Guide
All articles tagged Guide.
Hand the application a query filter, not a per row authorization decision
Per record authorization breaks when an application renders a list. This guide covers asking the policy engine what a user can see, turning a query plan into a database predicate, where AuthZEN search endpoints fit, and why translating to SQL, ORM or vector filters belongs in one place.
Cerbos vs Axiomatics
Cerbos vs Axiomatics side by side, from policy language and testing to attribute connectors, reverse queries, obligations, deployment, standards and cost, with a path for moving an XACML estate to Cerbos one service at a time.
Read authorization attributes from the database, not a copy
Authorization attributes like plan tier, team and clearance already live in a database. How Cerbos Synapse fetches them at decision time with a SQL data source and a Starlark proxy extension, how to set cache TTL per attribute, and how checks fail closed when the database is unreachable.
Gluu vs Keycloak
A current comparison of Gluu and Keycloak for identity teams, covering the Janssen Project and Flex split, Keycloak's CNCF position, and where each project's authorization engine runs out of room.
Kafka topic authorization belongs in your policy set, not in a per cluster ACL list
Kafka ACLs accumulate per cluster. This guide covers how Kafka's pluggable authorizer hands topic access decisions to an external policy engine, how ACL bindings map onto resource policies, caching and fail closed tradeoffs on the broker hot path, and what moves topic access into one audited policy set.
Rich Authorization Requests (RAR) for agent tokens
OAuth scopes can say read the profile, not transfer 45 euros to this merchant. Here is how Rich Authorization Requests express precise, per-hop grants for AI agents.
The Cerbos PDP dashboard is now on Grafana Cloud
The Cerbos PDP dashboard is now on the Grafana Cloud dashboards site. Import it by ID, point it at your Prometheus data source, and every instance in your fleet is on one screen, from health and loaded policy count down to latency percentiles.
Oso alternatives
Oso alternatives for teams on Oso Cloud or the deprecated oso library. Covers whether Oso Cloud is shutting down, eight questions to ask any replacement, relationship graph databases versus policy decision points, where Cerbos fits and where it does not, and a safe switching pattern.
Axiomatics alternatives
Axiomatics alternatives for teams that want policy any engineer or reviewer can read, tests on every change, one policy set and one audit trail for gateways and AI agents, a hosted or on-premise control plane, and published pricing. Plus the alternatives to XACML itself.
Best zero trust security tools and solutions for 2026
The best zero trust security tools and solutions, broken down by layer. Identity and access management, privileged access, zero trust network access, device trust, authorization and policy enforcement, data protection, and visibility, with the notable tools in each and how to prioritize the layer most stacks leave hardcoded.
Why your audit trail breaks at the sub-agent boundary
When agent A delegates to agent B, the downstream logs show the service account, not the user. Here is why the audit trail breaks at the sub-agent boundary, and how to fix it.
Keycloak vs Ory
Compare Keycloak and Ory on architecture, login UI, federation and operational load, and see where each one's authorization model stops.
LDAP and Active Directory authorization without changing the application
LDAP and Active Directory groups encode the access rules for applications nobody will fund a rewrite for. Covers resolving those groups at the proxy in front of the application, turning them into an input to policy rather than the access model itself, cache staleness, and where boundary enforcement stops.
Identity Week America 2026: Same AI agent authorization problem, different badges
Notes from Identity Week America 2026 in Washington DC, where federal agencies, defense contractors and SaaS teams brought the same AI agent authorization question to the booth. Covers the License to Thrill panel, agent ownership and blast radius, policy based access control at runtime, and why audit is still unsolved.
Per-hop PBAC: enforcing scope at every delegation step
Checking authorization once at the edge leaves every downstream hop unguarded. Here is why agent delegation needs a policy decision at every hop, and how to do it.
Best Keycloak alternatives
Compare Keycloak alternatives by protocol, deployment model, limitations, and migration path. Covers ZITADEL, Authentik, Authelia, SuperTokens, and Ory Hydra, plus when to keep Keycloak and add Cerbos for fine-grained authorization instead.
Best AI agent security and governance tools for 2026
The best AI agent security and governance tools, broken down by layer. Prompt security, guardrails, posture and shadow-agent discovery, non-human identity, authorization and access control, data and RAG protection, and runtime monitoring, with the notable tools in each and how to prioritize what to cover first.
Multi-hop delegation for AI agents, and how the consent chain gets lost
When agent A delegates to agent B to a tool, the user's consent and identity get lost along the way. Here is how multi-hop delegation should actually work.