# Elegantly see access control within file managers

**URL:** <https://forum.solidproject.org/t/elegantly-see-access-control-within-file-managers/10359>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [March 6, 2026, 12:35pm UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/elegantly-see-access-control-within-file-managers/10359 "2026-03-06T12:35:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jklee](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.solidproject.org/jklee/32/4918_2.png) [@jklee](https://forum.solidproject.org/u/jklee)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2026, 12:35pm UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/elegantly-see-access-control-within-file-managers/10359/1 "2026-03-06T12:35:06Z")

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Hi everyone,

I am trying out some things and wanted to ask whether there is a possibility to elegently see in one of the file managing apps, what the access of the datasets within your POD is. In Penny I see that there are ACL entries. Its really hard to understand for me what they exactly mean tbh. The Solid File Manager looks really nice, but there I cannot find anything in that direction. In my imagination I would expect something like the output from ‘ls -l’ in command line on a Unix system.

Am I just not getting something or is it just an open issue or not implemented?

Thanks 🙂

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**Author:** ![bourgeoa](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.solidproject.org/bourgeoa/32/291_2.png) [@bourgeoa](https://forum.solidproject.org/u/bourgeoa)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2026, 8:33am UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/elegantly-see-access-control-within-file-managers/10359/2 "2026-03-09T08:33:08Z")

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> **[Manage Resource Access - Bashlib](https://solidlabresearch.github.io/Bashlib/documentation/cli/access/)**

You could try.

Or use mashlib data browser [https://SolidOS.github.io/mashlib/dist/browse.html](https://SolidOS.github.io/mashlib/dist/browse.html) a pane display authorisation

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**Author:** ![jklee](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.solidproject.org/jklee/32/4918_2.png) [@jklee](https://forum.solidproject.org/u/jklee)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 6:44pm UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/elegantly-see-access-control-within-file-managers/10359/3 "2026-04-05T18:44:11Z")

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Thanks for the answer and sorry for the late reply. I finally tried both out, but to be honest I did not manage to use any of them..

1. The mashlib data source I provide the POD address, afterwards I login (which works at other apps flawlessly) and then I get an error “Failed to load [https://storage.inrupt.com/myaddress/](https://storage.inrupt.com/myaddress/) Fetcher: [https://storage.inrupt.com/myaddress//](https://storage.inrupt.com/myaddress//) status: 401
2. I installed the Bashlib and then used “sld auth set [https://people.org/alice/webid”](https://people.org/alice/webid%E2%80%9D). Afterwards I tried sld access list --pretty [https://mypod.org/](https://mypod.org/) a login window appears when hittin y. When selecting approve/allow access it hangs indefinitely.

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**Author:** ![jklee](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.solidproject.org/jklee/32/4918_2.png) [@jklee](https://forum.solidproject.org/u/jklee)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2026, 11:03am UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/elegantly-see-access-control-within-file-managers/10359/4 "2026-05-20T11:03:00Z")

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I opened a PR for the solid-file-manager, how I would wish to see the access rights information. There was already some feedback from Jesse and I would be glad for more from others, too.

> <https://github.com/solid/solid-file-manager/pull/62>
>
> Adds an optional toggle to show permissions. It is color coded and shows the 4 c…ategories
> 
> Private/Green
> Public/Red
> Authenticated/Yellow
> Shared/Purple
> 
> Hovering over the permissions give additional informations like the detailed webids or URIs.
> 
> \<img width="1061" height="433" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2c1694db-5666-480e-8871-d1a9b448aa99" /\>
> \<img width="1472" height="284" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/bcd75037-3489-4d79-985b-ee9dd763d224" /\>

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**Author:** ![bourgeoa](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.solidproject.org/bourgeoa/32/291_2.png) [@bourgeoa](https://forum.solidproject.org/u/bourgeoa)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2026, 9:55am UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/elegantly-see-access-control-within-file-managers/10359/5 "2026-05-21T09:55:04Z")

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Your result is expected. Your pod is an [inrupt.com](http://inrupt.com) one that is an ACP Authorisation server.  
The app I was proposing are working with server running WAC Authorisation like [https://solidcommunity.net](https://solidcommunity.net)

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**Author:** ![jklee](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.solidproject.org/jklee/32/4918_2.png) [@jklee](https://forum.solidproject.org/u/jklee)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2026, 10:36am UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/elegantly-see-access-control-within-file-managers/10359/6 "2026-05-21T10:36:03Z")

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Ok, thanks for clearing that up. I knew that they are different, but didn’t get, that this is the problem here. I will test it with an according pod again.