AuthZEN Working Group - Specifications

AuthZEN will focus on specific areas of interoperability by documenting common authorization patterns, define standard mechanisms, protocols and formats for communication between authorization components, and recommend best practices for developing secure applications.

AuthZEN Working Group
OVERVIEW

AuthZEN Working Group
CHARTER

AuthZEN Working Group
SPECIFICATIONS

AuthZEN Working Group
REPOSITORY

Final Specifications

  • Authorization API 1.0 – the Authorization API enables Policy Decision Points (PDPs) and Policy Enforcement Points (PEPs) to communicate authorization requests and decisions to each other without requiring knowledge of each other’s inner workings. Approved as an OpenID Final Specification in January 2026.
  • Current editors’ draft – the working version of the Authorization API, maintained in the working group repository

Working Group Drafts

  • COAZ Framework 1.0 – defines COAZ (Compatible with OpenID AuthZEN, pronounced “cozy”), a protocol-neutral framework for mapping the information model of an arbitrary protocol or interface into a request to the Authorization API. The inputs of an incoming operation are projected, through a declarative mapping, into the Subject-Action-Resource-Context (SARC) model. Mapping values are literal constants or expressions, written by default in Common Expression Language (CEL). The framework defines no mapping for any specific protocol; it defines the common model and the conformance contract that individual COAZ bindings fulfil.

  • COAZ-MCP Binding 1.0 – the COAZ binding for the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Defines how MCP JSON-RPC messages are mapped into Authorization API requests, enabling MCP gateways and servers to perform fine-grained, parameter-level authorization through an AuthZEN Policy Decision Point.

  • AuthZEN Access Request and Approval Profile 1.0 – an extension profile that allows a Policy Enforcement Point to submit an access request when an authorization decision is denied but requestable. It adds a requestable denial context, an access request endpoint, a task handle for the asynchronous workflow that resolves the denial, and a re-evaluation completion mode that lets the Policy Decision Point remain authoritative at enforcement time after approval. A denied decision remains a denial and must not be treated as access.

  • AuthZEN Profile for Obligations 1.0 – a profile for expressing obligations, by which a Policy Decision Point can attach one or more mandatory, machine-readable actions to an authorization decision. A Policy Enforcement Point that receives such a decision must perform every attached action in order to honor it. Defines the Obligation object model, PEP compliance semantics, a set of Normative Obligation Types, and a discovery and negotiation mechanism by which PDPs and PEPs establish which Obligation Types they mutually support.

Previous Versions

The following are superseded by the Authorization API 1.0 Final Specification above, and are retained for reference.