ZenStack V2 – RLS alternative with declarative Auth rules in Prisma
Half a year ago, we posed a Show HN about ZenStack V1 as "DSL to define data and access rules closer to the database" Throughout the month, we've attracted quite a few early adopters. Some of them, such as MermaidChart, have successfully launched into production. After talking with them, we realized that many individuals found ZenStack while seeking a cleaner and easier alternative to RLS. As a result, we pivot ourselves to be a “TypeScript toolkit on top of Prisma ORM with a fine-grained Authorization layer, auto-generated type-safe APIs, and frontend hooks”. In V2, besides the more…
In plain words
ZenStack V2 is a TypeScript toolkit built on Prisma ORM that provides fine-grained authorization rules, auto-generated type-safe APIs, and frontend hooks. It allows developers to define access control policies declaratively within their schema, supporting multiple authorization patterns like RBAC, ABAC, PBAC, and ReBAC. The tool targets developers seeking an alternative to traditional row-level security, with features including polymorphic relations, edge support, and optimistic updates, making authorization management simpler and more maintainable.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Half a year ago, we posed a Show HN about ZenStack V1 as "DSL to define data and access rules closer to the database" Throughout the month, we've attracted quite a few early adopters. Some of them, such as MermaidChart, have successfully launched into production. After talking with them, we realized that many individuals found ZenStack while seeking a cleaner and easier alternative to RLS. As a result, we pivot ourselves to be a “TypeScript toolkit on top of Prisma ORM with a fine-grained Authorization layer, auto-generated type-safe APIs, and frontend hooks”. In V2, besides the more flexible Access Control Policy support for RBAC/ABAC/PBAC/ReBAC, here are some other major features we released: - Polymorphic Relations - Edge support - Using auth() in @default() - Fine-grained Optimistic Updates - Prisma-Like Schema Formatting Features may be easy to forget, but stories remain. If you're curious about the stories behind these features and what we have learned, check out the blog post below: https://zenstack.dev/blog/v2-stories We would love to hear your opinion on the new position. What we missed? What is your unresolved pain point? https://github.com/zenstackhq/zenstack
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