Each user account in Gaia has one or more memberships that control which areas of the app the user can see and which actions the user can take. Exact permissions can vary by district configuration. The main categories are described below.

Members at the district level. They have access across all schools in the district and can build and publish menu plans, manage items and recipes, manage vendors and order guides, view and update all production records and orders, run all reports, and manage user accounts.

Members assigned to one or more specific schools. They can view their school menus (not edit them), enter forecasts, place and receive orders for their schools, manage inventory at their sites, complete production records, and view their schools' POS sessions and student rosters.

A school manager assigned to a central kitchen or central warehouse site gets added control over that site, on top of the standard school manager abilities above. For the site or sites they are assigned to, they can manage the central orders and deliveries, manage the order guides, and view (read-only) the forecasts for the schools that site serves. This is scoped to their own site or sites; it does not grant district-wide director access. Central warehouse managers get the same, without production, since a warehouse distributes food rather than cooks it.

Cashiers use the POS app, which runs on a terminal or in a browser tab. They typically do not sign in to the rest of the Gaia web app.

Gaia support staff have superadmin access for troubleshooting. Superadmin actions are logged.