Feature Manager limitations for root vs reseller accounts

ElGato

• August 19, 2026 00:58
• Edited

Hi,

We would like to raise a question regarding the way Feature Manager permissions currently work in cPanel/WHM.

After upgrading to cPanel 138, several new features have appeared, such as:

• AI Assistant

• AI Assistant Actions

• MCP Connection

• Web Apps

• Switch Back to Jupiter

• Theme Switching

We want to prevent our resellers from being able to enable some of these features for their customers. However, we would still like to retain the ability, as root, to enable them selectively for our own direct hosting customers.

At the moment, as far as we understand, the only way to completely prevent resellers from enabling a feature is to add it to the special disabled Feature List.

The problem is that disabled acts as a global restriction. Once a feature is disabled there, root cannot enable it through another Feature List either.

This leaves us with two options:

1. Add the feature to disabled, in which case nobody can use it, including our own direct customers.

2. Remove it from disabled, in which case a reseller with access to Feature Manager may potentially enable it in one of their own Feature Lists.

What we would expect is some kind of intermediate permission level, for example:

• Feature available to root: Yes

• Feature available to reseller Feature Lists: No

Or, ideally, the ability to define which features each reseller is allowed to include in their Feature Lists.

Could you please confirm:

1. Is there currently any supported way to prevent resellers from enabling specific features while still allowing root to enable those same features for selected accounts?

2. Is there any ACL or configuration option that provides more granular control over Feature Manager without completely removing the reseller's ability to manage packages/features?

3. If this is currently not possible, is cPanel planning to introduce more granular Feature Manager permissions, particularly now that features such as AI Assistant, MCP Connection and Web Apps are being added?

4. Is there any recommended workaround for hosting providers that need to offer certain features exclusively to their own direct customers while preventing resellers from enabling them?

This seems particularly important for hosting providers, as the current disabled mechanism provides an all-or-nothing restriction and does not allow root to maintain exclusive control over specific features.

Thanks,
Regards.

• 

  cPRex Jurassic Moderator

  • August 19, 2026 13:38

  Hey there!  Instead of using the disabled feature list in this way, it would be best to create a custom feature list that you apply to your resellers.  Would that resolve the issue for you?

  0
• 

  ElGato

  • August 21, 2026 12:55

  Thanks for your reply.

  I don't think that would fully resolve the issue, unless I am misunderstanding how Feature Manager permissions work.

  My concern is not simply assigning a restricted Feature List to reseller packages. I want to make sure that a reseller cannot enable those specific features themselves by creating or modifying another Feature List.

  For example, I would like to achieve the following:

  • root can enable AI Assistant for selected direct customers.

  • root can enable Web Apps for selected direct customers.

  • Resellers must never be able to enable those features for their own customers.

  • Resellers should still be able to manage their normal packages and Feature Lists for the other available features.

  If I remove these features from the global disabled list and simply create a custom restricted Feature List for resellers, wouldn't a reseller with access to Feature Manager / Packages still be able to create another Feature List and enable those features?

  As far as I understand, the only way to completely prevent access to Feature Manager is to remove the Packages ACL, but that would also prevent the reseller from creating and managing packages, which is not what we want.

  What we are looking for is essentially a root-controlled feature restriction, where specific features are unavailable to resellers in Feature Manager but remain available to root.

  Is there currently any way to achieve this?
  
  Regards.

  0
• 

  cPRex Jurassic Moderator

  • August 21, 2026 15:22

  Thanks for the additional details.  I've confirmed this behavior and I'm speaking with the team about the best way to handle it.  I'll update you once I have more details!

  0
• 

  cPRex Jurassic Moderator

  • August 21, 2026 15:50

  I've created case CPANEL-56093 with our developers to have them look into this as there really doesn't seem to be a way to limit the feature list at this time.  I've also linked this thread to that case so if I hear any updates on my end I'll be sure to post!

  0

Please sign in to leave a comment.