Deployment

Deploy Cerbos on DigitalOcean

Run the Cerbos PDP on DigitalOcean using App Platform, Droplets, or Kubernetes clusters.

Multiple deployment options

Run Cerbos as a container on App Platform, a binary on Droplets, or within a DigitalOcean Managed Kubernetes cluster

App Platform support

Deploy the Cerbos container image directly to App Platform for managed scaling and networking

Stateless scaling

Scale Cerbos horizontally across Droplets or pods with no coordination between instances

What is Cerbos?

Cerbos is an open-source authorization layer that decouples access control from your application code. It runs as a stateless Policy Decision Point (PDP) that evaluates fine-grained policies at request time.

Authorization policies are written in human-readable YAML supporting RBAC, ABAC, and conditional rules. They can be updated, tested, and deployed independently of your application.

Deploying Cerbos via DigitalOcean gives you a production-ready authorization service that scales horizontally and fits naturally into your existing infrastructure and observability stack.

Policy-as-codeHuman-readable YAML policies managed like source code Scalable PDPStateless policy decision point with sub-millisecond latency Centralized managementManage, test, and deploy policies from a single control plane

How to deploy Cerbos on DigitalOcean

Choose a deployment target, Select App Platform for managed containers, a Droplet for VM-based deployment, or Managed Kubernetes for orchestrated workloads.
Deploy Cerbos, Use the official container image or download the static binary depending on your chosen deployment target.
Configure policy loading, Point Cerbos at a local policy directory, Git repository, or Cerbos Hub for policy storage.
Connect your application, Use a Cerbos SDK to send authorization checks to the running PDP.

FAQ

How do I deploy Cerbos on DigitalOcean?

Deploy the official Cerbos container image to DigitalOcean App Platform, run the binary on a Droplet, or deploy to a DigitalOcean Managed Kubernetes cluster. Configure your policy source and expose the HTTP and gRPC ports.

Does Cerbos require any external dependencies?

No. Cerbos is self-contained with no database or message queue required. Policies load from the filesystem, a Git repository, or Cerbos Hub.

Which DigitalOcean service should I use for Cerbos?

App Platform is the simplest option for container deployments. Droplets give full VM control. Managed Kubernetes works well if you already run a cluster for other services.