Tauri Capability Permissions for tauri-plugin-configurate

Tauri v2’s capability system controls which plugin commands your frontend is allowed to invoke. You declare the permissions your app needs in a capability JSON file, and Tauri enforces them at the IPC boundary — commands not listed in your capability file are rejected before they reach the plugin.

Default permissions: `configurate:default`

The configurate:default permission set covers all standard configuration operations. Add it to your capability file to enable the full CRUD surface, batch operations, file watching, and import/export:

{
  "permissions": ["configurate:default"]
}

configurate:default grants the following individual permissions:

Permission	Command
`allow-create`	Create a new config file
`allow-load`	Load an existing config file
`allow-save`	Overwrite a config file
`allow-patch`	Partially update a config file
`allow-delete`	Delete a config file
`allow-exists`	Check whether a config file exists
`allow-load-all`	Batch load multiple configs
`allow-save-all`	Batch save multiple configs
`allow-patch-all`	Batch patch multiple configs
`allow-watch-file`	Watch a config file for external changes
`allow-unwatch-file`	Stop watching a config file
`allow-list-configs`	List config files in a directory
`allow-reset`	Delete and re-create a config file
`allow-export-config`	Export a config as a formatted string
`allow-import-config`	Import a config from a formatted string

Keyring unlock: `configurate:allow-unlock`

The allow-unlock permission gates the keyring retrieval command that populates keyring fields when you call .unlock(). It is not included in configurate:default and must be added separately.

If your schema uses keyring() fields and you call .unlock() or loadAll().unlock() without adding configurate:allow-unlock to your capability file, the IPC call will be rejected with a permission error at runtime.

Add it alongside the default set:

{
  "permissions": ["configurate:default", "configurate:allow-unlock"]
}

BaseDirectory restrictions

By default, the plugin only allows config files to be stored in app-scoped base directories. IPC payloads that reference any other directory are rejected before the command executes. The permitted directories are:

AppConfig
AppData
AppLocalData
AppCache
AppLog
Resource
Temp

This restriction exists to prevent frontend code from reading or writing config files anywhere on the filesystem.

Using a BaseDirectory value outside this allowlist — such as Home, Desktop, or Document — requires explicit configuration in the Rust plugin builder. Without it, the plugin will reject the request at runtime.

Expanding allowed directories

To permit additional base directories, configure the plugin builder in Rust before registering it with Tauri:

tauri_plugin_configurate::Builder::default()
    .allowed_base_directories([
        tauri::path::BaseDirectory::AppConfig,
        tauri::path::BaseDirectory::Document,
    ])
    .build()

To disable the restriction entirely and allow any base directory:

tauri_plugin_configurate::Builder::default()
    .allow_any_base_directory()
    .build()

fn main() {
    tauri::Builder::default()
        .plugin(
            tauri_plugin_configurate::Builder::default()
                .allowed_base_directories([
                    tauri::path::BaseDirectory::AppConfig,
                    tauri::path::BaseDirectory::Document,
                ])
                .build(),
        )
        .run(tauri::generate_context!())
        .expect("error while running tauri application");
}

Only expand the allowed directories when your app genuinely needs to store configuration outside the default app-scoped paths. Permitting broad filesystem access increases the attack surface if your frontend is ever compromised.

​Default permissions: configurate:default

​Keyring unlock: configurate:allow-unlock

​BaseDirectory restrictions

​Expanding allowed directories

Default permissions: `configurate:default`

Keyring unlock: `configurate:allow-unlock`

BaseDirectory restrictions

Expanding allowed directories