Cerbos
Cerbos is an open-core, language-agnostic, scalable authorization platform that decouples access control from application code by externalizing fine-grained, context-aware permission decisions into policy-as-code. Authorization is expressed in YAML policies supporting RBAC, ABAC, PBAC, and ReBAC, evaluated by a stateless Policy Decision Point (PDP) that delivers sub-millisecond decisions at scale. The platform consists of the open-source Cerbos PDP (Apache 2.0), Cerbos Hub control plane (PAP), Cerbos Synapse enrichment layer, and PEP SDKs for Go, Java, JavaScript / TypeScript, .NET, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Rust. The PDP exposes both REST (port 3592) and gRPC (port 3593) interfaces, an Admin API, and standards- compliant OpenID AuthZEN endpoints, with query-plan adapters for Prisma and SQLAlchemy.
Cerbos publishes 13 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Admin Audit API, Admin Policies API, Admin Schemas API, and 10 more. Tagged areas include ABAC, Access Control, Authorization, AuthZEN, and Open Source.
The Cerbos catalog on APIs.io includes 1 Spectral governance ruleset.
Cerbos’ developer surface includes authentication, documentation, getting-started guide, GitHub presence, release notes, engineering blog, pricing, and 29 more developer resources.
What this lets a business do 2
Business capabilities this provider's published APIs can perform, derived from its own contracts. Browse all capabilities →
Kin Score
Markets this provider is in provisional
The Kin Score Market layer reads a provider inside its market: its position, and how deep its integrations go. Depth is only comparable within a position. Provisional and unweighted: not part of the Kin Score or agent readiness.
| Market | Position | Depth | Registered MCP server | Declares compatibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenID Certified Implementations (OIDC, FAPI, OpenID4VC) | standard | 52.1 | - | - |
| Artifact Hub Cloud-Native Packages | standard | 52.1 | - | - |
| Buf Schema Registry (public Protocol Buffers modules, gRPC / ConnectRPC schema publishers) | standard | 52.1 | - | - |
Registered MCP server and declares compatibility are report only — not weighted. Undeclared means we found nothing we can read, so there is no number: we never infer integrations.
Standards implemented 3
Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.
APIs 13
Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.
Cerbos PDP gRPC API
The Cerbos PDP gRPC API exposes the cerbos.svc.v1.CerbosService and related management services on port 3593, with server reflection enabled. The gRPC interface is the highest-p...
Cerbos AuthZEN API
Cerbos implements the OpenID AuthZEN authorization API specification, exposing standards-compliant single-evaluation, batch-evaluations, and well-known metadata endpoints so tha...
Cerbos PDP Admin API
The Cerbos Admin API provides management capabilities such as policy add/get/list, schema management, and audit log access on the running PDP. It is intended for administrative ...
Cerbos Hub API
Cerbos Hub is the cloud-hosted Policy Administration Point (PAP) that manages policy authoring, versioning, validation, and distribution to Cerbos PDPs across environments. It a...
Cerbos Synapse
Cerbos Synapse is the enrichment and orchestration component that fetches identity, resource, and relationship attributes from external systems and translates infrastructure pro...
Cerbos Admin Audit API
Audit and decision log access (Admin API).
Cerbos Admin Policies API
Policy management (Admin API).
Cerbos Admin Schemas API
JSON schema management (Admin API).
Cerbos Admin Store API
Policy store administration (Admin API).
Cerbos Check API
Evaluate authorization decisions.
Cerbos Plan API
Generate query plans for resource filtering.
Cerbos Server API
PDP server metadata.
Cerbos Auth ZEN API
OpenID AuthZEN standards-compliant evaluation endpoints.
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Open Collections 9
Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).
Cerbos PDP REST Admin Audit API
OPEN COLLECTIONCerbos PDP REST Admin Audit Admin Policies API
OPEN COLLECTIONCerbos PDP REST Admin Audit Admin Schemas API
OPEN COLLECTIONCerbos PDP REST Admin Audit Admin Store API
OPEN COLLECTIONCerbos PDP REST Admin Audit AuthZEN API
OPEN COLLECTIONCerbos PDP REST Admin Audit Check API
OPEN COLLECTIONCerbos PDP REST Admin Audit Plan API
OPEN COLLECTIONCerbos PDP REST Admin Audit Server API
OPEN COLLECTIONCerbos PDP REST API
OPEN COLLECTIONScroll for all 9
Agent Skills 1
Packaged agent skills for driving this provider's APIs from an AI assistant.
cerbos-policy
AGENT SKILLCerbos API pricing
Prices published by Cerbos, read 2026-10-28 from www.cerbos.dev/pricing. A free plan or tier is listed.
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Open source | Free forever Includes: Run anywhere: on-premise or cloud; YAML-based policy definition; Audit logs; CI/CD & IDE tooling; Gi |
| Proof of Concept | $0/month Includes: Up to 100 monthly active principals*; 1 workspace, 2 developers; 2 Playgrounds; 2 simultaneous PDPs; |
| Development | From $25/month Includes: First 100 monthly active principals* included; 3 workspaces, 5 developers; up to 5 Playgrounds; up t |
| Production | From $933/month Includes: First 5000 monthly active principals* included; unlimited workspaces & developers, Playgrounds, PDPs |
| Enterprise | Custom plans to suit your needs Includes: SSO support; Self-hosted Cerbos Hub; custom audit log retention; custom training; Enterprise support |
Plan details, limits and sources →
Rate limits
- Free Tier Default: 10 requests per minute
- Free Tier Monthly Quota: 1000 requests per month
- Professional Tier Default: 100 requests per minute
Compiled by API Evangelist, not yet checked against Cerbos's documentation. All 5 limits →
Billed by: monthly active principals · FinOps profile →
Pricing Plans 2
Published pricing tiers and plan structures.
Cerbos Plans Pricing
PLANSRate Limits 1
Documented rate limits and quota policies.
Cerbos Rate Limits
RATE LIMITSService Levels 1
Uptime the provider promises or reports, as SLA4OAI. Read from its own pages; APIs.io runs no monitors.
Cerbos
SLAFinOps 1
Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.
Cerbos Finops
FINOPSFeatures 19
Notable capabilities this provider offers.
Policy as Code
YAML Policies
RBAC
ABAC
PBAC
ReBAC
Derived Roles
Sub-Millisecond Decisions
Stateless PDP
REST and gRPC APIs
AuthZEN Standard
Query Plan Generation
Audit Logs
Policy Versioning
Schema Validation
Multiple Storage Backends
Sidecar Deployment
Embedded PDP
Apache 2.0 License
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Spectral Rules 1
Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.
Cerbos API Rules
SPECTRALSecurity Posture 2
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.
Agentic Access 1
Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.
Use Cases 10
What developers build with this provider.
Multi-Tenant SaaS Authorization
API Authorization
AI Agent Access Control
MCP Server Security
RAG Access Control
Non-Human Identity Authorization
Zero Trust Enforcement
Compliance (SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, FedRAMP, PCI DSS)
Fintech Permissions
Healthcare Permissions
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Resources
Get Started 1
Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call
Documentation 3
Reference material describing how the API behaves
Agent Surfaces 3
MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs
Build 5
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
Access & Security 3
Authentication, authorization, and security posture
Learn 1
Tutorials, courses, talks, and written guidance
Operate 4
Status, limits, changes, and where to get help
Commercial 6
Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use
Company 3
The organization behind the API
Other 8
Properties that don't map to a standard resource type
Scroll for all 8
Source (apis.yml)
Cerbos API — frequently asked questions
Does Cerbos have an API?
Yes. APIs.io lists 13 APIs from Cerbos, including Cerbos PDP gRPC API, Cerbos AuthZEN API and Cerbos PDP Admin API, and 10 more.
Is there an OpenAPI specification for the Cerbos API?
Yes. APIs.io indexes 8 OpenAPI specifications for Cerbos, each linked for download from this page.
How do I authenticate with the Cerbos API?
Cerbos uses bearer-token authentication (http · 1 scheme). The details are profiled on APIs.io as Cerbos Authentication.
How much does the Cerbos API cost?
Cerbos publishes its prices; its Open source plan is Free forever as of 2026-10-28. APIs.io lists 5 pricing plans for Cerbos, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.
Is the Cerbos API ready for AI agents?
Cerbos has a Kin Score of 49.9 out of 100 (developing) and an Agent Readiness score of 22.8 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.
Work with this as data
Every provider here is available over the APIs.io API and to AI agents over MCP.