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Permify

Permify/permify

Open-source authorization service inspired by Google Zanzibar for building fine-grained RBAC, ReBAC and ABAC access controls outside your app code.

Open-source alternative to:Auth0 FGAOso

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What is it?

Permify is an authorization service that moves access-control logic out of your application code and into a dedicated service. You describe permissions with its domain-specific language, which supports RBAC, ReBAC and ABAC models, and your apps then ask the service questions such as whether a user can view a given document.

The service runs at request time and exposes both a REST API (port 3476) and a gRPC service (port 3478). By default it starts with authorization data held in memory, and the docs describe options for configuring and deploying it on your own servers. A health check endpoint is included, and a browser playground lets you model permissions and test them against sample data.

Permify is also offered as a managed cloud service. The self-hosted Community Edition receives long-term releases and does not include some premium features such as observability dashboards and data synchronization. The project is licensed under AGPL-3.0.

Key features

  • 01Defines permissions with a domain-specific language compatible with RBAC, ReBAC and ABAC.
  • 02Serves access checks over both REST and gRPC.
  • 03Supports multi-tenant isolation with separate authorization logic per tenant.
  • 04Includes a playground for modeling and testing authorization rules.
  • 05Can be deployed self-hosted on Docker or Kubernetes.

Use cases

  • Adding role- or relationship-based access control to a SaaS product with multiple tenants.
  • Centralizing document or resource sharing rules across several microservices.
  • Replacing scattered permission checks in application code with a single, testable policy model.

Quick start

  1. 1

    Start Permify locally with Docker

    docker run -p 3476:3476 -p 3478:3478 ghcr.io/permify/permify serve
  2. 2

    Verify it is running by requesting the health check endpoint

    localhost:3476/healthz

Things to know

  • Licensed under AGPL-3.0, a strong copyleft license that may restrict proprietary use.
  • The Community Edition lacks premium features like observability dashboards and data synchronization.
  • Community Edition is a long-term release published four times per year and gets community-only support.
  • Default configuration stores authorization data in memory.

Topics

#authorization#access-control#rbac#rebac#abac#zanzibar#grpc#golang#acl#ciam

FAQ

What is permify?
Open-source authorization service inspired by Google Zanzibar for building fine-grained RBAC, ReBAC and ABAC access controls outside your app code. Permify is an authorization service that moves access-control logic out of your application code and into a dedicated service. You describe permissions with its domain-specific language, which supports RBAC, ReBAC and ABAC models, and your apps then ask the service questions such as whether a user can view a given document.
Is permify free to use? What license does it have?
permify is open source under the AGPL-3.0 license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.
Is permify still maintained?
Actively maintained. The last commit to permify was on Oct 21, 2026.
What can I use permify for?
Adding role- or relationship-based access control to a SaaS product with multiple tenants. Centralizing document or resource sharing rules across several microservices. Replacing scattered permission checks in application code with a single, testable policy model.
How do I install permify?
Start Permify locally with Docker: docker run -p 3476:3476 -p 3478:3478 ghcr.io/permify/permify serve Verify it is running by requesting the health check endpoint: localhost:3476/healthz
Where can I get permify?
The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/Permify/permify

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