matrix-org / matrix-org/matrix-spec

Clarify the maximum value of room power levels

Open
#5 5 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
clarification
Dominant language
HTML
Stars
330
Forks
150
Avg merge
2h 21m
Merged PRs (30d)
3

Description

**Link to problem area**:
https://spec.matrix.org/v1.2/client-server-api/#mroompower_levels

**Issue**
The spec doesn't specify the maximum possible power level. The room creator power level is specified as 100, but the documentation doesn't say if a higher value is allowed (i.e. set by automation to disallow certain actions even for room creator/admin).

This is used by https://github.com/digitalentity/matrix_encryption_disabler and https://github.com/fhirfactory/pegacorn-communicate-roomserver/pull/7 to disable the room encryption for certain use-cases, but since it's not documented in the spec it might be considered unsafe.

**Fix**
Document the valid rande for room power level. The reasonable could be i.e. `[0; 255]` to match the `uint8` type (which would also fit into a single byte for bandwidth-efficient binary encoding and transport protocols if necessary).

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Open the linked M_ROOM_POWER_LEVELS section in the Matrix Client-Server API specification and compare its stated creator level with the cited implementations and pull request. Resolve and document the valid range for room power levels; done when the specification explicitly states the allowed maximum.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
html
Domain
api, documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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