Ory Keto is an open-source authorization server that implements Google Zanzibar’s relationship-based access control model. It stores every access relationship as a tuple in a SQL database and exposes a declarative TypeScript-like namespace language for defining object types, relations, and permissions. The service provides bidirectional permission resolution, configurable consistency levels for checks, and dual gRPC and REST APIs for broad integration.
Keto extends the Zanzibar model with edge enforcement of access policies, structured compliance auditing of permission decisions, and infrastructure-as-code management through Terraform, Pulumi, and Helm. It includes agent-level security controls with identity authentication, action authorization against the permission model, and graduated policy enforcement from observation to strict blocking. Observability is supported via OpenTelemetry, Prometheus metrics, and SIEM event streaming.
The system also covers identity verification workflows, consent synchronization, automated data subject request fulfillment, and billing integrations. Deployment options include managed SaaS, on-premises, and private cloud, with containerized execution and Kubernetes Helm charts for orchestration. The project, written in Go, provides full documentation and a command-line interface for configuration and management.