Fine-grained application permissions without the complexity
Context-aware, policy-based access control for every resource in your application. No more tangling authorization logic into your core code.
Built for application developers
Authorization that gets out of your way
Fine-grained access control without code complexity
Define precise permissions for every resource and action in your application using readable YAML policies, not tangled if-else logic.
Model any permission structure: RBAC, ABAC, or both combined.
Sub-millisecond decisions evaluated locally, with no external dependencies.
Separate authorization logic from application code for cleaner architecture.
Use real-time context (user attributes, resource properties, time) in every decision.
Ship permissions changes without redeploying
Update access rules by changing policy files, not application code. Test in CI, validate in playground, deploy with confidence.
Policies are YAML files in Git. Review, approve, and deploy like any other config.
Use the Cerbos Playground to prototype and test policies before deploying.
Hot-reload policies in development. No restart, no redeploy needed.
Built-in test framework validates policies in CI before they reach production.
Full audit trail for every access decision
Capture what was allowed or denied, which policy applied, and the exact context behind every authorization decision.
Every decision is logged with principal, resource, action, and result.
Trace decisions back to the exact policy version that enforced them.
Support SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and GDPR audit requirements with structured logs.
Simple integration
Implement application permissions in four steps
1
Define your resources and actions
Model your application's resources (documents, orders, projects) and the actions users can perform on them.
2
Write context-aware policies
Create policies that combine roles, attributes, and runtime context to make fine-grained access decisions.
3
Integrate with a single API call
Replace scattered permission checks with a single call to Cerbos. Get an allow/deny decision in sub-milliseconds.
4
Deploy and iterate without code changes
Update permissions by changing policy files, not application code. Test in CI, deploy via GitOps.
Seamless integration
Works with your existing tools, workflows, and infrastructure
Flexible policy sources
Manage policies from any Git provider, CI/CD tool, Cerbos Hub API, CLI, or direct UI upload.
SDKs for every stack
First-class SDKs for JS, Go, Python, Java, .NET, Rust, PHP, and Ruby with idiomatic APIs.
Deployment targets
Deploy Cerbos PDPs in containers, serverless, edge, or multi-region clusters.
Compliance ready audit logs
Ensure audit readiness for SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and GDPR.
How teams use Cerbos for application permissions
“We can make unlimited conditions, attributes, parameters to any granularity level without writing any code. It allows us to deliver truly personalized services quickly, securely & at scale.”
Karen Kim
CEO @Human Managed
Days-long coding task reduced to 5 minutes.
Dependencies and middleware replaced with a single binary.
Why developers choose Cerbos for application permissions
Faster development
Replace months of custom authorization code with a single API integration.
Cleaner architecture
Separate authorization from business logic for maintainable, testable code.
Stronger security
Enforce least privilege with context-aware policies across every resource.
No vendor lock-in
Open source PDP with Apache 2.0 license. Run anywhere, own your enforcement layer.
Learn more about application permissions
Ebook
How to adopt externalized authorization
Article
How to implement resource-based authorization
Guide
Mapping business requirements to authorization policy
Article
ePDP Rules: Fine-grained control for embedded policy bundles
Application permissions
Ship fine-grained permissions without the complexity
See how Cerbos helps teams implement context-aware authorization in minutes, with full audit trails and no code changes for permission updates.
Authorization for AI systems
By industry
By business requirement
Useful links
What is Cerbos?
Cerbos is an end-to-end enterprise authorization software for Zero Trust environments and AI-powered systems. It enforces fine-grained, contextual, and continuous authorization across apps, APIs, AI agents, MCP servers, services, and workloads.
Cerbos consists of an open-source Policy Decision Point, Enforcement Point integrations, and a centrally managed Policy Administration Plane (Cerbos Hub) that coordinates unified policy-based authorization across your architecture. Enforce least privilege & maintain full visibility into access decisions with Cerbos authorization.