Account Permissions & Session Keys

All of the account contracts - Simple and Managed - share the same permission model. In this section, we'll describe this permission model in detail.

An account recognizes only two types of actors: Session Keys and Admins.

1. Admins

Admins have unrestricted access to the account; call any functions on the contract, use the contract without going through the ERC-4337 infrastructure (bundlers, EntryPoint, etc.), withdraw the account's native token balance, and so on.

Assigning Admin Permissions

Existing admins on the account can add new admins, remove existing admins or renounce their own admin status.


import { addAdmin } from "thirdweb/extensions/erc4337";
import { useSendTransaction, useActiveAccount } from "thirdweb/react";
import { getContract } from "thirdweb";
 
const { mutate: sendTransaction } = useSendTransaction();
const smartAccount = useActiveAccount();
 
const onClick = () => {
  if (!smartAccount) return;
  const transaction = addAdmin({
    contract: getContract({
      address: smartAccount.address,
      chain,
      client,
    }),
    account: smartAccount,
    adminAddress: "0x...", // the address of the new admin
  });
  sendTransaction(transaction);
};

2. Session Keys

Session Keys are additional authorized signers that must go through ERC-4337 infrastructure (bundlers, EntryPoint, etc.) to use an account to execute transactions. Session keys can use an account under certain restrictions.

Assigning Session Key Permissions

Each individual session key has its own permissions to use the account. Only admins can set the permissions for session keys.

Session keys can be assigned the following permissions:

Allow interaction with specific contracts with the account.
Have a maximum amount of native tokens that can be transferred per transaction.
Have access to the account only during a specific time window.

These restrictions are set in the SignerPermissionsRequest struct. To set the permissions for a given signer, the setPermissionsForSigner function is called.


import { addSessionKey } from "thirdweb/extensions/erc4337";
import { useSendTransaction, useActiveAccount } from "thirdweb/react";
import { getContract } from "thirdweb";
 
const { mutate: sendTransaction } = useSendTransaction();
const smartAccount = useActiveAccount();
 
const onClick = () => {
  if (!smartAccount) return;
  const transaction = addSessionKey({
    contract: getContract({
      address: smartAccount.address,
      chain,
      client,
    }),
    account: smartAccount,
    sessionKeyAddress: "0x...", // the address of the new session key
    permissions: {
      approvedTargets: "*", // the addresses of allowed contracts, or '*' for any contract
      nativeTokenLimitPerTransaction: 0.1, // the maximum amount of native token (in ETH) that the session key can spend per transaction
      permissionStartTimestamp: new Date(), // the date when the session key becomes active
      permissionEndTimestamp: new Date(
        Date.now() + 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000,
      ), // the date when the session key expires
    },
  });
  sendTransaction(transaction);
};