Use Token Claims As Contextual Tuples

Contextual Tuples allow authorization checks that depend on dynamic or contextual relationships that have not been written to the OpenFGA store, enabling some Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) use cases.

To enable more ABAC use-cases that rely on specific attributes and conditions, you can also use OpenFGA`s conditions.

Before You Start

To follow this guide, familiarize yourself with the following OpenFGA Concepts:

• A Relation: is a string defined in the type definition of an authorization model that defines the possibility of a relationship between an object of the same type as the type definition and a user in the system.
• A Check Request: is a call to the OpenFGA check endpoint that returns whether the user has a certain relationship with an object.
• A Relationship Tuple: a grouping consisting of a user, a relation and an object stored in OpenFGA

User Directories, Identity Tokens, And Relationships

User directories store user information that's accessed when making authorization decisions, like the group the user belongs to, their roles, or their department. The natural way to use those relationships in a Relationship-Based Access Control system like OpenFGA is to create tuples for each relation. However, implementing a synchronization mechanism to keep the user directory data up to date with tuples in the store can be challenging.

When applications implement authentication using an OIDC authorization service, they receive an ID Token or an Access token, with certain claims that can be customized based on the application's needs. Instead of writing tuples to the OpenFGA, you can use the content of the token in Contextual Tuples to make authorization checks, understanding that, if those relationships change while the token has not expired, users will still get access to the resources the content of the token entitled them to.

Example

In this example, the application uses the following authorization model, in which documents can be viewed by members of a group:

DSL

model
  schema 1.1

type user

type group
  relations
    define member: [user]

type document
  relations
    define viewer: [group#member]

JSON

{
  "schema_version": "1.1",
  "type_definitions": [
    {
      "type": "user"
    },
    {
      "metadata": {
        "relations": {
          "member": {
            "directly_related_user_types": [
              {
                "type": "user"
              }
            ]
          }
        }
      },
      "relations": {
        "member": {
          "this": {}
        }
      },
      "type": "group"
    },
    {
      "metadata": {
        "relations": {
          "viewer": {
            "directly_related_user_types": [
              {
                "relation": "member",
                "type": "group"
              }
            ]
          }
        }
      },
      "relations": {
        "viewer": {
          "this": {}
        }
      },
      "type": "document"
    }
  ]
}

When a group is added as a viewer of a document, the application writes tuples like those below:

Node.js

Initialize the SDK

// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.
// import the SDK
const { OpenFgaClient } = require('@openfga/sdk');

// Initialize the SDK with no auth - see "How to setup SDK client" for more options
const fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient({
  apiUrl: process.env.FGA_API_URL, // required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
  storeId: process.env.FGA_STORE_ID,
  authorizationModelId: process.env.FGA_MODEL_ID, // Optional, can be overridden per request
});

await fgaClient.write({
  writes: [
      // Members of the marketing group can view the product-launch document
      {"_description":"Members of the marketing group can view the product-launch document","user":"group:marketing#member","relation":"viewer","object":"document:product-launch"},
      // Members of the everyone group can view the welcome document
      {"_description":"Members of the everyone group can view the welcome document","user":"group:everyone#member","relation":"viewer","object":"document:welcome"}
  ],
}, {
  authorization_model_id: "01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA" 
});

Go

Initialize the SDK

// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.
import (
    "os"

    . "github.com/openfga/go-sdk"
    . "github.com/openfga/go-sdk/client"
)

func main() {
    // Initialize the SDK with no auth - see "How to setup SDK client" for more options
    fgaClient, err := NewSdkClient(&ClientConfiguration{
        ApiUrl:               os.Getenv("FGA_API_URL"), // required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
        StoreId:              os.Getenv("FGA_STORE_ID"), // optional, not needed for `CreateStore` and `ListStores`, required before calling for all other methods
        AuthorizationModelId: os.Getenv("FGA_MODEL_ID"),  // Optional, can be overridden per request
    })

    if err != nil {
    // .. Handle error
    }
}

options := ClientWriteOptions{
    AuthorizationModelId: PtrString("01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA"),
}

body := ClientWriteRequest{
    Writes: []ClientTupleKey{
        {
             // Members of the marketing group can view the product-launch document
             User: "group:marketing#member",
             Relation: "viewer",
             Object: "document:product-launch",
        },         {
             // Members of the everyone group can view the welcome document
             User: "group:everyone#member",
             Relation: "viewer",
             Object: "document:welcome",
        }, 
    }, 
}

data, err := fgaClient.Write(context.Background()).
    Body(body).
    Options(options).
    Execute()

if err != nil {
    // .. Handle error
}

_ = data // use the response

.NET

Initialize the SDK

// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.
// import the SDK
using OpenFga.Sdk.Client;
using OpenFga.Sdk.Client.Model;
using OpenFga.Sdk.Model;
using Environment = System.Environment;

namespace Example;

class Example {
    public static async Task Main() {
        // Initialize the SDK with no auth - see "How to setup SDK client" for more options
        var configuration = new ClientConfiguration() {
          ApiUrl = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("FGA_API_URL"), ?? "http://localhost:8080", // required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
          StoreId = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("FGA_STORE_ID"), // optional, not needed for `CreateStore` and `ListStores`, required before calling for all other methods
          AuthorizationModelId = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("FGA_MODEL_ID"), // Optional, can be overridden per request
        };
        var fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient(configuration);
    }
}

var options = new ClientWriteOptions {
    AuthorizationModelId = "01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA",
};
var body = new ClientWriteRequest() {
    Writes = new List<ClientTupleKey>() {
    // Members of the marketing group can view the product-launch document
       new() {
                  User = "group:marketing#member",
                  Relation = "viewer",
                  Object = "document:product-launch"
              },
    // Members of the everyone group can view the welcome document
       new() {
                  User = "group:everyone#member",
                  Relation = "viewer",
                  Object = "document:welcome"
              }
  },
};
var response = await fgaClient.Write(body, options);

Python

Initialize the SDK

# ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.

import asyncio
import os
import json
from openfga_sdk.client import ClientConfiguration, OpenFgaClient

async def main():
    configuration = ClientConfiguration(
        api_url = os.environ.get('FGA_API_URL'), # required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
        store_id = os.environ.get('FGA_STORE_ID'), # optional, not needed for `CreateStore` and `ListStores`, required before calling for all other methods
        authorization_model_id = os.environ.get('FGA_MODEL_ID'), # Optional, can be overridden per request
    )

    # Enter a context with an instance of the OpenFgaClient
    async with OpenFgaClient(configuration) as fga_client:
        api_response = await fga_client.read_authorization_models()
        await fga_client.close()

asyncio.run(main())

options = {
    "authorization_model_id": "01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA"
}
body = ClientWriteRequest(
        writes=[
                ClientTuple(
                    # Members of the marketing group can view the product-launch document
                    user="group:marketing#member",
                    relation="viewer",
                    object="document:product-launch",
                ),
                ClientTuple(
                    # Members of the everyone group can view the welcome document
                    user="group:everyone#member",
                    relation="viewer",
                    object="document:welcome",
                ),
        ],
)

response = await fga_client.write(body, options)

Java

Initialize the SDK

// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.

import dev.openfga.sdk.api.client.OpenFgaClient;
import dev.openfga.sdk.api.configuration.ClientConfiguration;

public class Example {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
      var config = new ClientConfiguration()
              .apiUrl(System.getenv("FGA_API_URL")) // If not specified, will default to "https://localhost:8080"
              .storeId(System.getenv("FGA_STORE_ID")) // Not required when calling createStore() or listStores()
              .authorizationModelId(System.getenv("FGA_AUTHORIZATION_MODEL_ID")); // Optional, can be overridden per request

      var fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient(config);
  }
}

var options = new ClientWriteOptions()
        .authorizationModelId("01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA");

var body = new ClientWriteRequest()
        .writes(List.of(
                // Members of the marketing group can view the product-launch document
                new ClientTupleKey()
                        .user("group:marketing#member")
                        .relation("viewer")
                        ._object("document:product-launch"),
                // Members of the everyone group can view the welcome document
                new ClientTupleKey()
                        .user("group:everyone#member")
                        .relation("viewer")
                        ._object("document:welcome")
        ));

var response = fgaClient.write(body, options).get();

curl

Set FGA_API_URL according to the service you are using (e.g. https://api.fga.example)

Set FGA_API_URL according to the service you are using (e.g. https://api.fga.example)

curl -X POST $FGA_API_URL/stores/$FGA_STORE_ID/write \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FGA_API_TOKEN" \ # Not needed if service does not require authorization
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"writes": { "tuple_keys" : [{"_description":"Members of the marketing group can view the product-launch document","user":"group:marketing#member","relation":"viewer","object":"document:product-launch"},{"_description":"Members of the everyone group can view the welcome document","user":"group:everyone#member","relation":"viewer","object":"document:welcome"}] }, "authorization_model_id": "01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA"}'

CLI

Set FGA_API_URL according to the service you are using (e.g. https://api.fga.example)

Set FGA_API_URL according to the service you are using (e.g. https://api.fga.example)

fga tuple write --store-id=${FGA_STORE_ID} --model-id=01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA group:marketing#member viewer document:product-launch 
fga tuple write --store-id=${FGA_STORE_ID} --model-id=01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA group:everyone#member viewer document:welcome 

Pseudocode

write([
    // Members of the marketing group can view the product-launch document
    {
      "user":"group:marketing#member",
      "relation":"viewer",
      "object":"document:product-launch"
    },
    // Members of the everyone group can view the welcome document
    {
      "user":"group:everyone#member",
      "relation":"viewer",
      "object":"document:welcome"
    }
], authorization_model_id="01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA")

Let's assume that the Access Token the application receives has a list of the groups the user belongs to:

{
  "iss": "https://id.company.com",
  "sub": "6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726",
  "name": "John Doe",
  "iat": 1516239022,
  "exp": 1516239022,
  "azp" : "yz54KAoW1KGFAUU982CEUqZgxGIdrpgg",
  "groups": ["marketing", "everyone"]
}

When making a authorization check, the application uses the groups claim in the token and adds contextual tuple for each group, indicating that the user is a member of that group:

Node.js

Initialize the SDK

// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.
// import the SDK
const { OpenFgaClient } = require('@openfga/sdk');

// Initialize the SDK with no auth - see "How to setup SDK client" for more options
const fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient({
  apiUrl: process.env.FGA_API_URL, // required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
  storeId: process.env.FGA_STORE_ID,
  authorizationModelId: process.env.FGA_MODEL_ID, // Optional, can be overridden per request
});

// Run a check
const { allowed } = await fgaClient.check({
    user: 'user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726',
    relation: 'viewer',
    object: 'document:product-launch',
    contextual_tuples: [
      {"_description":"user 6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726 is a member of the marketing group","user":"user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726","relation":"member","object":"group:marketing"},{"_description":"user 6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726 is a member of the everyone group","user":"user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726","relation":"member","object":"group:everyone"}
    ],
  }, {
  authorization_model_id: '01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA',
});

// allowed = true

Go

Initialize the SDK

// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.
import (
    "os"

    . "github.com/openfga/go-sdk"
    . "github.com/openfga/go-sdk/client"
)

func main() {
    // Initialize the SDK with no auth - see "How to setup SDK client" for more options
    fgaClient, err := NewSdkClient(&ClientConfiguration{
        ApiUrl:               os.Getenv("FGA_API_URL"), // required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
        StoreId:              os.Getenv("FGA_STORE_ID"), // optional, not needed for `CreateStore` and `ListStores`, required before calling for all other methods
        AuthorizationModelId: os.Getenv("FGA_MODEL_ID"),  // Optional, can be overridden per request
    })

    if err != nil {
    // .. Handle error
    }
}

options := ClientCheckOptions{
    AuthorizationModelId: PtrString("01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA"),
}

body := ClientCheckRequest{
    User:     "user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726",
    Relation: "viewer",
    Object:   "document:product-launch",
    ContextualTuples: []ClientTupleKey{
        {
            User:     "user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726",
            Relation: "member",
            Object:   "group:marketing",
        },
        {
            User:     "user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726",
            Relation: "member",
            Object:   "group:everyone",
        },
    },
}

data, err := fgaClient.Check(context.Background()).
    Body(body).
    Options(options).
    Execute()

// data = { allowed: true }

.NET

Initialize the SDK

// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.
// import the SDK
using OpenFga.Sdk.Client;
using OpenFga.Sdk.Client.Model;
using OpenFga.Sdk.Model;
using Environment = System.Environment;

namespace Example;

class Example {
    public static async Task Main() {
        // Initialize the SDK with no auth - see "How to setup SDK client" for more options
        var configuration = new ClientConfiguration() {
          ApiUrl = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("FGA_API_URL"), ?? "http://localhost:8080", // required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
          StoreId = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("FGA_STORE_ID"), // optional, not needed for `CreateStore` and `ListStores`, required before calling for all other methods
          AuthorizationModelId = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("FGA_MODEL_ID"), // Optional, can be overridden per request
        };
        var fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient(configuration);
    }
}

var options = new ClientCheckOptions {
    AuthorizationModelId = "01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA",
};
var body = new ClientCheckRequest {
    User = "user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726",
    Relation = "viewer",
    Object = "document:product-launch",,
    ContextualTuples = new List<ClientTupleKey>({
    new(user: "user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726", relation: "member", _object: "group:marketing"),
    new(user: "user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726", relation: "member", _object: "group:everyone")
})
    
};
var response = await fgaClient.Check(body, options);

// response.Allowed = true

Python

Initialize the SDK

# ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.

import asyncio
import os
import json
from openfga_sdk.client import ClientConfiguration, OpenFgaClient

async def main():
    configuration = ClientConfiguration(
        api_url = os.environ.get('FGA_API_URL'), # required, e.g. https://api.fga.example
        store_id = os.environ.get('FGA_STORE_ID'), # optional, not needed for `CreateStore` and `ListStores`, required before calling for all other methods
        authorization_model_id = os.environ.get('FGA_MODEL_ID'), # Optional, can be overridden per request
    )

    # Enter a context with an instance of the OpenFgaClient
    async with OpenFgaClient(configuration) as fga_client:
        api_response = await fga_client.read_authorization_models()
        await fga_client.close()

asyncio.run(main())

options = {
    "authorization_model_id": "01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA"
}
body = ClientCheckRequest(
    user="user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726",
    relation="viewer",
    object="document:product-launch",
    contextual_tuples=[
        ClientTupleKey(user="user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726", relation="member", object="group:marketing"),
                ClientTupleKey(user="user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726", relation="member", object="group:everyone")
    ],
)

response = await fga_client.check(body, options)

# response.allowed = true

Java

Initialize the SDK

// ApiTokenIssuer, ApiAudience, ClientId and ClientSecret are optional.

import dev.openfga.sdk.api.client.OpenFgaClient;
import dev.openfga.sdk.api.configuration.ClientConfiguration;

public class Example {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
      var config = new ClientConfiguration()
              .apiUrl(System.getenv("FGA_API_URL")) // If not specified, will default to "https://localhost:8080"
              .storeId(System.getenv("FGA_STORE_ID")) // Not required when calling createStore() or listStores()
              .authorizationModelId(System.getenv("FGA_AUTHORIZATION_MODEL_ID")); // Optional, can be overridden per request

      var fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient(config);
  }
}

var options = new ClientCheckOptions()
        .authorizationModelId("01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA");

var body = new ClientCheckRequest()
        .user("user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726")
        .relation("viewer")
        ._object("document:product-launch")
        .contextualTuples(
                List.of(
                        new ClientTupleKey()
                                .user("user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726")
                                .relation("member")
                                ._object("group:marketing"),
                        new ClientTupleKey()
                                .user("user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726")
                                .relation("member")
                                ._object("group:everyone")
                ));

var response = fgaClient.check(body, options).get();

// response.getAllowed() = true 

CLI

Set FGA_API_URL according to the service you are using (e.g. https://api.fga.example)

Set FGA_API_URL according to the service you are using (e.g. https://api.fga.example)

fga query check --store-id=$FGA_STORE_ID --model-id=01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726 viewer document:product-launch --contextual-tuple "user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726 member group:marketing"  --contextual-tuple "user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726 member group:everyone"

# Response: {"allowed":true}

curl

Set FGA_API_URL according to the service you are using (e.g. https://api.fga.example)

Set FGA_API_URL according to the service you are using (e.g. https://api.fga.example)

curl -X POST $FGA_API_URL/stores/$FGA_STORE_ID/check \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FGA_API_TOKEN" \ # Not needed if service does not require authorization
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"authorization_model_id": "01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA", "tuple_key":{"user":"user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726","relation":"viewer","object":"document:product-launch"},"contextual_tuples":{"tuple_keys":[{"user":"user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726","relation":"member","object":"group:marketing"},{"user":"user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726","relation":"member","object":"group:everyone"}]}}'

# Response: {"allowed":true}

Pseudocode

check(
  user = "user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726", // check if the user `user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726`
  relation = "viewer", // has an `viewer` relation
  object = "document:product-launch", // with the object `document:product-launch`
  contextual_tuples = [ // Assuming the following is true
    {user = "user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726", relation = "member", object = "group:marketing"},
    {user = "user:6b0b14af-59dc-4ff3-a46f-ad351f428726", relation = "member", object = "group:everyone"}
  ], authorization_id = "01HVMMBCMGZNT3SED4Z17ECXCA"
);

Reply: true

The authorization check returns allowed = true, as there's a stored tuple saying that members of the marketing group are viewers of the product-launch document, and there's a contextual tuple indicating that the user is a member of the marketing group.

Warning

Contextual tuples:

• Do not persist in the store.

• Are only supported on the Check API endpoint and ListObjects API endpoint. They are not supported on read, expand, or other endpoints.

• If you use the Read Changes API endpoint to build a permission aware search index, it may be difficult to account for contextual tuples.

Related Sections

Check the following sections for more on how user contextual tuples can be used.

Contextual and Time-Based Authorization

Learn how to authorize access that depends on dynamic or contextual criteria.

• More

Authorization Through Organization Context

Learn to model and authorize when a user belongs to multiple organizations.

• More

Conditions

Learn to model requiring dynamic attributes.

• More

OpenFGA API

Details on the Check API in the OpenFGA reference guide.

• More