Troubleshooting Agentforce permissions
Key Takeaway
First ask whose access the agent runs under. A Service agent usually runs as a dedicated agent user that starts with minimal access, so the agent can only do what an admin explicitly grants.
Agentforce permission problems come in two kinds. Either an agent can't reach (or reaches too much of) the data and actions it uses, or a user can't reach the tools to build and manage agents. The fix depends on whose access the agent runs under.
Whose access the agent runs under
Start every agent permission issue by asking whose access the agent runs under.
| Agent | Runs as | Access |
|---|---|---|
| Employee agent | The logged-in user | That user's profile, permission sets, field-level security, and sharing rules decide the agent's actions and responses. |
| Service agent | A dedicated agent user, EinsteinServiceAgent User | That user's profile, permissions, field-level security, and sharing rules govern data access. |
| Lead Nurturing agent | A dedicated agent user, EinsteinSDRAgent User | That user gets system-level permissions during agent setup. |
Because an Employee agent runs as the logged-in user, you don't need to explicitly scope its queries and actions to user-specific data.
Service agents serve channels that aren't restricted to logged-in users, so they usually can't use the customer's user record and run as the agent user instead.
A Service agent uses the customer's own access only when all three of these conditions are true:
- The customer is logged in to an Experience Cloud site.
- The agent is deployed through Enhanced Chat.
- Credential-based user verification is enabled.
In that case, the agent runs as the logged-in site user and respects that user's profile, permissions, field-level security, and sharing rules.
A verified customer is not the same as a logged-in customer. Suppose a customer has a contact record and has confirmed their identity (for example, with an OTP), but isn't logged in. The customer still talks to an agent running as the agent user, not as themselves.