Decionis vs OPA and Cerbos
A policy engine can evaluate rich action context. Decionis adds an execution lifecycle and a portable record around the decision.
Public sources checked . Our architectural assessment follows the scope of the sources below. Send a correction; accepted corrections update this date.
When is OPA and Cerbos the better choice?
- You want to own and operate the policy decision point.
- You already have policy expertise and a suitable enforcement boundary.
- Your existing logs meet the evidence requirement.
- You prefer building the surrounding lifecycle to adopting another service.
What changes at the execution boundary?
| Dimension | Decionis | OPA and Cerbos |
|---|---|---|
| Control boundary | One exact action, with authority re-evaluated immediately before commit. | OPA is a general-purpose policy engine. Cerbos provides authorization policy decisions and configurable access and decision audit logs. |
| Evidence | Signed Decision Dossier; verify the covered artifacts with the appropriate public keys, without an account. | Cerbos explicitly supports structured audit records. The distinction considered here is portable signature verification, not the presence or absence of logging. |
| Deployment responsibility | The integrating host must isolate credentials, prevent bypass and enforce the decision. | Evaluate the chosen deployment and its enforcement boundary; a product category is not evidence of a specific installation. |
| Procurement posture | Ed25519-signed Decision Dossiers · single-use execution grants. These pages compare engineering and architecture, not certifications; current audit status is on the Trust Center. | Obtain current assurance documents and check the service and deployment they cover. |
Decionis contract: enforce-and-bind, claim-before-commit and finalize. Signature validity is separate from execution eligibility and downstream effect confirmation.
Can these controls work together?
A policy engine can be the decision authority behind a gate. Do not replace working policy logic merely to change the format of its evidence.
Check the evidence
Verify this yourself — no account, works offline
This preloaded dossier has real Ed25519 signatures over synthetic data from the public Agent-Safe corpus. Its test key is deliberately public. It demonstrates verification and tamper detection; it is not customer evidence, a production signature, or permission to execute.
Ready to check locally
npx -y @decionis/verify --file OwnedExecutionBound.json --jwks Jwks.json
After the page or files load, the signature checks need no network. Installing the CLI may require a connection. Valid signatures establish integrity relative to the selected key, not whether the original facts were true.
Sources and scope
- OPA documentation · checked 2026-09-16
- Cerbos audit configuration · checked 2026-09-16
A capability not described in the cited public material may still exist. This is a technical comparison of documented controls, not a claim of exhaustive vendor testing.