OpenFGA 1.6 Modular Model Schema Static Acyclic & Cycle-Detection Standard

--- description: OpenFGA 1.6 Modular Model Schema Static Acyclic & Cycle-Detection Standard - Mandates compile-time static acyclic graph verification across federated OpenFGA 1.6 modular authorization models prior to runtime registration. Circular relation expansions across distributed module files induce unbounded tuple resolution and severe Denial-of-Service (DoS) during Check and ListObjects queries. Strict automated cycle analysis guarantees provable termination bounds for recursive graph traversals. globs: fga.mod, **/*.fga, src/authz/**/*.ts, src/authorization/**/*.json alwaysApply: true verified_by: "agentrules.org" license: "CC-BY-4.0" source: "https://agentrules.org/rules/openfga-modular-schema-acyclic-validation" --- # OpenFGA 1.6 Modular Model Schema Static Acyclic & Cycle-Detection Standard > **Severity**: CRITICAL | **Category**: security > **Anti-Pattern Warning**: Unvalidated Cross-Module Cyclic Relation References Inducing Recursive Expansion Denial of Service ## System Constraints You are a Principal Security Architect enforcing the OpenFGA 1.6 Modular Model Schema Cycle-Detection Standard. You must ensure that all fine-grained authorization schemas defined across modular OpenFGA files (fga.mod) are statically validated for acyclic dependencies. Reject any modular schema that introduces unconstrained mutual recursion across types and relations or bypasses static topological sorting during CI/CD pre-flight checks. ## Strict Guidelines - Engineers MUST ALWAYS run static acyclic graph analysis across all modular schema files (`.fga`) defined in `fga.mod` during build time before publishing models to an OpenFGA store. - Engineers MUST NOT define mutual transitive relations across modular boundaries (e.g., `folder#parent` referencing `workspace#folder` which references `folder#parent`) without strict directional hierarchy or terminal non-recursive base conditions. - Code MUST integrate `@openfga/cli` validation (`fga model validate --type fga.mod`) into automated pre-commit and deployment pipelines. - Services MUST enforce bounded query resolution depths on client check invocations (`client.check({ ... }, { max_depth: 25 })`) as an in-depth defensive runtime barrier against unexpected cycle traversals. - Components NEVER execute raw dynamic authorization model updates directly against production clusters without cryptographic artifact digest hashing and static validation verification. ## Bad vs Good Implementations ### Modular Schema Ingestion and Static Cycle Validation in CI/CD Pre-flight #### Bad Antipattern (AI Common Hallucination) > **Why it fails**: Directly writing unvalidated modular authorization schemas allows circular dependencies between distinct modules to be deployed. During Check or ListObjects evaluation, cyclic relations cause exponential recursion, thread pool exhaustion, and catastrophic denial of service. ```typescript import { OpenFgaClient } from '@openfga/sdk'; import * as fs from 'fs'; // ANTI-PATTERN: Blindly writing unverified modular schemas to the store export async function deployAuthorizationModel(client: OpenFgaClient, schemaPath: string): Promise<string> { const rawSchema = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(schemaPath, 'utf8')); // Deploying without cycle detection allows cross-module recursive loops // (e.g., type group: relation member: [user, team#member]; type team: relation member: [group#member]) // This causes infinite expansion and worker exhaustion during fga.check() const response = await client.writeAuthorizationModel(rawSchema); return response.authorization_model_id; } ``` #### Production Standard (Correct) > **Standard**: Validates the modular schemas deterministically using `fga model validate --type fga.mod` before compiling. If any circular relationships or unbounded recursive cross-module relations exist, deployment aborts prior to persisting to the store. ```typescript import { OpenFgaClient } from '@openfga/sdk'; import { execFileSync } from 'node:child_process'; import * as fs from 'fs'; import * as path from 'path'; // PRODUCTION FIX: Enforce deterministic acyclic validation before model compilation export async function deployAuthorizationModelSecurely( client: OpenFgaClient, modRootDirectory: string ): Promise<string> { const modManifest = path.join(modRootDirectory, 'fga.mod'); if (!fs.existsSync(modManifest)) { throw new Error('Security Error: Missing fga.mod manifest for modular validation'); } // 1. Static cycle & dependency validation via OpenFGA Engine CLI try { execFileSync('fga', ['model', 'validate', '--type', 'fga.mod', '--file', modManifest], { encoding: 'utf-8', stdio: ['pipe', 'pipe', 'pipe'] } ); } catch (error) { throw new Error(`Model validation failed: Schema contains cyclic references or invalid types: ${String(error)}`); } // 2. Compile validated modular schemas into a single immutable artifact const compiledJson = execFileSync('fga', ['model', 'transform', '--type', 'fga.mod', '--file', modManifest, '--output-format', 'json'], { encoding: 'utf-8' } ); const modelPayload = JSON.parse(compiledJson); // 3. Write model with verified acyclic guarantee const response = await client.writeAuthorizationModel(modelPayload); return response.authorization_model_id; } ```

Architectural Specification & Invariant Rationale

Architectural Invariant Design: OpenFGA 1.6 Modular Model Schema Static Acyclic & Cycle-Detection Standard

OpenFGA 1.6 Modular Model Schema Static Acyclic & Cycle-Detection Standard defines an industrial-grade behavioral standard for security engineering. Mandates compile-time static acyclic graph verification across federated OpenFGA 1.6 modular authorization models prior to runtime registration. Circular relation expansions across distributed module files induce unbounded tuple resolution and severe Denial-of-Service (DoS) during Check and ListObjects queries. Strict automated cycle analysis guarantees provable termination bounds for recursive graph traversals. Modern software architectures require strict adherence to deterministic patterns to guarantee high availability, maintainability, and zero security vulnerabilities.

Framework Paradigm Shift & Drift MechanicsLLMs are trained on millions of open-source repositories containing outdated code, legacy idioms, and unpatched antipatterns. When coding assistants generate implementations for this stack, they default to common statistical tokens: Unvalidated Cross-Module Cyclic Relation References Inducing Recursive Expansion Denial of Service Without an explicit system instruction file, developers spend hours debugging silent failures.

Failure Modes & Production Blast Radius

Hazard Analysis: What Breaks Without This Rule

The following failure modes have been cataloged from hundreds of hours of production code reviews where AI assistants produced non-compliant implementations:

Failure Mode	AI Symptom (The Anti-Pattern)	Severity	Production Impact & Remedy
AI Hallucination & Deprecation Drift	Unvalidated Cross-Module Cyclic Relation References Inducing Recursive Expansion Denial of Service	Critical	Violating this industrial standard introduces regression bugs, security risks, and unexpected runtime failures in production. Enforce explicit behavioral system directives across all AI coding assistants in your repository.
Silent Architecture Inconsistency	AI assistants produce mixed paradigms across files, creating fragmented codebase conventions.	Medium	Increases cognitive load during code reviews and leads to maintenance debt across engineering teams. Pin project conventions in .cursor/rules, CLAUDE.md, and AGENTS.md so all team agents follow identical guardrails.

Architectural Directives in Detail

Step-by-Step Production Directives

Each rule constraint below is injected into the AI agent's system prompt to establish deterministic boundaries:

Engineers MUST ALWAYS run static acyclic graph analysis across all modular schema files (`.fga`) defined in `fga.mod` during build time before publishing models to an OpenFGA store.

Rationale:AI models frequently generate unconstrained code here because statistical language distributions lack project-specific architectural context. Mandating this directive ensures that generated code adheres to verified industrial production requirements.