September 2025 Summaries

AuthZed has launched two new MCP servers, the AuthZed MCP Server and the SpiceDB Dev MCP Server, designed to enhance AI workflows and facilitate the use of SpiceDB for application permissions. The AuthZed MCP Server provides seamless access to extensive SpiceDB and AuthZed documentation, API references, and authorization pattern examples directly within AI tools, making it easier for users to learn and reference materials. The SpiceDB Dev MCP Server integrates into development workflows, allowing AI coding assistants to interact with a sandboxed SpiceDB instance to aid in schema development, relationship testing, and permission checking. These servers aim to streamline the learning and development process by providing instant access to necessary resources and tools. The development of these servers was driven by the team's positive experiences with AI coding tools and the desire to make resources readily accessible. AuthZed emphasizes the importance of implementing robust access controls and permissions for MCP servers as they gain more powerful capabilities, and they offer detailed documentation and guidelines to help users utilize these servers safely and effectively.

In a technical talk hosted by AuthZed, Canva software engineer Artie Shevchenko delves into solving the dual-write problem in centralized authorization systems, particularly focusing on the use of SpiceDB. The dual-write issue arises when data must be replicated between a main database (like Postgres or Spanner) and SpiceDB, potentially leading to inconsistencies due to network failures, race conditions, and system bugs. These inconsistencies can manifest as false negatives or false positives, impacting data integrity and security. Shevchenko highlights that centralized systems like SpiceDB simplify the replication process by offering greater control over data management, reducing the volume of replication, and allowing for more straightforward handling of relationships and booleans. The talk explores various solutions, such as cron sync jobs and transactional outboxes, drawing on Shevchenko's experiences at Google and Canva. He emphasizes that while dual-write is an inherent challenge in data replication, SpiceDB's approach makes it more manageable by providing clear ownership and control over the authorization data replication process.

At the Authorization Infrastructure event hosted by AuthZed, Andre, a software engineer at Turo, discussed how Turo addressed significant security and scalability challenges by implementing SpiceDB with managed hosting from AuthZed Dedicated. Turo, a leading car-sharing platform, transitioned from a rigid ownership-based permission model to a relationship-based authorization system, enabling fine-grained, team-based access control, which resolved issues of password sharing among fleet owners. The integration of SpiceDB proved advantageous by simplifying the design and implementation process while enhancing performance and throughput compared to traditional relational databases. The system's adaptability was highlighted by the ease with which new features, like support for inactive team members, were introduced with minimal code changes. AuthZed's managed hosting was praised for its reliability and cost-effectiveness, with only one incident in over two years of production use, allowing Turo to concentrate on business expansion without the burden of infrastructure management.

Last month, AuthZed marked its fifth anniversary by hosting its inaugural "Authorization Infrastructure Event," which explored the complexities and innovations in access control. The event featured industry experts from companies like Canva and Turo discussing real-world authorization challenges and solutions, such as the dual-write consistency issue and sophisticated access controls. Significant announcements included the launch of AuthZed Cloud, a self-service platform for scalable authorization infrastructure, and its role in powering OpenAI's data connectors, demonstrating the importance of authorization in AI systems. Technical deep dives covered topics like the dual-write problem, with insights from Canva's Artie Shevchenko, and Turo's transition to fine-grained access controls using SpiceDB. Additionally, discussions with database experts highlighted the evolving role of SQL and the potential of new data models. The event celebrated community contributions to the open-source project SpiceDB, emphasizing the importance of community-driven development. Looking ahead, AuthZed anticipates that AI and authorization will become increasingly intertwined, positioning managed authorization infrastructure as a strategic advantage for businesses.