Permit.io Launch Week - Day 1: Optimized Developer Experience

Welcome to the first day of Permit.io’s Launch Week! Today, we’re diving into exciting new updates designed to elevate the developer experience for those of you tasked with building and implementing authorization into your application. From open-sourcing the Permit CLI to introducing approval flow enhancements and revamping our documentation, today is all about streamlining and optimizing how you interact with Permit.io.

You can watch the full live stream of these features here:

Let’s walk through each feature and how it can make building better authorization systems more accessible and intuitive for developers.

Open-Sourcing the Permit CLI

The most significant announcement today is that Permit.io is open-sourcing its CLI. This marks a major step forward in opening our platform to community-driven improvements. Not only are we making the CLI available for contributions, but we are also launching a $10,000 bounty for contributors who want to improve the CLI through Algora.

The Permit CLI is designed to give developers an efficient way to interact with Permit.io from the command line, supporting core functions like logging in and working with APIs.

With the Permit CLI, you can now quickly access Permit’s features directly from the terminal, whether it’s logging in, checking permissions, or managing environments.

We are proud to allow our community to actively shape the CLI - the potential here is endless.

You can check out the open issues on the CLI repository—many of which already have bounties assigned—to get started on your contributions.

Operation Approval: Simplified Authorization Requests

Another powerful feature launched today is the Approval Flow, which is part of the broader Permit Elements suite. It brings a smoother way for end users to request and approve actions within apps that require permissions, all without developers needing to create their own components from scratch.

The operation approval component simplifies how applications handle authorization requests, reducing the need for custom-built UI components and backend processes.

Typically, creating an operation approval process requires developers to manage multiple layers of complexity: building UI components to submit requests, handling approval workflows, and ensuring secure transaction APIs.

The operation approval element takes care of this with just a few lines of code. Allowing requests to be sent, reviewed, and approved with ease. Customizable UI components integrate directly into your app, giving users a seamless experience. Developers no longer need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to permissions management.

Read the full documentation and a step-by-step implementation guide for this feature here.

Documentation Revamp: A More Intuitive Developer Resource

Speaking of documentation, we are also proud to announce a significant revamp of Permit.io’s documentation.

Our goal was to make the Permit documentation more accessible and user-friendly, ensuring developers can find what they need faster.

We found that the previous structure of the Permit documentation site was a bit difficult to navigate, especially for new users. This made it harder for developers to discover features or understand how to implement key components.

Features are now grouped more logically, and the sidebar has been restructured to guide users through the most important content without confusion. This improvement is also open-source, so if you see areas that could be clarified further or want to add examples, your contributions are welcome!

Guarding Policies: Protecting Authorization Integrity

Last but not least, we’re introducing Guarding Policies, a feature that ensures the integrity of authorization rules within your system.

Guarding Policies allow for increased policy management control by protecting key policies from being accidentally or maliciously altered.

This feature is intended for environments where multiple teams or developers are working, creating a risk that critical policies could be changed, leading to security vulnerabilities or unauthorized access.

Guarding Policies allow you to create baseline policies that are locked once created. For example, you might set a read-only schema for an environment, ensuring that while other roles or resources can be added, the core policy remains untouched. This added layer of security ensures that your policies remain robust and aligned with your organization’s requirements.

Read the full documentation and a step-by-step implementation guide for this feature here.

Today’s announcements set the stage for a better experience for developers working with Permit.io. From the open-source CLI to the smoother Approval Flow and revamped documentation, we hope to make authorization more accessible and easier to implement. The introduction of Guarding Policies further reinforces our focus on security and control within authorization management.

We can’t wait to see how the community contributes to the open-source Permit CLI, and we look forward to your feedback on the new features.

See you tomorrow for the next day of our launch week, this time focusing on decisions.