Topaz website screenshot

Topaz

Topaz is an open-source (Apache-2.0) authorizer for fine-grained, policy-based, real-time access control for applications and APIs, maintained by Aserto (github.com/aserto-dev/topaz). It combines the Open Policy Agent (OPA) decision engine with a built-in Zanzibar-style relationship directory, so you can express authorization as policy-as-code and model RBAC, ReBAC, and ABAC over an object graph of users, groups, resources, and relations. Topaz is self-hosted - you run the authorizer yourself (Docker or binary) and it exposes gRPC plus REST (gRPC-gateway) APIs from your own instance. The Authorizer API answers decisions (is, decisiontree, query); the Directory API reads and writes objects, relations, and permission checks; and a local web Console ships alongside. Aserto is the commercial hosted control plane built on Topaz for centrally managing policies, data, and decision logs across many deployed authorizers.

Topaz publishes 5 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Authorizer API, Directory Checks API, Directory Objects API, and 2 more. Tagged areas include Access Control, Authorization, Fine-Grained Authorization, Open-Source, and RBAC.

Topaz’s developer surface includes documentation and 14 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
38.8/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 20/100 agent aware open core · Apache-2.0 Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-09-08 · rubric v0.20.0
AccessFreemium
1 APIs
Access ControlAuthorizationFine-Grained AuthorizationOpen-SourceRBACReBACZanzibarOPAPolicy as Code

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-09-08 · rubric v0.20.0
Composite quality — 38.8/100 · thin
Contract Quality 8.2 / 16
Developer Ergonomics 2.3 / 13
Access Clarity 3.8 / 13
Operational Transparency 5.1 / 8
Contract Governance 0.0 / 8
Discoverability 3.9 / 7
Regulatory Posture 1.4 / 15
Open Source Surface 10.0 / 10
Create-or-Update Ergonomics 0.0 / 10
Agent readiness — 20/100 · agent aware
Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10
Documented Reversibility 0 / 6
MCP Server 0 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10
Idempotency 0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8
Request/Response Examples 0 / 7
Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7
Typed Event Surface 0 / 6
Agent Skills 0 / 5
Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4
Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3
A2A Agent Card 0 / 8
Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4
Delegated User Identity 0 / 6
Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5
Registration Without a Human 0 / 6
Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5
Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Insurance regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.
Open Source Surface applies to this provider. This product is open source and we read its repository directly, so Open Source Surface carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from what the repository actually publishes — a security policy, a contribution guide, a release history, a code of conduct — read live from the provider rather than inferred from our own catalog pointers. This facet adds; nothing was taken away to make room for it. An open-source project is not excused from the commercial facets, because exemption would strip it of the points it does earn. If we have the wrong repository, or this product is not open source, say so on your provider repo and we will drop the facet rather than have you publish against it.
Create-or-Update Ergonomics applies to this provider. This API accepts writes, so it carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from the published contracts themselves: whether a caller can create-or-update in one call, whether the write accepts a key the caller already holds, and whether the response says which branch ran. Without that, every write needs a search-and-branch in front of it, and the first time that check is skipped a duplicate record is created. Scored against the observed mean rather than raw — a provider at the catalog average is unchanged by this facet, not penalised by it.
The six quality facets above are damped to 65 points between them, because both conditional facets apply and carry 35 points together. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 65% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.
Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/topaz: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

APIs 5

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Topaz Authorizer API

Policy-driven decisions - is, decisiontree, and query - evaluated by the OPA engine.

Topaz Directory Checks API

Graph-based check and graph-expansion queries over the directory.

Topaz Directory Objects API

Objects in the Zanzibar-style directory - users, groups, resources, and other entities.

Topaz Directory Relations API

Relations (tuples) connecting subjects to objects in the directory graph.

Topaz Policies API

OPA policy modules loaded into the authorizer.

Open Collections 7

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

API Collection

OPEN COLLECTION

Topaz and Directory Authorizer API

OPEN COLLECTION

Topaz and Directory Authorizer Directory Checks API

OPEN COLLECTION

Topaz and Directory Authorizer Directory Objects API

OPEN COLLECTION

Topaz and Directory Authorizer Directory Relations API

OPEN COLLECTION

Topaz and Directory Authorizer Policies API

OPEN COLLECTION

Topaz Authorizer and Directory API

OPEN COLLECTION

Scroll for all 7

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Topaz Plans Pricing

2 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Topaz Rate Limits

3 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Topaz Finops

FINOPS

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Topaz Agentic Access

15 operations · 8 acting

15 operations · 8 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Documentation 2

Reference material describing how the API behaves

ContributionGuide
ContributionGuide
 Documentation
Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess
AgenticAccess

Build 3

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

CodeOfConduct
CodeOfConduct
 GitHubOrganization
GitHubOrganization
 SourceCode
SourceCode

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

SecurityPolicy
SecurityPolicy

Operate 3

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

IssueTracker
IssueTracker
 Releases
Releases
 RateLimits
RateLimits

Commercial 3

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

License
License
 Plans
Plans
 FinOps
FinOps

Company 2

The organization behind the API

LinkedIn
LinkedIn
 Website
Website

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: topaz
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/topaz/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: Topaz
kind: organization
description: Topaz is an open-source (Apache-2.0) authorizer for fine-grained, policy-based, real-time access control for
  applications and APIs, maintained by Aserto (github.com/aserto-dev/topaz). It combines the Open Policy Agent (OPA) decision
  engine with a built-in Zanzibar-style relationship directory, so you can express authorization as policy-as-code and model
  RBAC, ReBAC, and ABAC over an object graph of users, groups, resources, and relations. Topaz is self-hosted - you run the
  authorizer yourself (Docker or binary) and it exposes gRPC plus REST (gRPC-gateway) APIs from your own instance. The Authorizer
  API answers decisions (is, decisiontree, query); the Directory API reads and writes objects, relations, and permission checks;
  and a local web Console ships alongside. Aserto is the commercial hosted control plane built on Topaz for centrally managing
  policies, data, and decision logs across many deployed authorizers.
deliveryModel:
  model: open-core
  license: Apache-2.0
  open_source: true
  commercial: true
  callable_host: false
  label: Open core · an OSS project plus a commercial hosted product
  confidence: high
  source:
  - license
  - openapi
  - pricing
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Freemium
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/topaz.png
tags:
- Access Control
- Authorization
- Fine-Grained Authorization
- Open-Source
- RBAC
- ReBAC
- Zanzibar
- OPA
- Policy as Code
tags_raw:
- Access Control
- Authorization
- Fine-Grained Authorization
- Open Source
- RBAC
- ReBAC
- Zanzibar
- OPA
- Policy as Code
created: '2026-07-11'
modified: '2026-07-11'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: topaz:topaz-authorizer-api
  name: Topaz Authorizer API
  description: Policy-driven decisions - is, decisiontree, and query - evaluated by the OPA engine.
  humanURL: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/authorizer-guide/overview
  baseURL: https://localhost:8383
  tags:
  - Authorizer
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/topaz-authorizer-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/authorizer-guide/overview
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/authorizer-guide/is
  - type: PostmanCollection
    url: collections/topaz.postman_collection.json
  - type: OpenCollection
    url: collections/topaz.opencollection.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/directory
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/directory/writer
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/directory/apis
- aid: topaz:topaz-directory-checks-api
  name: Topaz Directory Checks API
  description: Graph-based check and graph-expansion queries over the directory.
  humanURL: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/authorizer-guide/overview
  baseURL: https://localhost:8383
  tags:
  - Directory Checks
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/topaz-directory-checks-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/authorizer-guide/overview
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/authorizer-guide/is
  - type: PostmanCollection
    url: collections/topaz.postman_collection.json
  - type: OpenCollection
    url: collections/topaz.opencollection.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/directory
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/directory/writer
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/directory/apis
- aid: topaz:topaz-directory-objects-api
  name: Topaz Directory Objects API
  description: Objects in the Zanzibar-style directory - users, groups, resources, and other entities.
  humanURL: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/authorizer-guide/overview
  baseURL: https://localhost:8383
  tags:
  - Directory Objects
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/topaz-directory-objects-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/authorizer-guide/overview
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/authorizer-guide/is
  - type: PostmanCollection
    url: collections/topaz.postman_collection.json
  - type: OpenCollection
    url: collections/topaz.opencollection.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/directory
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/directory/writer
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/directory/apis
- aid: topaz:topaz-directory-relations-api
  name: Topaz Directory Relations API
  description: Relations (tuples) connecting subjects to objects in the directory graph.
  humanURL: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/authorizer-guide/overview
  baseURL: https://localhost:8383
  tags:
  - Directory Relations
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/topaz-directory-relations-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/authorizer-guide/overview
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/authorizer-guide/is
  - type: PostmanCollection
    url: collections/topaz.postman_collection.json
  - type: OpenCollection
    url: collections/topaz.opencollection.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/directory
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/directory/writer
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/directory/apis
- aid: topaz:topaz-policies-api
  name: Topaz Policies API
  description: OPA policy modules loaded into the authorizer.
  humanURL: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/authorizer-guide/overview
  baseURL: https://localhost:8383
  tags:
  - Policies
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/topaz-policies-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/authorizer-guide/overview
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/authorizer-guide/is
  - type: PostmanCollection
    url: collections/topaz.postman_collection.json
  - type: OpenCollection
    url: collections/topaz.opencollection.json
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/directory
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/directory/writer
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs/directory/apis
common:
- type: IssueTracker
  url: https://github.com/aserto-dev/topaz/issues
- type: Releases
  url: https://github.com/aserto-dev/topaz/releases
- type: SecurityPolicy
  url: https://github.com/aserto-dev/topaz/blob/main/SECURITY.md
- type: CodeOfConduct
  url: https://github.com/aserto-dev/topaz/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
- type: ContributionGuide
  url: https://github.com/aserto-dev/topaz/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md
- type: License
  name: Apache-2.0
  url: https://github.com/aserto-dev/topaz/blob/main/LICENSE
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/topaz-agentic-access.yml
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/aserto-dev/topaz
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aserto
- type: Website
  url: https://www.topaz.sh/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.topaz.sh/docs
- type: Plans
  url: plans/topaz-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/topaz-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/topaz-finops.yml
- type: SourceCode
  url: https://github.com/aserto-dev/topaz
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

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