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securitycritical PriorityID: openfga-transitive-graph-resolution-depth-quota

OpenFGA Transitive Graph Resolution Depth and Cycle-Budget Invariants

Enforces deterministic recursion limits, bounded traversal depth, and strict execution deadlines on transitive relationship queries within OpenFGA. Prevents authorization engine Denial of Service (AuthDoS) and p99 tail-latency collapse caused by cyclic graphs or deeply nested relationship hierarchies (e.g., nested groups, recursive document folders).

Prohibited Anti-Pattern: Unbounded Transitive Userset Expansion and Missing Traversal Quotas Inducing Graph-Engine Starvation

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---
description: OpenFGA Transitive Graph Resolution Depth and Cycle-Budget Invariants - Enforces deterministic recursion limits, bounded traversal depth, and strict execution deadlines on transitive relationship queries within OpenFGA. Prevents authorization engine Denial of Service (AuthDoS) and p99 tail-latency collapse caused by cyclic graphs or deeply nested relationship hierarchies (e.g., nested groups, recursive document folders).
globs: src/**/authz/**/*.ts, src/**/permissions/**/*.ts, src/**/security/**/*.ts, src/**/fga/**/*.ts
alwaysApply: true
verified_by: "agentrules.org"
license: "CC-BY-4.0"
source: "https://agentrules.org/rules/openfga-transitive-graph-resolution-depth-quota"
---

# OpenFGA Transitive Graph Resolution Depth and Cycle-Budget Invariants

> **Severity**: CRITICAL | **Category**: security
> **Anti-Pattern Warning**: Unbounded Transitive Userset Expansion and Missing Traversal Quotas Inducing Graph-Engine Starvation

## System Constraints
You are a Principal Software Architect enforcing production-grade resilience and security constraints for fine-grained authorization using OpenFGA. You must mandate strict limits on graph recursion depth, enforce defensive timeout budgets across relation resolutions, and reject recursive relationship definitions that lack deterministic cycle detection and bounded resolution quotas.

## Strict Guidelines
- Engineers MUST ALWAYS propagate an explicit cancellation deadline (`AbortSignal.timeout`) to all OpenFGA client evaluation calls (`check`, `listObjects`, `expand`).
- Engineers MUST NOT model self-referential transitive relationships (e.g., `define member: [user, group#member]`) without client-side or schema-level path-depth assertions and cycle-detection constraints.
- Engineers MUST set explicit upper bounds for `contextualTuples` when resolving checks, preventing callers from injecting artificial cyclic dependency structures at runtime.
- Services MUST gracefully fail closed (deny authorization) when OpenFGA returns resolution depth quota errors (e.g., `FgaApiValidationError`, `FgaApiRateLimitExceeded`, or traversal timeouts) rather than falling back to permissive evaluation or hanging.
- Components NEVER execute raw graph expansions (`expand` API) in user-facing synchronous request paths without a dedicated caching layer and maximum traversal depth limit.

## Bad vs Good Implementations
### OpenFGA Check Invocation with Depth Budget and Strict Cancellation

#### Bad Antipattern (AI Common Hallucination)
> **Why it fails**: The check lacks execution timeouts, bounds checking on contextual graph inputs, and fails to handle engine traversal limits. Dynamic contextual tuples can introduce cycles or arbitrarily deep nested hierarchies that trigger graph engine thread-pool exhaustion.
```typescript
import { OpenFgaClient } from '@openfga/sdk';

const fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient({
  apiUrl: process.env.FGA_API_URL!,
  storeId: process.env.FGA_STORE_ID!,
});

// ANTI-PATTERN: Indefinite execution timeout, unconstrained contextual graph injection,
// and failure to catch engine resolution exhaustion, risking tail-latency spikes and DoS.
export async function canAccessFolder(userId: string, folderId: string, dynamicParentIds: string[]): Promise<boolean> {
  // Injected contextual tuples can introduce runtime recursive cycles
  const contextualTuples = dynamicParentIds.map((parentId) => ({
    user: `folder:${parentId}`,
    relation: 'parent',
    object: `folder:${folderId}`,
  }));

  const response = await fgaClient.check({
    user: `user:${userId}`,
    relation: 'viewer',
    object: `folder:${folderId}`,
    contextualTuples,
  });

  return response.allowed ?? false;
}
```

#### Production Standard (Correct)
> **Standard**: The solution bounds contextual tuple expansion, sets an unyielding 250ms AbortSignal deadline, logs exhaustion metrics, and strictly fails closed on engine traversal exhaustion or depth-limit violations.
```typescript
import { OpenFgaClient, FgaApiError } from '@openfga/sdk';

const fgaClient = new OpenFgaClient({
  apiUrl: process.env.FGA_API_URL!,
  storeId: process.env.FGA_STORE_ID!,
  maxRetries: 1,
});

const MAX_CONTEXTUAL_DEPTH = 5;
const EVALUATION_TIMEOUT_MS = 250;

export async function canAccessFolder(userId: string, folderId: string, dynamicParentIds: string[]): Promise<boolean> {
  // GUARD: Enforce maximum contextual tuple budget to eliminate client-driven recursion DoS
  if (dynamicParentIds.length > MAX_CONTEXTUAL_DEPTH) {
    throw new Error(`Graph resolution quota exceeded: maximum allowed parent references is ${MAX_CONTEXTUAL_DEPTH}`);
  }

  const contextualTuples = dynamicParentIds.map((parentId) => ({
    user: `folder:${parentId}`,
    relation: 'parent',
    object: `folder:${folderId}`,
  }));

  // Deterministic timeout budget for graph evaluation to protect p99 tail latency
  const controller = new AbortController();
  const timeoutId = setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), EVALUATION_TIMEOUT_MS);

  try {
    const response = await fgaClient.check(
      {
        user: `user:${userId}`,
        relation: 'viewer',
        object: `folder:${folderId}`,
        contextualTuples,
      },
      { signal: controller.signal }
    );

    return Boolean(response.allowed);
  } catch (error: unknown) {
    // Fail closed on graph exhaustion or execution deadlines
    if (error instanceof FgaApiError && error.statusCode === 400) {
      console.error('OpenFGA resolution depth or schema cycle limit reached', { userId, folderId, error });
      return false;
    }
    if (controller.signal.aborted) {
      console.error('OpenFGA check aborted due to resolution timeout quota', { userId, folderId });
      return false;
    }
    throw error;
  } finally {
    clearTimeout(timeoutId);
  }
}
```
Recommended MCP Servers (mcp-serverlist.com)

Equip agent with system tools to verify code for this stack.

OpenFGA Model Inspector MCP
Inspects and lints authorization models for transitive recursive cycles and excessive resolution depth risks.
Recommended Agent Skills (askills.dev)

Ready-to-use executable skill functions tailored to this stack.

OpenFGA CLI Validator
Performs static graph schema analysis and test assertions verifying cycle resolution constraints and tuple traversal bounds.
Architectural Specification & Invariant Rationale

Architectural Invariant Design: OpenFGA Transitive Graph Resolution Depth and Cycle-Budget Invariants

OpenFGA Transitive Graph Resolution Depth and Cycle-Budget Invariants defines an industrial-grade behavioral standard for security engineering. Enforces deterministic recursion limits, bounded traversal depth, and strict execution deadlines on transitive relationship queries within OpenFGA. Prevents authorization engine Denial of Service (AuthDoS) and p99 tail-latency collapse caused by cyclic graphs or deeply nested relationship hierarchies (e.g., nested groups, recursive document folders). 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: Unbounded Transitive Userset Expansion and Missing Traversal Quotas Inducing Graph-Engine Starvation 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 ModeAI Symptom (The Anti-Pattern)SeverityProduction Impact & Remedy
AI Hallucination & Deprecation DriftUnbounded Transitive Userset Expansion and Missing Traversal Quotas Inducing Graph-Engine StarvationCritical
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 InconsistencyAI 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:

1

Engineers MUST ALWAYS propagate an explicit cancellation deadline (`AbortSignal.timeout`) to all OpenFGA client evaluation calls (`check`, `listObjects`, `expand`).

Engineers MUST ALWAYS propagate an explicit cancellation deadline (`AbortSignal.timeout`) to all OpenFGA client evaluation calls (`check`, `listObjects`, `expand`).

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.
Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.
2

Engineers MUST NOT model self-referential transitive relationships (e.g., `define member

Engineers MUST NOT model self-referential transitive relationships (e.g., `define member: [user, group#member]`) without client-side or schema-level path-depth assertions and cycle-detection constraints.

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.
Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.
3

Engineers MUST set explicit upper bounds for `contextualTuples` when resolving checks, preventing callers from injecting artificial cyclic dependency structures at runtime.

Engineers MUST set explicit upper bounds for `contextualTuples` when resolving checks, preventing callers from injecting artificial cyclic dependency structures at runtime.

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.
Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.
4

Services MUST gracefully fail closed (deny authorization) when OpenFGA returns resolution depth quota errors (e.g., `FgaApiValidationError`, `FgaApiRateLimitExceeded`, or traversal timeouts) rather than falling back to permissive evaluation or hanging.

Services MUST gracefully fail closed (deny authorization) when OpenFGA returns resolution depth quota errors (e.g., `FgaApiValidationError`, `FgaApiRateLimitExceeded`, or traversal timeouts) rather than falling back to permissive evaluation or hanging.

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.
Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.
5

Components NEVER execute raw graph expansions (`expand` API) in user-facing synchronous request paths without a dedicated caching layer and maximum traversal depth limit.

Components NEVER execute raw graph expansions (`expand` API) in user-facing synchronous request paths without a dedicated caching layer and maximum traversal depth limit.

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.
Enforcement:Integrated into the Agent Pack rule file. When Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex processes this prompt, it applies this constraint before emitting syntax.
Technical Questions & Answers

Frequently Asked Technical Questions

Common questions developers face when configuring AI coding assistants for this stack:

Q:Why is OpenFGA Transitive Graph Resolution Depth and Cycle-Budget Invariants critical for AI coding assistants?

Enforces deterministic recursion limits, bounded traversal depth, and strict execution deadlines on transitive relationship queries within OpenFGA. Prevents authorization engine Denial of Service (AuthDoS) and p99 tail-latency collapse caused by cyclic graphs or deeply nested relationship hierarchies (e.g., nested groups, recursive document folders). Without explicit behavioral boundaries, AI coding assistants (Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, Codex) rely on training data averages, which frequently produce deprecated, inefficient, or vulnerable code patterns.

Q:How does adopting this rule prevent AI hallucinations?

This rule explicitly declares what the AI must avoid (Unbounded Transitive Userset Expansion and Missing Traversal Quotas Inducing Graph-Engine Starvation) and prescribes verified positive examples. Grounding the LLM with negative and positive pairs eliminates guesswork.

Q:Which AI coding environments are supported?

This specification is multi-platform compatible: Cursor (.cursor/rules/*.mdc & .cursorrules), Anthropic Claude Code (CLAUDE.md), Windsurf (.windsurfrules), Codex / Cline (AGENTS.md), and GitHub Copilot (.github/copilot-instructions.md).

Q:Can I combine this rule with other technology stacks?

Yes. Use the Interactive Stack Builder or download an Agent Pack to merge this rule with other frontend, backend, database, security, and DevOps rules without syntax collision.

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