Account Model

Purpose

This page defines the stable account and role model that all clients and server code must follow.

Base Account

Each person has one user account.

The base account is the canonical identity for:

• sign-in
• password management
• email verification
• saved items and buyer actions
• seller ownership
• admin access if granted

Locked rules:

• email is the only login identifier in the first version
• email must be unique and compared case-insensitively
• phone numbers may be stored as contact data but are not login identifiers

Visible User Reference

Each user also has a stable support reference.

Locked rules:

• separate from the internal UUID
• unique
• immutable
• never reused
• format: USR-XXXXXXXX
• suffix uses uppercase characters from 23456789ABCDEFGHJKMNPQRSTVWXYZ

Seller Model

A seller is not a separate login account.

Instead:

• seller status attaches to the base user
• a person may act as a buyer and seller through one account
• seller eligibility and seller permissions are resolved from seller profile state, not a separate identity system

Dealer Model

A dealer is a business entity, not a login identity.

Users may be connected to a dealer through dealer membership or delegated business permissions, but the login identity still belongs to the user account.

Admin Model

Admin access is staff-only.

Locked rules:

• no public signup path for admin
• admin is granted explicitly
• admin permissions are separate from seller and dealer permissions
• the grant history must remain auditable

Minimal Core Records

The stable identity model depends on these records:

• users
• seller_profiles
• dealers
• dealer_memberships
• user_admin_grants

Practical Direction

Clients should assume:

• one user identity
• optional seller status
• optional business membership
• optional admin grant

Everything else builds on top of that model.