Skip to content
Foundation Docs

Permission errors

Most permission problems in Foundation trace back to one of three causes: the user lacks Jira BROWSE on an issue, a lens grant was never made or was removed, or a group/role change hasn’t yet propagated past the 15-minute cache. Work through this checklist in order.

”I can’t see this issue but I know it exists”

Section titled “”I can’t see this issue but I know it exists””

Foundation hides rows the viewer can’t BROWSE in Jira. Even if the lens was shared with you, issues you don’t have Jira access to stay invisible.

  1. Open the issue directly in Jira (paste the key into the URL or search).
  2. If Jira shows You don’t have permission to view this issue, that’s the cause. Ask a Jira admin to add you to the relevant project role or group.
  3. If Jira shows the issue, the BROWSE cache is probably stale. Reload the Foundation lens twice — the second reload is usually past the 15-minute window.

Remember: hidden parents hide their children. If you don’t see a whole subtree, you may be missing access to the epic rather than the stories themselves.

”I can see the lens but can’t edit”

Section titled “”I can see the lens but can’t edit””

This has two possible causes:

  • Lens grant is View-only — open the lens, click Share, and look for your name (or a group/role you belong to). If the level is View, ask the owner to raise it to Edit.
  • Jira EDIT_ISSUES is missing — even with Edit on the lens, Jira must let you change the issue. Usually you’ll see a specific Jira error message when you try to edit — “You do not have permission to edit this issue” or a workflow validator message.

If your lens grant is right but Jira rejects the change, that’s a Jira permission scheme job for your Jira admin.

”I was removed from the lens but still see it”

Section titled “”I was removed from the lens but still see it””

Foundation caches group and role membership for 15 minutes to stay inside Jira API rate limits. After a revoke:

  • User grant — access is gone on the next page reload.
  • Group grant — up to 15 minutes until the cache expires.
  • Role grant — same 15-minute window.

If you still see the lens after 30 minutes and a reload, confirm the grant is actually gone — someone else may have granted you access through a different group.

”I can’t share this lens with someone”

Section titled “”I can’t share this lens with someone””

You need Control on the lens to share it. Owners always have Control.

  • If the Share button is greyed out, your level is below Control. Ask the owner to raise it, or ask them to add the person themselves.
  • If the Share dialog opens but the Add button stays disabled, either the search turned up nothing that matches your query or the Atlassian account is deactivated.

”A teammate says they can’t see rows I can”

Section titled “”A teammate says they can’t see rows I can””

Almost always a Jira permission difference between you two. Foundation is doing exactly what it should — showing each user the rows they can BROWSE. Compare your Jira project roles and groups with theirs.

Transient errors

Section titled “Transient errors”
  • overrideEditableFlag / overrideScreenSecurity rejected — some custom flags only work with asApp() Jira calls. Foundation handles this automatically; if you see a user-facing error referencing one of these flags, let your admin know.
  • 401 / re-consent prompts — if Jira asks you to re-consent to the app out of the blue, accept the prompt. This happens occasionally when Atlassian rotates tokens.
Section titled “Related”