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by bluelightning2k 1425 days ago
I would never use this as is (sorry).

Rolling your own is about the same level of effort, easier to mock/modify/customize as needed.

And if I wasn't rolling my own, I'd look to a library (many in NPM) or I'd look to a Kubernetes sidecar where that makes sense (Dapr or a service mesh).

Going with an API adds concerns about compliance, GDPR, inheriting your entire attack surface, inheriting your downtime risk, configuration foot-guns, and cost.

But I don't like leaving negativity - so here's some suggestions which might tip the value:

- Having really high quality RBAC front-end UI that I can just let you deal with it

- Same for inviting people to join accounts

- Testing utilities, so it becomes really easy to run the same tests with different permissions

- Similar to the above but a browser extension where a superuser can switch to emulate any other user (or admins can switch to any user in their org if policy allows)

- Audit logging and customer facing UI for viewing audit logs

2 comments

Really appreciate the balanced feedback. I don't quite agree that rolling your own authz is that simple (especially fine-grained / resource-based authz), but I understand your other concerns, and we'll work to address them. Also, you have some excellent suggestions here, and we'll incorporate them into our roadmap. Thanks!
This launch and discussion is pretty exciting!

I have to say I really connect with your feedback, I had exactly the same thoughts when building Permit.io: the K8S sidecar (called PDP) and frontend management experiences on top (RBAC, audit logs, invite s, ...) Are really at the core of it.