June 2021 Summaries

In modern multi-user or multi-tenant applications, providing each user with their own "view" of resources is a challenge due to scalability issues. The problem arises from checking every resource against the current user's set of permissions, which can be time-consuming and inefficient when dealing with large numbers of resources. Traditional approaches such as joining the resource table with the permissions tables or using Policy Engines often result in significant overhead and increased query times. However, Authzed's graph-based permission system allows for computing complex permissions hierarchies and provides an opportunity to use graph-based optimizations to perform faster computation. By reversing a permissions check and utilizing map-reduce operations, an ACL-aware indexing solution can be achieved, enabling efficient and scalable filtering of resources based on user permissions.

The first day of the rest of your life marks a milestone for developers who have successfully maintained API compatibility, often inspired by Stripe's example. To achieve this level of stability, Authzed has adopted Buf, a faster and more robust Protobuf compiler, to streamline their workflow, detect breaking changes with confidence, and standardize their build flow. By leveraging Buf's features, such as linting rules and presets, the team can write idiomatic objects and service definitions, ensuring a consistent and ecosystem-friendly API. With Buf, Authzed has eliminated manual testing and configuration, allowing them to focus on building out API metrics for data-driven decision-making and minimizing the impact of changes using Hyrum's Law.

The FAANG companies, particularly Google, have a unique approach to engineering design sessions where engineers focus on solving complex problems without considering typical requirements that smaller companies or open source software face. This allows for a sophisticated foundation to solve problems but can lead to solutions that are too vague and confusing for users. The authors of Authzed, inspired by the Zanzibar permission system at Google, have built a product with an intuitive end-user experience in mind, updating their terminology to make it more approachable for non-engineers, signifying maturity in their development.