADR-0112: The Element-Kind Catalog — Semantics in the Model, Not Only in the Code
ADR-0113: Project Arrival Import — Records Arrive as They Are, People Arrive as They Were
ADR-0114: The Operating Model Arrives — Roles as Functions, Names as Words, People as This Instance's Decision
ADR-0115: Collaborative Draft Editing — Two Carets, One Truth, Honest Credit
ADR-0116: The System Maintenance Surface — the App Backs Itself Up, the Host Keeps One Dumb Job
ADR-0117: Role Documentation — a Link, a Finding, Per-Source Recognizers; Substitution Rejected
ADR-0118: The Offline QMS Copy — the Repo Carries the Audit Pack, Not a Second Renderer
ADR-0119: Module-Internal Package Structure — Capabilities First, Layers Second, the Root Is the Surface
ADR-0120: The Shared Kernel — the Domain-Exception Vocabulary Leaves the Authorization Module
ADR-0121: The Project Administrator Role — Per-Scope Administration With Read Access, Seeded in the Base Catalog
ADR-0122: Organization-Level Administration — the Cascade Stays, Becomes Visible, and Founds Projects
ADR-0123: Draft Save-Points — Every Save Restorable, Kept for the Life of the Version
ADR-0124: The Birth Path Completes Without Borrowing Content Clothes
ADR-0125: The Export Twin — Export Emits an Arrival Bundle
ADR-0126: Project Dissolution — the Un-Birth of an Unused Scope
ADR-0127: The Base-QMS Layers — One Library, Derived Adaptations, Local Records
ADR-0128: The GLOBAL Cascade Carries Administration, Never Content
ADR-0129: Role Identity from a GLOBAL Assignment Acts in GLOBAL Alone
ADR-0130: Break-Glass — the Project Administrator's Escalation Is a First-Class, Witnessed, Self-Expiring Act
ADR-0131: Role Substitution as Declared Adoption Edges — Emergency Cover Is Governed, Own-Name, Timed Staffing
ADR-0132: Dual-Hat Reviewer Satisfaction Is a Declared Policy Choice — the Strict Floor Stays the Default
ADR-NNNN:
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</li> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="../../user-guide/traceability-workspace/" class="md-nav__link"> <span class="md-ellipsis"> The Traceability Workspace </span> </a> </li> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="../../user-guide/training/" class="md-nav__link"> <span class="md-ellipsis"> Training & Acknowledgements </span> </a> </li> </ul> </nav> </li> </ul> </nav> </div> </div> </div> <div class="md-sidebar md-sidebar--secondary" data-md-component="sidebar" data-md-type="toc" > <div class="md-sidebar__scrollwrap"> <div class="md-sidebar__inner"> <nav class="md-nav md-nav--secondary" aria-label="Table of contents"> <label class="md-nav__title" for="__toc"> <span class="md-nav__icon md-icon"></span> Table of contents </label> <ul class="md-nav__list" data-md-component="toc" data-md-scrollfix> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="#context" class="md-nav__link"> <span class="md-ellipsis"> Context </span> </a> </li> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="#options-considered" class="md-nav__link"> <span class="md-ellipsis"> Options Considered </span> </a> <nav class="md-nav" aria-label="Options Considered"> <ul class="md-nav__list"> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="#option-a-session-variable-carrying-the-authorized-scope-set-chosen" class="md-nav__link"> <span class="md-ellipsis"> Option A: Session variable carrying the authorized scope set (chosen) </span> </a> </li> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="#option-b-session-variable-carrying-the-authenticated-user-id-policies-join-role-assignments" class="md-nav__link"> <span class="md-ellipsis"> Option B: Session variable carrying the authenticated user id; policies join role assignments </span> </a> </li> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="#option-c-one-database-role-per-scopemandator" class="md-nav__link"> <span class="md-ellipsis"> Option C: One database role per scope/mandator </span> </a> </li> </ul> </nav> </li> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="#decision" class="md-nav__link"> <span class="md-ellipsis"> Decision </span> </a> </li> <li class="md-nav__item"> <a href="#consequences" class="md-nav__link"> <span class="md-ellipsis"> Consequences </span> </a> </li> </ul> </nav> </div> </div> </div> <div class="md-content" data-md-component="content"> <article class="md-content__inner md-typeset"> <a href="https://github.com/nburri/lqms/edit/main/docs/decisions/adr-0009-rls-session-scope-context.md" title="Edit this page" class="md-content__button md-icon"> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M10 20H6V4h7v5h5v3.1l2-2V8l-6-6H6c-1.1 0-2 .9-2 2v16c0 1.1.9 2 2 2h4zm10.2-7c.1 0 .3.1.4.2l1.3 1.3c.2.2.2.6 0 .8l-1 1-2.1-2.1 1-1c.1-.1.2-.2.4-.2m0 3.9L14.1 23H12v-2.1l6.1-6.1z"/></svg> </a> <h1 id="adr-0009-rls-enforcement-via-a-session-scoped-authorized-scope-set">ADR-0009: RLS Enforcement via a Session-Scoped Authorized Scope Set<a class="headerlink" href="#adr-0009-rls-enforcement-via-a-session-scoped-authorized-scope-set" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h1> <ul> <li><strong>Status:</strong> accepted</li> <li><strong>Date:</strong> 2026-06-17</li> <li><strong>Deciders:</strong> Nicolas Burri</li> <li><strong>Refined by:</strong> <a href="../adr-0027-rls-content-vs-control-plane/">ADR-0027</a> (content-plane vs control-plane RLS boundary)</li> </ul> <h2 id="context">Context<a class="headerlink" href="#context" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h2> <p>ADR-0002 mandates mandator/project separation enforced by PostgreSQL Row-Level Security, independent of application code (REQ-SEP-004), with an automated proof in CI (REQ-SEP-007, RISK-001). RLS needs a <em>context</em>: how does a database session know which scopes the current user is authorized for, so policies can filter rows?</p> <h2 id="options-considered">Options Considered<a class="headerlink" href="#options-considered" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h2> <h3 id="option-a-session-variable-carrying-the-authorized-scope-set-chosen">Option A: Session variable carrying the authorized scope set (chosen)<a class="headerlink" href="#option-a-session-variable-carrying-the-authorized-scope-set-chosen" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h3> <p>The application computes the user's authorized scope IDs (eventually from role assignments) and sets them once per connection/request in the session variable <code>lqms.authorized_scope_ids</code>. Policies filter rows to that set.</p> <ul> <li>Pros: simple, fast (no per-query joins); policies are trivial and uniform across all content tables; works now, before the user/role-assignment tables exist; RLS remains a hard backstop against query-level bugs regardless of any WHERE clause.</li> <li>Cons: the app role can in principle set its own scope set, so the guarantee is "given the session's declared scopes, no query escapes them" — it protects against query bugs and injection that manipulate <em>data</em> queries, not against compromised connection-setup code. Hardening path below.</li> </ul> <h3 id="option-b-session-variable-carrying-the-authenticated-user-id-policies-join-role-assignments">Option B: Session variable carrying the authenticated user id; policies join role assignments<a class="headerlink" href="#option-b-session-variable-carrying-the-authenticated-user-id-policies-join-role-assignments" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h3> <p>Policies derive authorized scopes in-database from the user id.</p> <ul> <li>Pros: the database itself derives authorization; the session cannot claim scopes it has no assignment for.</li> <li>Cons: needs the role-assignment table (not yet built — catalog module); more complex policies; a join cost on every row check.</li> </ul> <h3 id="option-c-one-database-role-per-scopemandator">Option C: One database role per scope/mandator<a class="headerlink" href="#option-c-one-database-role-per-scopemandator" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h3> <p>Rejected: does not scale, and reintroduces the per-tenant fragmentation ADR-0002 avoided.</p> <h2 id="decision">Decision<a class="headerlink" href="#decision" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h2> <p><strong>Option A.</strong> RLS context is the session variable <code>lqms.authorized_scope_ids</code> (comma-separated UUIDs), read by <code>lqms_authorized_scope_ids()</code>. Policies grant a session its authorized scopes plus the shared global base scope for reading (REQ-SEP-005).</p> <p>Enforcement prerequisites baked into V002:</p> <ul> <li>A dedicated role <strong><code>lqms_app</code></strong> holds DML on tenant tables and is <strong>subject to RLS</strong>.</li> <li><code>ENABLE</code> + <code>FORCE ROW LEVEL SECURITY</code> on every tenant table.</li> <li>The runtime application <strong>must</strong> connect as a member of <code>lqms_app</code> — never as a superuser, the table owner, or a <code>BYPASSRLS</code> role — or RLS is silently void.</li> <li>The migration/admin/backup role has <code>BYPASSRLS</code>.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Planned hardening (toward Option B):</strong> once the role-assignment table exists, the scope set will be populated by a <code>SECURITY DEFINER</code> function that takes an authenticated user id and derives the scopes in-database, so the session cannot assert scopes it lacks assignments for. The policy shape stays the same; only how the variable is filled changes.</p> <h2 id="consequences">Consequences<a class="headerlink" href="#consequences" title="Permanent link">¶</a></h2> <ul> <li>Every content-bearing table follows the same pattern: scope key column, <code>ENABLE</code>/<code>FORCE</code> RLS, a <code>*_tenant_isolation</code> policy keyed on <code>lqms_authorized_scope_ids()</code>.</li> <li>The separation test suite (<code>RlsSeparationTest</code>, REQ-SEP-007) seeds cross-scope data as the owner, then proves <code>lqms_app</code> cannot see/modify another mandator's rows even with an unfiltered query; it is negative-tested (weakening a policy makes it fail).</li> <li><strong>Open runtime gap (RISK-001):</strong> the API currently uses Quarkus Dev Services (superuser), which bypasses RLS — RLS is proven at the DB/test level but not yet enforced for the running app. Wiring the runtime datasource to <code>lqms_app</code> and setting the session variable per authenticated request is a prerequisite before any real multi-tenant deployment, and depends on authentication (not yet built).</li> </ul> </article> </div> <script>var target=document.getElementById(location.hash.slice(1));target&&target.name&&(target.checked=target.name.startsWith("__tabbed_"))</script> </div> <button type="button" class="md-top md-icon" data-md-component="top" hidden> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M13 20h-2V8l-5.5 5.5-1.42-1.42L12 4.16l7.92 7.92-1.42 1.42L13 8z"/></svg> Back to top </button> </main> <footer class="md-footer"> <nav class="md-footer__inner md-grid" aria-label="Footer" > <a href="../adr-0008-flyway-and-jooq-codegen/" class="md-footer__link md-footer__link--prev" aria-label="Previous: ADR-0008: Flyway Migrations and jOOQ Codegen from the Migrated Schema"> <div class="md-footer__button md-icon"> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M20 11v2H8l5.5 5.5-1.42 1.42L4.16 12l7.92-7.92L13.5 5.5 8 11z"/></svg> </div> <div class="md-footer__title"> <span class="md-footer__direction"> Previous </span> <div class="md-ellipsis"> ADR-0008: Flyway Migrations and jOOQ Codegen from the Migrated Schema </div> </div> </a> <a href="../adr-0010-self-managed-qms-internal-mandator/" class="md-footer__link md-footer__link--next" aria-label="Next: ADR-0010: Self-Managed QMS via an Internal Mandator"> <div class="md-footer__title"> <span class="md-footer__direction"> Next </span> <div class="md-ellipsis"> ADR-0010: Self-Managed QMS via an Internal Mandator </div> </div> <div class="md-footer__button md-icon"> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M4 11v2h12l-5.5 5.5 1.42 1.42L19.84 12l-7.92-7.92L10.5 5.5 16 11z"/></svg> </div> </a> </nav> <div class="md-footer-meta md-typeset"> <div class="md-footer-meta__inner md-grid"> <div class="md-copyright"> <div class="md-copyright__highlight"> Built from <code>v0.9.56-4-g06c7f811</code> (commit <code>06c7f811</code>, 2026-09-09) — the same Markdown the repository ships. </div> </div> </div> </div> </footer> </div> <div class="md-dialog" data-md-component="dialog"> <div class="md-dialog__inner md-typeset"></div> </div> <script id="__config" type="application/json">{"base": "../..", "features": ["navigation.instant", "navigation.tracking", "navigation.top", "navigation.footer", "navigation.indexes", "toc.follow", "search.suggest", "search.highlight", "content.code.copy", "content.action.edit"], "search": "../../assets/javascripts/workers/search.6ce7567c.min.js", "translations": {"clipboard.copied": "Copied to clipboard", "clipboard.copy": "Copy to clipboard", "search.result.more.one": "1 more on this page", "search.result.more.other": "# more on this page", "search.result.none": "No matching documents", "search.result.one": "1 matching document", "search.result.other": "# matching documents", "search.result.placeholder": "Type to start searching", "search.result.term.missing": "Missing", "select.version": "Select version"}}</script> <script src="../../assets/javascripts/bundle.83f73b43.min.js"></script> </body> </html>