Cerbos is a policy decision point and authorization management platform that enables applications to make dynamic access control decisions based on context-aware rules.
Cerbos solves the problem of implementing fine-grained authorization across distributed systems by centralizing access control logic into a dedicated service. Rather than embedding authorization checks throughout application code, developers define policies as YAML files that specify which principals can perform which actions on which resources. The platform continuously monitors these policies, which can be stored on disk, in cloud object stores, Git repositories, or databases, and exposes APIs that applications query to evaluate whether a specific access request should be allowed. This approach decouples authorization logic from application code and makes policies auditable and version-controlled.
Teams should adopt Cerbos when they need authorization that goes beyond simple role-based access control and must handle context-dependent decisions across multiple applications or services. It suits projects where policies need to be managed centrally, updated without redeploying applications, and potentially shared across a fleet of policy decision points. The platform is particularly valuable in microservices architectures, serverless deployments, and edge computing scenarios where authorization decisions must be made consistently across distributed components. Cerbos Hub, a companion service, streamlines policy authoring in interactive playgrounds and simplifies distribution of policy updates to self-hosted instances, though the core platform can operate entirely self-hosted.
The project maintains active continuous integration with automated snapshot builds. The codebase demonstrates strong quality standards as evidenced by its Go Report Card rating. Development follows semantic versioning for releases, and the project has adopted a formal contributor covenant, indicating structured community governance.
