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What is cerbos?

omeraplak/cerbos — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-07-17 · repo last pushed 2022-12-20

★ 1GoAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5DormantSetup · moderate

In one sentence

A centralized authorization service where you write YAML permission policies once, and any app asks it yes/no on whether a user can do something.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Centralizes permissions
      Evaluates YAML policies
      Answers allow deny
    Tech stack
      Go
      YAML
    Use cases
      Role based access
      Context aware rules
      Multi app auth
    Audience
      Developers
      Ops DevOps

Code map

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filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Move authorization logic out of app code into version-controlled YAML policies.

USE CASE 2

Enforce role-based access like admin versus regular user across services.

USE CASE 3

Add context-aware rules, such as only allowing deletion before submission.

USE CASE 4

Share consistent access control across multiple applications and languages.

What is it built with?

GoYAML

How does it compare?

omeraplak/cerbosaegrail/aegrail-engineaeneasr/form
Stars111
LanguageGoGoGo
Last pushed2022-12-20—2019-03-08
MaintenanceDormant—Dormant
Setup difficultymoderatehardeasy
Complexity3/55/52/5
Audiencedeveloperops devopsdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 1h+

Requires running the Cerbos Policy Decision Point service alongside your app.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Explain how Cerbos evaluates a YAML policy to answer an allow or deny request.
Prompt 2
Show me an example Cerbos policy for role-based access control.
Prompt 3
Help me write a Cerbos policy that allows an action only under certain conditions.
Prompt 4
How would I call Cerbos from my application using one of its SDKs?
Prompt 5
Walk me through moving my app's existing permission logic into Cerbos policies.

Frequently asked questions

What is cerbos?

A centralized authorization service where you write YAML permission policies once, and any app asks it yes/no on whether a user can do something.

What language is cerbos written in?

Mainly Go. The stack also includes Go, YAML.

Is cerbos actively maintained?

Dormant — no commits in 2+ years (last push 2022-12-20).

How hard is cerbos to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 1h+ to a first successful run.

Who is cerbos for?

Mainly developer.

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