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Overview

Delegated access works by creating a specialized business-controlled user within each end-user’s sub-organization that has carefully scoped permissions to perform only specific actions, such as signing transactions to designated addresses. This can enable your backend to do things like:

  • Automate common transactions (e.g., staking, redemptions)
  • Sign transactions to whitelisted addresses without user involvement
  • Perform scheduled operations
  • Respond to specific onchain events programmatically

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Implementation flow

Here’s how to implement delegated access for an embedded wallet setup:

  • Create a sub-organization with two root users: The end user and your “Delegated User” with an API key authenticator that you control
  • Enable the Delegated Account to take particular actions by setting policies explicitly allowing those specific actions
  • Update the root quorum to ensure only the end-user retains root privileges

A simple example demonstrating the delegated acess setup can be found here.

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Step-by-step implementation

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Step 1: Create a sub-organization with two root users​

  • Create your sub-organization with the two root users being:
    • The end-user
    • A user you control (we’ll call it the ‘Delegated Account’)
{
  "type": "ACTIVITY_TYPE_CREATE_SUB_ORGANIZATION_V7",
  "timestampMs": "<time-in-ms>",
  "organizationId": "your-organization-id",
  "parameters": {
    "subOrganizationName": "<sub-org-name>",
    "rootUsers": [
      {
        "userName": "<end-user-name>",
        "userEmail": "enduser@example.com",
        "authenticators": [
          {
            "authenticatorName": "<passkey-name>",
            "challenge": "<webauthn-challenge>",
            "attestation": {
              "credentialId": "<credential-id>",
              "clientDataJson": "<client-data-json>",
              "attestationObject": "<attestation-object>",
              "transports": ["AUTHENTICATOR_TRANSPORT_HYBRID"]
            }
          }
        ],
        "apiKeys": [],
      "oidcProviders": []
      },
      {
        "userName": "Delegated Account",
        "userEmail": "<email>(optional)",
        "authenticators": [],
        "apiKeys": [
          {
            "apiKeyName": "<delegated-account-api-key-name>",
            "publicKey": "<delegated-account-api-public-key>"
          }
        ],
      "oidcProviders": []
      }
    ],
    "rootQuorumThreshold": 1,
    "wallet": {
      "walletName": "Default ETH Wallet",
      "accounts": [
        {
          "curve": "CURVE_SECP256K1",
          "pathFormat": "PATH_FORMAT_BIP32",
          "path": "m/44'/60'/0'/0/0",
          "addressFormat": "ADDRESS_FORMAT_ETHEREUM"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

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Step 2: Limit the permissions of the Delegated Account user via policies

  • Create a custom policy granting the Delegated Account specific permissions. You might grant that user permissions to:
    • Sign any transaction
    • Sign only transactions to a specific address
    • Create new users in the sub-org
    • Or any other activity you want to be able to take using your Delegated Account

Here’s one example, granting the Delegated Account only the permission to sign ethereum transactions to a specific receiver address:

{
  "type": "ACTIVITY_TYPE_CREATE_POLICY",
  "timestampMs": "<time-in-ms>",
  "organizationId": "sub-organization-id",
  "parameters": {
    "policyName": "Allow Delegated Account to sign transactions to specific address",
    "policy": {
      "effect": "EFFECT_ALLOW",
      "consensus": "approvers.any(user, user.id == <DELEGATED_ACCOUNT_USER_ID>)",
      "condition": "eth.tx.to == <RECIPIENT_ADDRESS>"
    },
  }
}

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Step 3: Remove the Delegated Account from the root quorum using the Delegated Account’s credentials:

// Update the root quorum of the sub organization to ONLY include the end user, removing the delegated access user
{
  "type": "ACTIVITY_TYPE_UPDATE_ROOT_QUORUM",
  "timestampMs": "<time-in-ms>",
  "organizationId": "<sub-organization-id>",
  "parameters": {
    "threshold": 1,
    "userIds": [
      "<end-user-id>" 
    ]
  }
}

After completing these steps, the sub-organization will have two users: the end-user (the only root-user) and the Delegated Account user, which only has the permissions granted earlier via policies and no longer retains root user privileges.

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Delegated Access Code Example

Below is a code example outlining the implementation of the delegated access setup flow described above

import { Turnkey } from "@turnkey/sdk-server";
import dotenv from "dotenv";

dotenv.config();

  // Initialize the Turnkey Server Client on the server-side
  const turnkeyServer = new Turnkey({
    apiBaseUrl: "https://api.turnkey.com",
    apiPrivateKey: process.env.TURNKEY_API_PRIVATE_KEY,
    apiPublicKey: process.env.TURNKEY_API_PUBLIC_KEY,
    defaultOrganizationId: process.env.TURNKEY_ORGANIZATION_ID,
  }).apiClient();


  // To create an API key programmatically check https://github.com/tkhq/sdk/blob/main/examples/kitchen-sink/src/sdk-server/createApiKey.ts
  const publicKey = "<delegated_api_public_key>";
  const curveType = "API_KEY_CURVE_P256"; // this is the default
  const apiKeys = [
    {
      apiKeyName: "Delegated - API Key",
      publicKey,
      curveType,
    },
  ];

  // STEP 1: Create a sub org with End User and Delegated access user in Root Quorum

  const subOrg = await turnkeyClient.createSubOrganization({
    organizationId: process.env.TURNKEY_ORGANIZATION_ID!,
    subOrganizationName: `Sub Org - With Delegated Access User`,
    rootUsers: [
      {
        userName: "Delegated Access User",
        apiKeys,
        authenticators: [],
        oauthProviders: []
      },
      {
          userName: "End User",
          userEmail: "<some-email>",
          apiKeys: [],
          authenticators: [],
          oauthProviders: []
      },
    ],
    rootQuorumThreshold: 1,
    wallet: {
      "walletName": "Default ETH Wallet",
      "accounts": [
        {
          "curve": "CURVE_SECP256K1",
          "pathFormat": "PATH_FORMAT_BIP32",
          "path": "m/44'/60'/0'/0/0",
          "addressFormat": "ADDRESS_FORMAT_ETHEREUM"
        }
      ]
    },
  });

  console.log("sub-org id:", subOrg.subOrganizationId);

  // Initializing the Turkey client used by the Delegated Access User
  // Notice the subOrganizationId created above 
  const turnkeyDelegatedAccessClient = new Turnkey({
    apiBaseUrl: "https://api.turnkey.com",
    apiPrivateKey: process.env.DELEGATED_API_PRIVATE_KEY!,
    apiPublicKey: process.env.DELEGATED_API_PUBLIC_KEY!,
    defaultOrganizationId: subOrg.subOrganizationId,
  }).apiClient();

  // STEP 2: Create a policy allowing the Delegated access user to send Ethereum transactions to a particular address

  // Creating a policy for the Delegated account 
  const delegated_userid = subOrg.rootUserIds[0];
  const policyName = "Allow Delegated Account to sign transactions to specific address";
  const effect = "EFFECT_ALLOW";
  const consensus = `approvers.any(user, user.id == '${delegated_userid}')`;
  const condition = `eth.tx.to == '${process.env.RECIPIENT_ADDRESS}'`;
  const notes = "";

  const { policyId } = await turnkeyDelegated.createPolicy({
    policyName,
    condition,
    consensus,
    effect,
    notes,
  });

  // STEP 3: Update the root quorum to only include the End User, removing the Delegated Access user

  // Remove the Delegated Account from the root quorum
  const RootQuorum = await turnkeyDelegated.updateRootQuorum({
    threshold: 1,
    userIds: [subOrg.rootUserIds[1]], // retain the end user
  });

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Policy Design and Creation

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Security & Risk Management

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Best Practices

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EVM and SVM-Specific Strategies