SpiceDB

What hackers pick instead

• Cedar policy languageOpen-source language for writing authorization policies that can be formally analyzed and return a binary allow or deny decision.7recommend
• OpenFGAPeople recommend it for centralizing authorization policies and handling complex fine-grained ReBAC permissions.6recommend
• Rego (Open Policy Agent)Policy language for Open Policy Agent that keeps a JSON-in, JSON-out pipeline and suits jq-style queries. Main caveat: dynamically typed, so little type protection.5recommend

Every quote

The 11 most detailed of 11 comments. Each links to the original.

1. One of the major benefits of a centralized authorization system is allowing for permissions queries across resources and subjects

   Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Permission Systems for Enterprise That Scale”

2. Check out Zanzibar / SpiceDB / ReBAC and "Macaroon Auth" for what modern permission systems can be

   Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “What would a "permissions-first ORM" look like? Looking for spec feedback”

3. Make telemetry strictly opt-in then, that's really the only respectful way to do it.

   Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “How we rebuilt complex permissions without migrating to Zanzibar”

4. take a look at the history of SpiceDB [2] for how we developed the system over time

   Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “I built a faster Notion in Rust”

5. I build a project (SpiceDB) that advocates for a more centralized approach

   Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Stop Using JWTs”

6. which have quite a bit of logic around these exact problems

   Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “I built a faster Notion in Rust”

7. Modern authorization systems are often graph-based.

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Show HN: LatticeDB – Like SQLite but for graph databases”

8. the most scalable OSS implementation of Zanzibar

   Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Better Auth is joining Vercel”

9. Opt-out telemetry is not compatible with respect.

   Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “How we rebuilt complex permissions without migrating to Zanzibar”

10. secures quite a few AI products including big players like OpenAI

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “NIST Seeking Public Comment on AI Agent Security (Deadline: March 9, 2026)”

11. avoids syncing to an external AuthZ system like SpiceDB

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)”