# Possible in Flows? Limit number of posts based on a user role

**URL:** <https://community.directus.com/t/possible-in-flows-limit-number-of-posts-based-on-a-user-role/1256>\
**Category:** Help\
**Tags:** flows\
**Created:** [September 30, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://community.directus.com/t/possible-in-flows-limit-number-of-posts-based-on-a-user-role/1256 "2025-09-30T15:19:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EpicLayer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.directus.com/epiclayer/32/951_2.png) [@EpicLayer](https://community.directus.com/u/EpicLayer)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://community.directus.com/t/possible-in-flows-limit-number-of-posts-based-on-a-user-role/1256/1 "2025-09-30T15:19:00Z")

</div>

I’m building a directory and I would like to limit the number of posts a user can add to a collection based on user role.

ie.  
Guest Role - can create 1 post  
Premium Role - can create 4 posts

Can this be done with Flows? So far I haven’t been able to solve.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alexv-directus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.directus.com/alexv-directus/32/196_2.png) [@alexv-directus](https://community.directus.com/u/alexv-directus)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://community.directus.com/t/possible-in-flows-limit-number-of-posts-based-on-a-user-role/1256/2 "2025-09-30T15:56:01Z")

</div>

Yes, you can use a ‘filter’ event hook flow on post.create which is a middleware where you can query the user’s role type and number of existing posts for that user.

and if the role is guest and the postcount \> 0, you can block the request.

This works great because it’s at the API level, so if you’re building a separate frontend for your users, the validation will continue to work.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EpicLayer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.directus.com/epiclayer/32/951_2.png) [@EpicLayer](https://community.directus.com/u/EpicLayer)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://community.directus.com/t/possible-in-flows-limit-number-of-posts-based-on-a-user-role/1256/3 "2025-09-30T20:54:54Z")

</div>

I was able to figure out the condition filter for user role:

```auto
{
    "$accountability": {
        "role": {
            "_eq": "{USER_ROLE_ID}"
        }
    }
}

```

I think adding post count would be something like this, but I’m not sure how to get the actual user postcount.

```auto
{
    "_and": [
        {
            "$accountability": {
                "role": "{USER_ROLE_ID}"
            }
        },
        {
            "postcount": {
                "_gt": "0"
            }
        }
    ]
}

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ahmad\_quvor](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.directus.com/ahmad_quvor/32/310_2.png) [@ahmad\_quvor](https://community.directus.com/u/ahmad_quvor)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2025, 1:14am UTC](https://community.directus.com/t/possible-in-flows-limit-number-of-posts-based-on-a-user-role/1256/4 "2025-10-01T01:14:51Z")

</div>

Hello, @EpicLayer

You can solve this in two ways:

* * *

### 1. Using Flows (No Code)

- Create a **Before Create Flow** on your `posts` collection.
- Query the same collection filtering by `user_created = $CURRENT_USER`.
- Count how many posts the user has already created.
- Compare against the allowed limit (e.g. **1 for Guest** , **4 for Premium** ).
- If they’ve reached their quota, throw an error using the **Throw Error** operation to block the creation.

This works well if your rules are simple and don’t change often.

* * *

### 2. Using a Custom Extension (Code Approach)

If you want more flexibility (e.g. different limits per role, easier maintenance), you can write a custom hook.

Here’s a simple example:

```ts
// extensions/hooks/limit-posts/index.ts
import { defineHook } from '@directus/extensions-sdk';

export default defineHook(({ filter }, { services }) => {
  const { ItemsService } = services;

  filter('posts.create', async (input, { accountability, database }) => {
    if (!accountability?.user) return input; // unauthenticated safeguard

    const roleId = accountability.role;
    const userId = accountability.user;

    // Define role-based limits
    const limits: Record<string, number> = {
      'guest-role-id': 1,
      'premium-role-id': 4,
    };

    const limit = limits[roleId];
    if (!limit) return input; // no restriction for other roles

    // Query how many posts the user already has
    const postsService = new ItemsService('posts', {
      accountability,
      knex: database,
    });

    const userPosts = await postsService.readByQuery({
      filter: { user_created: { _eq: userId } },
      aggregate: { count: '*' },
    });

    const count = userPosts?.[0]?.count || 0;

    if (count >= limit) {
      throw new Error(
        `You have reached your post limit (${limit}). Upgrade your plan to add more.`
      );
    }

    return input;
  });
});
```