Stop using a different policy language, policy model, and policy API for every product and service you use. Use OPA for a unified toolset and framework for policy across the cloud native stack.

Whether for one service or for all your services, use OPA to decouple policy from the service's code so you can release, analyze, and review policies (which security and compliance teams love) without sacrificing availability or performance.

Created By

OPA is now maintained by Styra and a large community of contributors

Declarative Policy

Context-aware, Expressive, Fast, Portable
                                          package kubernetes.admission

import future.keywords

deny contains msg if {
	input.request.kind.kind == "Pod"
	some container in input.request.object.spec.containers
	image := container.image
	not startswith(image, "hooli.com/")
	msg := sprintf("image '%s' comes from untrusted registry", [image])
}
                                        
                                      package kubernetes.admission

import future.keywords

# Reject any ingress with the same host as an existing ingress
deny contains msg if {
	input.request.kind.kind == "Ingress"

	# iterate over all hosts in input Ingress
	some rule in input.request.object.spec.rules
	newhost := rule.host

	# iterate over all existing ingresses and all hosts for each ingress
	some namespace, name
	some oldrule in data.kubernetes.ingresses[namespace][name].spec.rules
	oldhost := oldrule.host

	# reject if the oldhost and the newhost are the same
	newhost == oldhost
	msg := sprintf("ingress host conflicts with ingress %s/%s", [namespace, name])
}
                                    
                                    package envoy.authz

import future.keywords

# allow all GET requests to /pets
default allow := false

allow if {
	input.attributes.request.http.method == "GET"
	input.attributes.request.http.path == "/pets"
}
                                  
                                        package envoy.authz

import future.keywords
import input.attributes.request.http as http_request

# allow only the frontend service to GET /pets/owners
default allow := false

allow if {
	http_request.path == "/pets/owners"
	http_request.method == "GET"
	source_spiffe_id == "spiffe://domain.test/frontend"
}

source_spiffe_id := client_id if {
	[_, _, uri_type_san] := split(http_request.headers["x-forwarded-client-cert"], ";")
	[_, client_id] := split(uri_type_san, "=")
}
                                  
                                    package application.authz

import future.keywords

# Only owner can update the pet's information
# Ownership information is provided as part of OPA's input
default allow := false

allow if {
	input.method == "PUT"
	some petid
	input.path = ["pets", petid]
	input.user == input.owner
}
                                  
                                    package application.authz

import future.keywords

# Everyone can see pets up for adoption
allowed_pets contains pet if {
	some pet in input.pet_list
	pet.up_for_adoption
}

# Employees can see all pets.
allowed_pets contains pet if {
	[_, payload, _] := io.jwt.decode(input.token)
	payload.employee
	some pet in input.pet_list
}

Declarative Policy

Context-aware, Expressive, Fast, Portable

Kubernetes

Envoy

Application

Kubernetes

                              package kubernetes.admission

import future.keywords

deny contains msg if {
	input.request.kind.kind == "Pod"
  some container in input.request.object.spec.containers
  image := container.image
	not startswith(image, "hooli.com/")
	msg := sprintf("image '%v' comes from untrusted registry", [image])
}
                            
                              package kubernetes.admission

import future.keywords

# Reject any ingress with the same host as an existing ingress
deny contains msg if {
	input.request.kind.kind == "Ingress"

	# iterate over all hosts in input Ingress
	some rule in input.request.object.spec.rules
	newhost := rule.host

	# iterate over all existing ingresses and all hosts for each ingress
	some namespace, name
	some oldrule in data.kubernetes.ingresses[namespace][name].spec.rules
	oldhost := oldrule.host

	# reject if the oldhost and the newhost are the same
	newhost == oldhost
	msg := sprintf("ingress host conflicts with ingress %s/%s", [namespace, name])
}

Envoy

                              package envoy.authz

import future.keywords

# allow all GET requests to /pets
default allow := false

allow if {
	input.attributes.request.http.method == "GET"
	input.attributes.request.http.path == "/pets"
}
                            
                              package envoy.authz

import future.keywords
import input.attributes.request.http as http_request

# allow only the frontend service to GET /pets/owners
default allow := false

allow if {
	http_request.path == "/pets/owners"
	http_request.method == "GET"
	source_spiffe_id == "spiffe://domain.test/frontend"
}

source_spiffe_id = client_id if {
	[_, _, uri_type_san] := split(http_request.headers["x-forwarded-client-cert"], ";")
	[_, client_id] := split(uri_type_san, "=")
}

Application

                              package application.authz

import future.keywords

# Only owner can update the pet's information
# Ownership information is provided as part of OPA's input
default allow := false

allow if {
	input.method == "PUT"
	some petid
	input.path = ["pets", petid]
	input.user == input.owner
}
                            
                              package application.authz

import future.keywords

# Everyone can see pets up for adoption
allowed_pets contains pet if {
  some pet in input.pet_list
	pet.up_for_adoption
}

# Employees can see all pets.
allowed_pets contains pet if {
	[_, payload, _] := io.jwt.decode(input.token)
	payload.employee
  some pet in input.pet_list
}

Declarative. Express policy in a high-level, declarative language that promotes safe, performant, fine-grained controls. Use a language purpose-built for policy in a world where JSON is pervasive. Iterate, traverse hierarchies, and apply 150+ built-ins like string manipulation and JWT decoding to declare the policies you want enforced.

Context-aware. Leverage external information to write the policies you really care about. Stop inventing roles that represent complex relationships that years down the road no one will understand. Instead, write logic that adapts to the world around it and attach that logic to the systems that need it.

Kubernetes Envoy Terraform Kafka SQL Linux

Architectural Flexibility

Balance integration, availability, consistency

Daemon

Service

Policy
(Rego)
Data
(JSON)

Deploy OPA as a separate process on the same host as your service. Integrate OPA by changing your service’s code, importing an OPA-enabled library, or using a network proxy integrated with OPA.

Library

Service

Policy
(Rego)
Data
(JSON)

Embed OPA policies into your service. Integrate OPA as a Go library that evaluates policy, or integrate a WebAssembly runtime and use OPA to compile policy to WebAssembly instructions.

Daemon Library

Tools for Policy Authoring

IDEs, Sharing, Profiling, Testing, Coverage

Rego Playground for Policy Sharing

VS Code for Policy Authoring

CLI and REPL for complete control

OPA embraces policy-as-code, complete with tools that help people use and understand the policies they put in place. Integrated development environments, testing, profiling, coverage, automated performance tuning, and hot reloading aren’t just things you need for programming--you need them for policy too, and OPA delivers.

VS Code Rego Playground General Tooling OPA GitHub