diff --git a/docs/generated/sql/bnf/stmt_block.bnf b/docs/generated/sql/bnf/stmt_block.bnf
index db0d1896fed7..d4f531e7dde6 100644
--- a/docs/generated/sql/bnf/stmt_block.bnf
+++ b/docs/generated/sql/bnf/stmt_block.bnf
@@ -1515,6 +1515,7 @@ session_var ::=
 	| 'ALL'
 	| 'DATABASE'
 	| 'NAMES'
+	| 'ROLE'
 	| 'SESSION_USER'
 	| 'TIME' 'ZONE'
 
diff --git a/pkg/sql/logictest/testdata/logic_test/user b/pkg/sql/logictest/testdata/logic_test/user
index 0351355f0128..fa0cad8f5258 100644
--- a/pkg/sql/logictest/testdata/logic_test/user
+++ b/pkg/sql/logictest/testdata/logic_test/user
@@ -184,3 +184,14 @@ ALTER USER userlongpassword WITH PASSWORD '987654321021'
 
 statement ok
 DROP USER userlongpassword
+
+subtest set_role
+
+statement error unimplemented
+SET ROLE = 'testuser'
+
+statement error unimplemented
+SET ROLE testuser
+
+statement error unimplemented
+RESET ROLE
diff --git a/pkg/sql/parser/sql.y b/pkg/sql/parser/sql.y
index 07b3dbbad6d8..d41803092a21 100644
--- a/pkg/sql/parser/sql.y
+++ b/pkg/sql/parser/sql.y
@@ -4618,6 +4618,11 @@ set_rest:
     /* SKIP DOC */
     $$.val = &tree.SetVar{Name: "search_path", Values: tree.Exprs{$2.expr()}}
   }
+| ROLE var_value
+	{
+		/* SKIP DOC */
+    $$.val = &tree.SetVar{Name: "role", Values: tree.Exprs{$2.expr()}}
+	}
 
 set_rest_more:
 // SET syntaxes supported as a clause of other statements:
@@ -4874,6 +4879,7 @@ session_var:
 // SET NAMES is standard SQL for SET client_encoding.
 // See https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/static/multibyte.html#AEN39236
 | NAMES { $$ = "client_encoding" }
+| ROLE
 | SESSION_USER
 // TIME ZONE is special: it is two tokens, but is really the identifier "TIME ZONE".
 | TIME ZONE { $$ = "timezone" }