opa
General-purpose policy engine for unified, context-aware policy enforcement.
Unified, context-aware policy enforcement across the entire stack.
Open Policy Agent (OPA) is a CNCF-graduated project that gives you a high-level declarative language to author and enforce policies. It suits software and security professionals needing centralized authorization and compliance across cloud-native environments.
What it is
OPA evaluates rules and JSON data to answer queries about what operations users can perform, where workloads deploy, and what resource tags are required. It decouples policy decisions from hardcoded service logic through a high-level declarative language called Rego.
Who it's for
It suits platform engineers and compliance professionals implementing authorization for Kubernetes, Terraform, or APIs. It does not suit teams looking for a turnkey SaaS compliance dashboard without writing policy code.
Key features
Declarative Policy Language
Author rules using Rego to govern system behavior across your entire stack.
Context-Aware Decisions
Evaluate queries against provided rules and data to return precise allow or deny results.
Cloud-Native Integration
Integrate natively with Kubernetes, Terraform, Docker, SSH, and custom applications.
Multi-Language APIs
Connect services using the Go SDK or low-level API, or integrate other languages via the REST API.
Up and running in 3 steps
Our honest verdict
What's great
- Graduated CNCF project backed by extensive production adoption
- Supports complex policy evaluation across Kubernetes, Terraform, and SSH
- Interactive Rego Playground available for testing and sharing policies
- Comprehensive VS Code extension for live diagnostics, debugging, and formatting
Where it falls short
- Requires learning the declarative Rego policy language to write custom rules
- Services must be explicitly integrated to execute queries against OPA
- Running OPA in production requires managing deployment, scaling, and operational availability
Pricing & license
OPA is free under its Apache-2.0 licence, and the README mentions commercial support options while noting the primary cost is running and maintaining the engine yourself.
Open remote AI-training roles
880 open remote AI-training roles, updated November 15, 2026; most pay $20–$175 an hour. Zekai lists them free; the application goes to the employer’s platform.
Alternatives
Use it, or have us set it up
FAQ
What is Rego?
Rego is the high-level declarative language used in OPA to author policies and answer questions about system behavior.
How do services interact with OPA?
Services execute queries against OPA when policy decisions are needed, and OPA evaluates rules and data to return allow or deny results.
Where can I deploy OPA?
You can run OPA locally using the CLI, deploy container images via Docker Hub, or integrate it with platforms like Kubernetes and Terraform.
