December 2022 Summaries

The Ory Permission Language (OPL) was developed to enhance Ory Keto by allowing the configuration of global permission rules beyond just direct subject-object relationships. This language empowers users to define rules such as access levels for owners, editors, and viewers, enabling more sophisticated permission checks. Designed to be powerful yet user-friendly, OPL is based on a non-Turing-complete subset of TypeScript, leveraging its familiarity and robust editor support, including syntax highlighting and auto-completion. Through extensive user interviews, different permission languages were evaluated, leading to the creation of OPL, which emphasizes self-explanatory syntax and includes testing capabilities to ensure confidence in modifying permission rules. Integrated into Ory Keto and the Ory Network, OPL facilitates the implementation of graph-based access control, drawing from concepts outlined in Google's Zanzibar paper while addressing its ambiguities.