AuthZEN Authorization API 1.0 Deep Dive: The Standard API That Separates Authorization Decisions from Enforcement

Introduction In the authentication space, OpenID Connect has become the de facto standard, centralizing identity around Identity Providers. In the authorization space — specifically delegated authorization — OAuth 2.0 stands as a robust standard. But what about a standard API for fine-grained authorization within applications? In the era of microservice architectures, everyone eventually hits the same wall: "Where and how should we evaluate authorization?" Service A uses OPA (Open Policy Agent) Service B adopted Cedar Service C is still dragging around a legacy in-house authorization library When authorization logic is scattered across services like this, maintaining a consistent view of "who can do what on which resource" across the entire system becomes extremely difficult — auditing and policy changes become a nightmare. The established best practice is to separate the decision (PDP) from the enforcement (PEP). But there was another problem: no standard protocol existed to connect P