Designing Role-Aware CRUD with VibeDBTool
Giving teammates the ability to change production data is both empowering and terrifying. VibeDBTool's role-aware CRUD flows strike the balance: speed for the people doing the work, and confidence for the people accountable for the results.
This guide covers the strategy we use when modeling CRUD for new customers.
Step 1: Inventory your personas
List the real humans who will touch the data and what they need:
- Founders/Admins: full visibility, emergency overrides, ability to invite others.
- RevOps: manage subscriptions, revenue alignment, adjustments.
- Support: resolve tickets, refund small amounts, fix profile issues.
- Analysts: read-heavy access, occasional derived column edits.
The personas become roles inside VibeDBTool. Give each a plain-language description so future teammates know which one to pick.
Step 2: Scope every operation
For each role, specify the CRUD verbs they can execute and on which entities. A simple matrix helps:
| Entity | Create | Read | Update | Delete | Notes |
| ------ | ------ | ---- | ------ | ------ | ----- |
| Users | Admin | All | Admin, Support (limited fields) | Admin (soft delete) | Support can only edit contact info |
| Subscriptions | Admin | All | RevOps (plan, status) | Admin | RevOps cannot set $0 plans |
| Tickets | Support | All | Support | Support (archive) | Admin can reopen archived tickets |
Translate this matrix directly into VibeDBTool guardrails; each row becomes a policy.
Step 3: Design the forms
The magic happens in the mutation forms. Key principles:
- Surface context: show read-only fields that help decisions (last payment, risk score).
- Limit inputs: expose only the columns the role can edit; hide the rest.
- Explain consequences: add helper text like "Changing plan_id will pro-rate the invoice."
Use VibeDBTool's form builder to add validation rules, default values, and derived fields. For advanced cases, attach pre-save hooks that call your own API for deeper checks.
Step 4: Wire approvals and automations
Decide when to ask for help:
- Support refunds over $200? escalate to RevOps.
- RevOps moving a customer to enterprise tier? ping a founder for approval.
- Admin trying to delete more than 10 rows? require a second signature and create a backup snapshot automatically.
Each approval rule can also trigger automations such as Slack messages, ticket updates, or webhooks into downstream systems.
Step 5: Close the loop with analytics
CRUD isn't done once the button works. Use the audit log and dashboard metrics to answer:
- Which roles initiate the most changes?
- How long do approvals take?
- Where do guardrails block legitimate work?
Adjust policies based on the data. Maybe support needs an extra field exposed, or perhaps RevOps should lose delete access after all.
Keep evolving
Role-aware CRUD is never static. As your product adds features or compliance requirements tighten, revisit the matrix. VibeDBTool makes those changes low-code so you can keep shipping with confidence.