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Version: 2.0.0

NodeJS Quickstart

In this tutorial, we will show you how to integrate Permit.io with your application in just a few simple steps.

Setup your PDP (Policy Decision Point) Container​

We provide you with a Policy-Decision-Point - aka an authorization microservice. It's available as a docker container for you to use, or we can provide you with a cloud version for quick experimentation.

It is extremely simple to utilize the cloud PDP. As part of the initialization of the Permit instance, you need to pass the cloud PDP URL.

note

The cloud PDP is great for quick experimentation with Permit, to learn how the service works and to quickly integrate the SDK.

However for production deployments it is best to deploy the Docker Container PDP - for better latency and availability.

For time being, the cloud PDP does not support ABAC (Attribute-based Access Control).

// This line initializes the SDK and connects your app
// to the Permit.io Cloud PDP.

const permit = new Permit({
  pdp: "https://cloudpdp.api.permit.io",
  // your API Key
  token: "[YOUR_API_KEY]",
});

Add the SDK to your JS code​

Initialise the Node.js SDK and check for permissions.

  1. Install the Permit.io SDK
npm install permitio@next
  1. Import the SDK into your code
const { Permit } = require("permitio");
  1. Create a new instance of the SDK.
    You can find instructions on getting a secret API key in the previous section.
// This line initializes the SDK and connects your Node.js app
// to the Permit.io PDP container you've set up in the previous step.
const permit = new Permit({
  // in production, you might need to change this url to fit your deployment
  pdp: "http://localhost:7766",
  // your API Key
  token: "[YOUR_API_KEY]",
});

Check for permissions using the SDK​

You can run a permission check with permit.check(). You need to pass 3 arguments to the function:

  • user.id: a unique user id or user email that identifies the user doing the action.
  • action: the action performed.
  • resource: the resource the action is performed on.

In the following example we are checking that a user with the unique id john@permit.io can create a document resource.

const permitted = await permit.check("john@permit.io", "create", "document");
if (permitted) {
  console.log("User is PERMITTED to create a document");
} else {
  console.log("User is NOT PERMITTED to create a document");
}
info

Usually instead of an email you'd use the unique identifier provided by your chosen authentication solution. You can also pass the entire decoded JWT, to include attributes about the user.

REMEMBER

In cases where you are dealing with more than one tenant in your application, permit.check() can pass the tenant as part of the resource.

The tenant passed in needs to be either the tenant id or the tenant key.

You can use the list_tenants API to get the ids and keys set for your tenants.

tenant: a unique tenant id or tenant key that you have defined within Permit.

const permitted = await permit.check("userId", "action", {
  type: "resource",
  tenant: "tenant",
});

Check permissions against ABAC policies​

Above we have checked for permissions against an RBAC policy - but what if we have an ABAC policy we want to run a permission check for? An ABAC policy is made up of User Sets and Resource Sets, which you can read more about here.

With ABAC we define conditions based on pre-configured attributes.

If we are running a permit.check() for an ABAC policy, we replace the userId and the resource with objects, containing attributes.

const permitted = await permit.check(
  // the user object
  {
    // the user key
    key: "check@permit.io",
    // just-in-time attributes on the user
    attributes: {
      location: "England",
      department: "Engineering",
    },
  },
  // the action the user is trying to do
  "action",
  // Resource
  {
    // the type of the resource (the resource key)
    type: "resource",
    // just-in-time attributes on the resource
    attributes: {
      hasApproval: "true",
    },
    // the tenant the resource belong to
    tenant: "tenant",
  }
);
REMEMBER

Permission checks are being run against the PDP container that's running locally on your machine - offering minimal latency and without leaving your network.

This means that your user data never goes outside your system, keeping security high.

Full app example​

Assuming a Node.js app made up of a single file, with the permitio and express modules installed.

const { Permit } = require("permitio");

const express = require("express");
const app = express();
const port = 4000;

// This line initializes the SDK and connects your Node.js app
// to the Permit.io PDP container you've set up in the previous step.
const permit = new Permit({
  // in production, you might need to change this url to fit your deployment
  pdp: "http://localhost:7766",
  // your secret API Key
  token: "[YOUR_API_KEY]",
});

// You can open http://localhost:4000 to invoke this http
// endpoint, and see the outcome of the permission check.
app.get("/", async (req, res) => {
  // Example user object
  // You would usually get the user from your authentication layer (e.g. Auth0, Cognito, etc) via a JWT token or a database.
  const user = {
    id: "[A_USER_ID]",
    firstName: "John",
    lastName: "Smith",
    email: "john@permit.io",
  };

  // check for permissions to a resource and action (in this example, create a document)
  const permitted = await permit.check(user.id, "create", "document");
  if (permitted) {
    res
      .status(200)
      .send(
        `${user.firstName} ${user.lastName} is PERMITTED to create document!`
      );
  } else {
    res
      .status(403)
      .send(
        `${user.firstName} ${user.lastName} is NOT PERMITTED to create document!`
      );
  }
});

app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Example app listening at http://localhost:${port}`);
});