OpenFGA is an open-source, high-performance, and flexible authorization engine inspired by Google’s Zanzibar system for relationship-based access control. It helps developers model and enforce fine-grained access control in their applications.
At its core, OpenFGA enables teams to define who can do what within their systems. Whether you’re building a startup app or managing an enterprise platform, it delivers authorization checks in milliseconds. That level of speed allows it to scale as your project grows without compromising performance or security.
One of the biggest advantages of OpenFGA is its flexibility. It supports several storage backends including in-memory options, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and a beta version for SQLite. Developers can interact with it through APIs over HTTP or gRPC, or use SDKs for popular languages like Java, Node.js, Go, Python, and .NET. And if your preferred language isn’t on that list, the community has already contributed additional SDKs and tools.
For those who like to experiment, OpenFGA comes with a CLI for testing authorization models and a playground where you can model relationships and test permissions in real time. There’s also a Terraform provider for managing OpenFGA servers as code, which fits neatly into existing DevOps workflows. Developers working in Go can even embed OpenFGA directly as a library.
What really sets OpenFGA apart is how it combines the best of different access control paradigms. It supports relationship-based, role-based, and attribute-based models, creating a system that can handle complex authorization needs. The modeling language is powerful enough for engineers but still simple enough that non-technical team members can follow along, which makes it a great choice for collaborative development.
OpenFGA’s commitment to openness goes beyond its source code. Its governance model and RFC process invite anyone to contribute ideas and help shape the project’s roadmap. This transparency has already earned it adopters such as Auth0, Grafana Labs, Canonical, Docker, Agicap, and Read.AI.
OpenFGA is available for free on GitHub.
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