Advanced tools. Roles decide which wallets can change your name. Change them only when you need to. If you remove a role from every wallet, including its Admin, it is locked for good: no one can give it back. Before you remove a role, check that another wallet you control still holds its Admin.
Registry roles let another wallet do one job on your name, such as change its resolver, without giving the name away.
See who holds a role
Your name sits in a registry (for a .eth name, the .eth registry), and the registry holds its roles. Anyone can see them: open the name in ENS Explorer and select Roles. You don't need to connect a wallet. Each row is a wallet, with a tick for each role it holds. There are up to three tables:
Parent registry / Roles: what each wallet can do to this name.
<name> Registry / Roles: who can create and manage the name's subnames. It shows once the name has a registry of its own.
<name> Resolver / Roles: who can edit the name's records. To change these, see Grant resolver 'roles' to edit name records.
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Give a wallet a role on your name
Connect a wallet with Admin on the role you want to give, and have a little ETH for network fees (gas).
A change in Parent registry / Roles also changes the name's token ID, so a marketplace listing tied to the old number stops working. See Why did my name's token ID change?
Important: on a subname, Unregister ("Can unregister (delete) the name") lets the holder delete it, so grant it only to a wallet you trust.
On the name's Roles tab, in Parent registry / Roles, select Add user.
Enter the wallet's ENS name or address.
Tick each role to give, in the User column. The Admin boxes stay grey, and so does any role you can't give on this name: on a .eth name, Renew and Unregister. Can Transfer isn't on the panel.
Select Save, then Start, then Open wallet, and approve in your wallet.
Take a role away
You need Admin on a role to remove it from another wallet. This also changes the token ID. Don't remove your own roles: you can lock yourself out.
On the name's Roles tab, in Parent registry / Roles, select the icon at the end of the wallet's row.
Untick the role, or select Remove user.
Select Save, then Start, then Open wallet, and approve in your wallet.
Give roles on your subnames
Your name needs a registry of its own first: it's the first step of Create a subname (ENS Explorer). Setting it up gives your wallet every role on that registry, with Admin, and they cover all the subnames in it.
On the name's Roles tab, under the <name> Registry / Roles table, select View and manage.
On the registry's own Roles page, select Add user.
Enter the wallet's ENS name or address.
Tick the roles it needs.
Select Save, then Start, then Open wallet, and approve in your wallet.
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Common questions
What's the difference between User and Admin?
User: the wallet can do that job.
Admin: the wallet can do that job and decide which other wallets hold the role.
What do the roles on my name do?
Can Transfer: move the name to another wallet.
Set Resolver: choose the name's resolver, the contract that answers questions about it and stores its records.
Set Subregistry: choose the registry that holds the name's subnames.
When you register a .eth name, your wallet holds these three. No role is needed to renew a .eth name: anyone can pay to renew it.
What do the roles on my subnames' registry do?
These are the ones you'll most often need, with the description the Add user panel gives each:
Registrar: "Can register new labels", which means creating subnames.
Register Reserved: "Can register reserved labels".
Renew: can push the name's expiry date forward.
Set Resolver: "Can change the resolver address".
Set Subregistry: "Can change subregistry addresses".
Set Parent: "Can update canonical parent".
The table also lists Can Name, Can Transfer, Set Uri, Unregister, Upgrade and Was Reserved. The registry's Add user panel doesn't offer these.
Why does a subname's Roles tab list so many roles?
On a subname, Parent registry / Roles shows the roles held on the parent name's registry, so it can list more, such as Renew and Unregister. Below it, Registry-wide roles lists wallets whose roles cover every name in that registry. ENS Explorer notes that these can't be changed from this page. See Who controls a subname?
Does changing who can edit my records change my token ID?
No. Those roles sit on the resolver, not the name. See Grant resolver 'roles' to edit name records.
My name had a Manager on ENSv1. Where did it go?
ENSv2 has no Manager: roles do its jobs. See What happened to the Manager role? Name not upgraded yet? To move only its Owner, see Transfer a name.