OpenFGA Syntax Transformer

The OpenFGA API accepts a JSON syntax for the configuration of the authorization model. The OpenFGA docs showcase an alternate friendlier syntax that can be used to build an OpenFGA authorization model.

This module transforms between the JSON syntax accepted by the OpenFGA API and the friendlier syntax you see throughout the documentation.

Table of Contents

• About OpenFGA
• Resources
• Installation
• Contributing
• Community Parsers
• Author
• License

About OpenFGA

OpenFGA is an open source Fine-Grained Authorization solution inspired by Google's Zanzibar paper. It was created by the FGA team at Auth0 based on Auth0 Fine-Grained Authorization (FGA), available under a permissive license (Apache-2) and welcomes community contributions.

OpenFGA is designed to make it easy for application builders to model their permission layer, and to add and integrate fine-grained authorization into their applications. OpenFGA’s design is optimized for reliability and low latency at a high scale.

It allows in-memory data storage for quick development, as well as pluggable database modules - with initial support for PostgreSQL.

It offers an HTTP API and a gRPC API. It has SDKs for Node.js/JavaScript, GoLang, Python and .NET. Look in our Community section for third-party SDKs and tools.

More SDKs and integrations such as Rego are planned for the future.

Resources

• OpenFGA Documentation
• OpenFGA API Documentation
• Twitter
• OpenFGA Discord Community
• Zanzibar Academy
• Google's Zanzibar Paper (2019)

Installation

npm install --save @openfga/syntax-transformer // OR yarn add @openfga/syntax-transformer

Usage

From the Friendly Syntax to the JSON Syntax

const { friendlySyntaxToApiSyntax } = require("@openfga/syntax-transformer");

const apiSyntax = friendlySyntaxToApiSyntax(
`model
  schema 1.1
type user
type document
  relations
    define blocked: [user]
    define editor: [user] but not blocked
`);

From the JSON Syntax to the Friendly Syntax

const { apiSyntaxToFriendlySyntax } = require("@openfga/syntax-transformer");

const friendlySyntax = apiSyntaxToFriendlySyntax({
  "schema_version": "1.1",
  "type_definitions": [{
    "type": "user",
    "relations": {}
  }, {
    "type": "document",
    "relations": {
      "blocked": { "this": {} },
      "editor": {
        "difference": {
          "base": { "this": {} },
          "subtract": {
            "computedUserset": {
              "object": "",
              "relation": "blocked"
            }
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "metadata": {
      "relations": {
        "blocked": {
          "directly_related_user_types": [{ "type": "user" }]
        },
        "editor": {
          "directly_related_user_types": [{ "type": "user" }]
        }
      }
    }
  }]
}
);

Configuration Syntaxes

Schema 1.1

The two below Syntaxes are equivalent. Find out more on OpenFGA's configuration language here.

Friendly Syntax (DSL)

model
  schema 1.1
type user
type folder
  relations
    define editor: [user]
type document
  relations
    define parent: [folder]
    define editor: [user] or editor from parent

JSON Syntax

{
  "schema_version": "1.1",
  "type_definitions": [{
    "type": "user",
    "relations": {}
  }, {
    "type": "folder",
    "relations": {
      "editor": { "this": {} }
    },
    "metadata": {
      "relations": {
        "editor": {
          "directly_related_user_types": [{ "type": "user" }]
        }
      }
    }
  }, {
    "type": "document",
    "relations": {
      "parent": { "this": {} },
      "editor": {
        "union": {
          "child": [{
            "this": {}
          }, {
            "tupleToUserset": {
              "tupleset": {
                "object": "",
                "relation": "parent"
              },
              "computedUserset": {
                "object": "",
                "relation": "editor"
              }
            }
          }]
        }
      }
    },
    "metadata": {
      "relations": {
        "parent": {
          "directly_related_user_types": [{ "type": "folder" }]
        },
        "editor": {
          "directly_related_user_types": [{ "type": "user" }]
        }
      }
    }
  }]
}

Schema 1.0

The two below Syntaxes are equivalent. Find out more on OpenFGA's configuration language here.

Friendly Syntax (DSL)

type user
type folder
  relations
    define editor as self
type document
  relations
    define parent as self
    define editor as self or editor from parent

JSON Syntax

{
  "schema_version": "1.0",
  "type_definitions": [{
    "type": "user",
    "relations": {}
  }, {
    "type": "folder",
    "relations": {
      "editor": { "this": {} }
    }
  }, {
    "type": "document",
    "relations": {
      "parent": { "this": {} },
      "editor": {
        "union": {
          "child": [{
            "this": {}
          }, {
            "tupleToUserset": {
              "tupleset": {
                "object": "",
                "relation": "parent"
              },
              "computedUserset": {
                "object": "",
                "relation": "editor"
              }
            }
          }]
        }
      }
    }
  }]
}

Community Parsers

Repo	License	Maintainers	Language	Schema v1.0	Schema v1.1	Package Managers	Other Links
syntax-transformer	Apache-2.0	@openfga	Typescript	Yes	Yes
openfga-dsl-parser	Apache-2.0	@maxmindlin - @dblclik	Rust	Yes	No		WASM - Python
openfga-rs	Apache-2.0	@iammathew	Rust	Yes	No

Community Wrapper

Repo	License	Maintainers	Language	Schema v1.0	Schema v1.1	Package Managers	Other Links
fga-transformer-cli	MIT	@ozee-io	Javascript	Yes	Yes

Contributing

Take a look at our Contributing Guide

Author

OpenFGA team

License

Apache-2.0