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Run Cerbos with Docker

Run the Cerbos PDP as a Docker container for local development or production deployments.

Container documentation

Official image

Multi-architecture container image published to GitHub Container Registry for every release

Volume-mount policies

Mount a local policy directory into the container for rapid development and testing

Compose-ready

Add Cerbos to your Docker Compose stack alongside your application services

What is Cerbos?

Cerbos is an open-source authorization layer that decouples access control from your application code. It runs as a stateless Policy Decision Point (PDP) that evaluates fine-grained policies at request time.

Authorization policies are written in human-readable YAML supporting RBAC, ABAC, and conditional rules. They can be updated, tested, and deployed independently of your application.

Deploying Cerbos via Docker gives you a production-ready authorization service that scales horizontally and fits naturally into your existing infrastructure and observability stack.

Policy-as-codeHuman-readable YAML policies managed like source code Scalable PDPStateless policy decision point with sub-millisecond latency Centralized managementManage, test, and deploy policies from a single control plane

How to run Cerbos with Docker

1. Pull the Cerbos image, Run docker pull ghcr.io/cerbos/cerbos:latest to download the official container image.
2. Mount your policies, Use -v /path/to/policies:/policies to make your YAML policy files available inside the container.
3. Start the container, Run docker run --rm -p 3592:3592 -p 3593:3593 ghcr.io/cerbos/cerbos:latest to start the PDP with HTTP and gRPC endpoints.
4. Connect your application, Use a Cerbos SDK to send authorization checks to the running container.

FAQ

How do I run Cerbos with Docker?

Run docker run --rm -p 3592:3592 -p 3593:3593 ghcr.io/cerbos/cerbos:latest to start the PDP. Mount a local policy directory with -v to load your authorization policies.

Does Cerbos require any external dependencies?

No. The Cerbos container image is self-contained with no external dependencies. Policies can be loaded from a mounted volume, a Git repository, or Cerbos Hub.

Can I use Docker Compose with Cerbos?

Yes. Add Cerbos as a service in your docker-compose.yml alongside your application. Mount your policy directory as a volume and expose the gRPC and HTTP ports.