You shouldn’t have to grant full repository admin rights just to let an engineer or release manager trigger a deployment. To solve the all-or-nothing access problem, Bitbucket Pipelines introduces custom deployment permissions (Beta). You can now gate specific environments to authorized users and groups, ensuring safer releases and easier compliance.

Left: Add users and groups to gate deployments for this environment.
Right: Unauthorised users are blocked from deploying and need someone with access to resume the deployment.

What this unblocks for your team

Deployment permissions help teams protect critical environments without slowing down their release process.

  • Reduce production risk: limit deployment access to the people and groups trusted to release to sensitive environments.
  • Avoid unnecessary admin access: give release managers, SREs, or on-call teams deployment access without making them repository admins.
  • Support compliance workflows: separate who can merge code from who can deploy it, helping teams meet change-management and audit requirements.

How it works

Repository admins can manage permissions for each environment directly from the Repository settings → Pipelines → Deployments

  • Add users or groups: Add individual users or groups to an environment’s permissions list.
  • Audit access: View who currently has access, including user and group details.
  • Revoke access: Remove a user or group when they no longer need deployment access.

When permissions are configured for an environment, only the users and groups listed in the permission list can trigger deployments to that environment.

Getting Started

To use this feature, workspace must be on a Premium plan. Additionally, Bitbucket Pipelines must be enabled for the repository and at least one deployment environment configured. You must also have Admin permissions on the repository.

  1. Navigate to Repository settings → Pipelines → Deployments.
  2. In the Deployment permissions section, select the option to allow selected users or groups.
  3. Add the required users or groups to gate deployments for that environment.

How to: Set up and monitor deployments | Bitbucket Cloud | Atlassian Support.

Known Limitations

  • You can either use existing admin-only deployments or custom deployment permissions for environments.
  • Each environment supports a maximum of 100 users and groups combined.
  • Deployment permissions take precedence over any scheduled or automated deployments, i.e. these deployments will also be halted and will require an approved user to resume the deployment.

What’s next

We’ll use beta feedback to validate the permission model, UI, and deployment-time enforcement before moving towards GA.

Have questions or feedback?

We’d love your feedback, please share your feedback to help us prioritise what comes next for Deployments. Join the conversation on our Atlassian Community page, review our support docs or reach out to our support team.