Cerbos. Open source, horizontally scalable, stateless authorization
Cerbos PDP, policy decision point, is an open source authorization layer that can evolve as your product grows. It enables developers to define powerful, context-aware access control in simple, intuitive, and testable policies. Cerbos runs in your own environment. We started working on Cerbos[0] over 3 years ago. Permission management across applications is difficult, especially as the code base grows: you have hundreds of users, many services in different languages, and several environments. Hardcoded access control rules tangled with business logic make every new role and permission change…
In plain words
Cerbos is an open source authorization layer that works as a policy decision point for access control across applications. Developers use it to define context-aware permission rules in simple, testable policies rather than hardcoding access control into business logic. The stateless, self-hosted system scales horizontally to handle permission management consistently across multiple services, languages, and environments without tangling authorization with code.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Cerbos PDP, policy decision point, is an open source authorization layer that can evolve as your product grows. It enables developers to define powerful, context-aware access control in simple, intuitive, and testable policies. Cerbos runs in your own environment. We started working on Cerbos[0] over 3 years ago. Permission management across applications is difficult, especially as the code base grows: you have hundreds of users, many services in different languages, and several environments. Hardcoded access control rules tangled with business logic make every new role and permission change a hassle to write, test, and maintain. Cerbos PDP[1], is an open source, self-hosted, and a stateless solution to solve access rule consistency in a scalable manner across the entire code base. It truly scales horizontally and is used by hundreds of companies. Check out how Cerbos works[2]. Cerbos also has a playground[3] which lets you author policies and in real time see their impact in the application you are developing. I would love to hear your feedback. PS: We just surpassed 3333 stars! [0] https://cerbos.dev [1] https://github.com/cerbos/cerbos [2] https://cerbos.dev/how-it-works [3] https://play.cerbos.dev Disclaimer: I am the co-founder of Cerbos.
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