---
title: "Menus and User Types"
section: "Builder Guide"
canonical_url: "https://support.buildwithhq.com/builder-guide/menus-user-types.html"
reviewed_at: "2026-09-14"
authority: Official
---

# Menus and User Types

Create a User Type, assemble its menu from shared or independent pages, and publish safely.

## In brief

- **Audience:** Builders
- **Build order:** User Type to published page
- **Primary editor:** Puck

The Design workspace follows one deliberate order: **User Types → menus → shared pages**. A User Type selects an audience's starting page, layout and menu. Its menu arranges navigation links; an entitled published page may also be opened directly. DataRoles and Locations remain separate and decide what data the signed-in person may use on each requested page.

## From User Type creation to publish

1. Inside the SaaS, open **Design**.
2. Under **User Types**, create or select the audience. Give a new type a stable key and a clear display name.
3. Choose its dashboard/home page.
4. Add pages to the menu with **Add existing**, **Duplicate**, or a new blank page.
5. Order the menu items, remove anything this audience does not need, and choose **Save menu**.
6. Select the page you want to edit. Build it in Puck, using Monaco only for advanced canonical JSON work.
7. Preview the presentation, save the draft, validate it, resolve every error and warning, then publish the exact validated draft.
8. Sign in as a representative user of that type and test navigation, direct routes, records, fields, locations, and permitted actions.

## Add existing or Duplicate?

| Choice | What it creates | Use it when |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Add existing** | Adds the same PageKey to this menu. The page content is shared; publishing an edit updates every User Type that uses that page. | The audiences use the same workflow or layout, even if their authorized data differs. |
| **Duplicate** | Creates a new independent PageKey with copied starting content. Later edits and publishes are isolated. | An audience genuinely needs a different layout or workflow that should diverge. |
| **Blank page** | Creates a new independent PageKey and empty starting document. | No existing page is a useful starting point. |

Tip

Do not duplicate a page merely to change data access. Reuse the page and assign each person the correct DataRoles and Locations.

## Shared pages can appear in several menus

A single page may be a dashboard, appear in multiple User Type menus, or occupy a different menu position for each audience. Each menu can give the same existing page a different label without creating another page. The Shared pages list shows menu-placement and dashboard-usage counts so you can understand the impact before editing or publishing it.

## Direct-route behavior

User Types choose menus, layouts, and starting pages. An active, entitled published page can be opened directly even when it is absent from the current menu. Removing a menu link changes navigation; it does not revoke access to the page or its data.

The server resolves each request from the verified user, tenant organization, SaaS app, and persisted page identity. It selects the applicable tenant page, customization or fork, or base page from the database. A menu label is presentation text, never a guessed page name or permission.

Route eligibility is still not data authorization. Assigning a page does not grant a record, field, export, AI retrieval, location, or mutation. Those checks use the signed-in person's DataRoles, Locations, and action-specific permissions each time.

## Safe collaboration and publishing

Menu and page saves use version checks. If another editor publishes or changes the menu first, reload and review the current state instead of overwriting it. Unsaved menu changes prevent page publishing. Preview is non-interactive and User Type simulation changes presentation only; it never borrows another audience's data permissions.

See [Build and publish SaaS pages](page-editor.html)  for the Puck, Monaco, preview, validation, and revision workflow, and [Tenant Data Security](../trust/tenant-data-security.html)  for the three independent security dimensions.

---

Capability review: 2026-09-14. [View the canonical guide](https://support.buildwithhq.com/builder-guide/menus-user-types.html).