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 API contracts indexed 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.

The Topaz catalog on APIs.io includes 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

Topaz’s developer surface includes documentation and 15 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

33.3/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 19/100 agent aware Front door AI 1/6 silent open core · Apache-2.0 Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessFreemium

1 published contract

Access Control Authorization Fine-Grained Authorization Open Source RBAC ReBAC Zanzibar OPA Policy as Code

What this lets a business do 1

Business capabilities this provider's published APIs can perform, derived from its own contracts. Browse all capabilities →

Cybersecurity Management

BC-620

AuthorizerDirectory ChecksDirectory ObjectsDirectory RelationsPolicies

POST /api/v2/authz/is POST /api/v3/directory/check GET /api/v3/directory/graph GET /api/v3/directory/objects/{object_type}

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0

Composite quality — 33.3/100 · thin

Contract Quality 7.4 / 16

Developer Ergonomics 2.3 / 13

Access Clarity 0.7 / 13

Operational Transparency 3.1 / 8

Contract Governance 1.1 / 8

Discoverability 3.7 / 7

Regulatory Posture 0.9 / 15

Open Source Surface 10.0 / 10

Create-or-Update Ergonomics 0.0 / 10

Agent readiness — 19/100 · 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

Pagination 0 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

MCP Tool Quality 6 / 6

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Horizontal (data, software, accessibility, platform) 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/.

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Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):

MCP Server +12 pts — deployment.mode + probe verdict on the mcp/ manifest, not the pointer; an unprobed slug falls back to authorship
Idempotency +9 pts — OpenAPI mutating operations declare an idempotency key — a header, a request-body property, or a named de-duplication token whose own description says so (verified); else common[].type matches /idempoten/i (documented)
Stable Error Semantics +8 pts — OpenAPI $refs a shared error schema across 4xx/5xx responses (verified), else common[].type includes ErrorCatalog / ErrorCodes / DeclineCodes
A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0
Request/Response Examples +7 pts — share of operations carrying request/response examples; else an Examples / Code Samples link
Registration Without a Human +6 pts — a `registration_endpoint` in the served RFC 8414 / OIDC discovery document

10 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):

Access Clarity scores 5.3 — up to +18.9 composite points
Developer Ergonomics scores 17.9 — up to +16.4 composite points
Contract Quality scores 45.7 — up to +13.6 composite points

Each check links to what satisfies it. Publish the artifact, or tell us where it already lives, and the score moves on the next scoring run.

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 the provider profile at artifacts.apis.io/topaz/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/topaz to ask a question or point us at an artifact you publish. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

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
OpenSSF Best Practices Badge Holders	standard	40.9 (thin)	-	-

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 2

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.

RBAC

tagged — the provider's own APIs.json carries the standard as a tag; implementation not verified

OpenAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

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 6

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

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

Topaz API pricing

Not yet checked against Topaz's own pricing page. Compiled by API Evangelist on 2026-07-11 from www.topaz.sh/; confirm before you rely on a figure. A free plan or tier is listed.

Plan	Price
Topaz Open Source (Self-Hosted) free	—
Aserto Hosted Control Plane subscription	—

Plan details, limits and sources →

Rate limits

Authorizer Decisions: hardware-bound decisions
Directory Reads/Writes: hardware-bound requests
Aserto Control Plane: per plan requests

Compiled by API Evangelist, not yet checked against Topaz's documentation. Rate-limit details →

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

Service Levels 1

Uptime the provider promises or reports, as SLA4OAI. Read from its own pages; APIs.io runs no monitors.

Topaz

SLA

FinOps 1

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

Topaz Finops

FINOPS

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

Topaz API Rules

67 rules · 65 errors 1 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

Agentic Access 1

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

Topaz Agentic Access

15 operations · 7 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

Website

Website

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

CapabilityMap

CapabilityMap

Source (apis.yml)

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: low
  try_now_blocked_by: loopback
  source:
  - plans
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/topaz.png
x-docs-platform: docusaurus
x-docs-platform-confidence: medium
x-docs-platform-checked: 2026-10-17
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
- Open-Source
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: CapabilityMap
  url: capabilities/topaz-capability-edges.yml
  name: Topaz Business Capability Map
- 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

Topaz API — frequently asked questions

Does Topaz have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 5 APIs from Topaz, including Topaz Authorizer API, Topaz Directory Checks API and Topaz Directory Objects API, and 2 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the Topaz API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 5 OpenAPI specifications for Topaz, each linked for download from this page.

How do I authenticate with the Topaz API?

Topaz uses bearer-token authentication.

How much does the Topaz API cost?

APIs.io lists 2 pricing plans for Topaz, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Is the Topaz API ready for AI agents?

Topaz has a Kin Score of 33.3 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 19.0 (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.

MCP server

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https://apis.io/mcp

Tools for providers

9 MCP tools reach this

find_providersBrowse and filter every provider in the catalog.
get_provider_artifactsEvery artifact this provider publishes, grouped by type.
get_provider_operationsEvery operation across all of their OpenAPIs — one call instead of parsing every spec.
get_provider_toolsEvery MCP tool they ship, with the operation each wraps.
get_provider_evidenceHow each part of their score was established. Free — the basis for a claim should not sit behind it.
get_provider_ratingPRO — composite, band, trend and facet scores.
apis_io_searchSTART HERE — APIs, providers and tags for one query, each with its total.
resolveTurn a domain, URL or GitHub org into the provider it belongs to.
find_cohortsEvery scored population of providers in the catalog.

All 92 tools →

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