Access Levels

access_levels.toml — defining privilege classes, time limits, ratios, and per-class behavior

This page is the field-by-field reference for config/security/access_levels.toml — the file that defines your privilege classes. If you’re looking for the big-picture overview of how levels, flags, and access strings work together, start with Security & Access.

Each entry in this file is an [[access_level]] table. You can have as many or as few classes as your board needs. Maximus loads them at startup and sorts them by level number — the numeric level is what matters, not the order they appear in the file.

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Quick Reference

Key	Type	Default	Description
name	string	(required)	Symbolic name of the class (e.g., "Normal", "Sysop")
level	int	(required)	Numeric privilege level (0–65535, must be unique)
description	string	""	User-visible description shown in the user editor
alias	string	""	Alternate label for legacy compatibility
key	string	""	Single-character key used by legacy MECCA tokens
time	int	60	Per-session time limit in minutes
cume	int	90	Per-day cumulative time limit in minutes
calls	int	-1	Maximum logons per day (-1 = unlimited)
logon_baud	int	300	Minimum connection speed to log on
xfer_baud	int	300	Minimum connection speed for file transfers
file_limit	int	0	Maximum kilobytes downloadable per day
file_ratio	int	0	Download-to-upload ratio (0 = no ratio enforcement)
ratio_free	int	0	KB the user can download before ratio kicks in
upload_reward	int	0	Percent time credit returned for uploads
login_file	string	""	Display file shown immediately after logon for this class
flags	array	[]	General behavior flags (see Privileges & Flags)
mail_flags	array	[]	Mail/editor flags (see Privileges & Flags)
user_flags	int	0	Sysop-defined bitfield for MEX scripts
oldpriv	int	0	Legacy Maximus 2.x compatibility field

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Deep Dives

Name and Level

name is the human-readable label for the class — it’s what you see in the user editor, in “Who’s Online” displays, and in log entries. level is the number that actually matters for access checks. Two classes cannot share the same level number.

Convention: keep levels spaced in increments of 10 so you have room to insert new classes later without renumbering everything.

Time Limits

• time — the hard per-session ceiling. Once this many minutes have elapsed since logon, Maximus warns the caller and then disconnects.
• cume — the cumulative daily ceiling. If a caller logs on three times in one day, total time across all sessions is tracked against this value.

Set both to 1440 (24 hours) for classes that shouldn’t have time limits. Or use the NoTimeLimit flag in the flags array to bypass enforcement entirely.

Download Limits and Ratios

• file_limit — maximum kilobytes the user can download per day. Set to 0 to block downloads entirely, or use NoFileLimit in flags.
• file_ratio — enforced ratio of downloads to uploads. A value of 5 means the user must upload 1 KB for every 5 KB downloaded.
• ratio_free — a grace period in KB. The user can download this much before ratio enforcement begins. Useful for giving new users a head start.
• upload_reward — percent of upload time credited back to the session. A value of 100 means upload time doesn’t count against the session clock.

Login File

login_file specifies a display file (relative to the display path) shown immediately after the caller completes logon. This lets you show different welcome screens to different classes — a “welcome, new user” screen for Limited, a sysop bulletin for AsstSysop, etc.

Leave it empty to skip the per-class display.

Flags

The flags and mail_flags arrays are where the real fine-grained control lives. These are documented in detail on the Privileges & Flags page. Here’s a quick example of a co-sysop class:

[[access_level]]
name = "AsstSysop"
level = 90
description = "AsstSysop"
key = "A"
time = 120
cume = 180
calls = -1
file_limit = 5000
flags = ["ShowHidden", "ShowAllFiles", "DloadHidden"]
mail_flags = ["LocalEditor", "NetFree", "WriteRdOnly"]

User Flags

user_flags is a 32-bit integer bitfield that Maximus itself doesn’t interpret — it’s reserved for your MEX scripts. If you write a MEX door or automation that needs custom per-class behavior, you can test individual bits of this field in your script logic.

Legacy Fields

• alias — an alternate name for the class, carried over from legacy Maximus. Rarely used in modern configs.
• key — a single character used by MECCA [iflevel] tokens. Only relevant if you have MECCA display files that check access levels.
• oldpriv — maps to the numeric privilege values from Maximus 2.x. Used internally during CTL-to-TOML migration. Don’t change this unless you’re debugging a legacy conversion.

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Adding a New Class

To add a new access level, just add another [[access_level]] block with a unique level number:

[[access_level]]
name = "Trusted"
level = 35
description = "Trusted — validated and active"
key = ""
time = 90
cume = 120
calls = -1
logon_baud = 300
xfer_baud = 300
file_limit = 8000
file_ratio = 0
ratio_free = 2000
upload_reward = 100
login_file = ""
flags = []
mail_flags = []
user_flags = 0
oldpriv = 0

Restart Maximus (or the affected node) for the new class to take effect. Then use the User Editor to promote users to the new level.

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See Also

• Security & Access — big-picture overview of the access control system
• Privileges & Flags — complete flag reference
• Session & Login — logon_priv (default level for new users)
• MaxCFG User Editor — changing a user’s privilege level