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Technician Workflow

Lab technicians are the gatekeepers of the equipment lifecycle. This guide covers the day-to-day operations a technician performs in the MakerLab system.

Accessing the technician tools​

After logging in with your university SSO account, you will see additional navigation items:

  • Admin panel — requisition review, user management.
  • Snipe-IT link — direct access to the Snipe-IT inventory interface.

Your access to Snipe-IT is enforced at the proxy level — only users with the lab_technician role can access the Snipe-IT interface.

warning

If your role is not lab_technician and you need technician access, contact the system administrator to add your email to the LAB_TECHNICIANS environment variable.

Reviewing pending requisitions​

  1. Navigate to the Admin panel.
  2. View the list of requisitions with pending status.
  3. Click a requisition to see:
    • The project it belongs to.
    • The requesting user.
    • The specific asset requested (Snipe-IT asset ID, model, location).
    • When it was submitted.

Approving a requisition​

  1. Open the requisition.
  2. Verify the request makes sense (project is active, user is a member, asset is available).
  3. Click Approve.

What happens automatically:

  • The requisition status changes to reserved.
  • The Snipe-IT asset status is updated to Reserved (via API call to Snipe-IT).
  • The requesting user receives a notification.
  • A status_history record is created.

Rejecting a requisition​

  1. Open the requisition.
  2. Click Reject.
  3. Enter a reason for rejection (required).
  4. Confirm.

What happens automatically:

  • The requisition status changes to rejected.
  • The reason is stored in the database.
  • The requesting user receives a notification with the reason.

Handing out equipment (checkout)​

After approving a requisition:

  1. The student comes to collect the equipment.
  2. Open Snipe-IT from the sidebar link.
  3. Find the asset by its asset tag or ID.
  4. Click Check Out and assign it to the user.

The MakerLab system detects the checkout automatically by polling the Snipe-IT activity log. The requisition status will update to checked_out after the next sync. You can trigger the sync manually:

POST /api/requisitions/sync-snipeit

This is typically done by the system admin or as a scheduled task.

Receiving returned equipment (check-in)​

  1. The student returns the equipment.
  2. In Snipe-IT, find the asset and click Check In.
  3. Confirm the check-in.

The MakerLab system detects the return automatically via the activity log sync. The requisition status will update to returned.

Managing users​

From the Admin panel, technicians can:

  • View the list of registered users.
  • See user roles.
  • Manage user records if needed.

Syncing the catalog​

When new equipment is added to Snipe-IT (new models or assets), trigger a catalog sync to import the new items into the local database:

POST /api/equipment/catalog/sync

This can be called from the Swagger UI at https://<domain>/api/docs or from a REST client.

Managing technician access​

To grant or revoke technician access for a user, see Security — Managing Lab Technicians.

Snipe-IT status labels​

The following status labels must be configured in Snipe-IT for the integration to work correctly:

LabelStatus typePurpose
AvailableDeployableDefault status for available assets
ReservedDeployableSet when a requisition is approved
Checked OutDeployableManaged by Snipe-IT checkout flow

If these labels do not exist or have been renamed, contact the system administrator.