Giving every user write privileges invites accidental data loss, schema drift, and compliance violations. Following the principle of least privilege keeps production data safe while still delivering insights.
Platforms such as Galaxy let admins assign granular roles. The Viewer role can execute saved queries and export results but cannot modify SQL text or database objects.
Store business-critical queries in shared folders or Galaxy Collections and mark them as Endorsed. Users run them with one click, eliminating Slack copy-pastes and one-off requests.
Expose only safe variables (dates, IDs) through validated parameters. Galaxy validates input types before execution, preventing SQL injection and syntax errors.
Enable automatic versioning so that any attempted change is logged and reversible. Galaxy retains a complete audit trail for security and compliance reviews.
Route Viewer queries to read-only replicas, cap result row counts, and alert on long-running jobs to further reduce risk.
1. Create a Workspace.
2. Add data practitioners as Editors and business users as Viewers.
3. Save and Endorse key metric queries in a Collection.
4. Share query links; Viewers press Run for fresh results.
5. Review audit logs regularly.
Role-based permissions, endorsed query libraries, and audit trails in tools like Galaxy empower any teammate to self-serve data while keeping the database secure.
How to grant run-only SQL access; Role-based permissions for SQL; Safely sharing SQL with business users; Restricting database write access; Endorsed query libraries
.png)
Check out the hottest SQL, data engineer, and data roles at the fastest growing startups.
Check out
Check out our resources for beginners with practice exercises and more
Check out
Check out a curated list of the most common errors we see teams make!
Check out
.avif){kind=logo}
