|
| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +title: OpenFGA Accepted into CNCF Incubation 🎉 |
| 3 | +description: OpenFGA has been accepted into the Cloud Native Computing Foundation Incubation stage |
| 4 | +slug: incubation-announcement |
| 5 | +date: 2026-01-07 |
| 6 | +authors: [aaguiar, jakub] |
| 7 | +tags: [announcement] |
| 8 | +image: /img/og-rich-embed.png |
| 9 | +hide_table_of_contents: false |
| 10 | +--- |
| 11 | +# OpenFGA Accepted into CNCF Incubation 🎉 |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +OpenFGA has been accepted as a CNCF **Incubation** project! The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Technical Oversight Committee (TOC) [voted to advance OpenFGA](https://github.com/cncf/toc/issues/1287#issuecomment-3458442973) from Sandbox to Incubation status, recognizing years of community work and real-world adoption. This places OpenFGA on the same maturity path as other CNCF projects like OpenTelemetry, Keycloak, Artifact Hub, and Backstage. Learn more at the CNCF joint announcement: [OpenFGA becomes a CNCF Incubating Project](https://www.cncf.io/blog/2025/11/11/openfga-becomes-a-cncf-incubating-project/). |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +## Why Incubation Matters |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +Incubation signals that OpenFGA is production-ready with a healthy, diverse contributor base and real-world adoption at scale. For organizations evaluating OpenFGA, this milestone validates the project's maturity, governance, and long-term sustainability. The CNCF due diligence process assessed our security posture, documentation, community health, and adoption metrics—all meeting the standards required for broad enterprise use. |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +Learn more about [CNCF project stages](https://www.cncf.io/projects/) and review our [due diligence documentation](https://github.com/cncf/toc/blob/main/projects/openfga/openfga-incubation-dd.md). |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | +## Technical Maturity Since Sandbox |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +Since joining CNCF as a Sandbox project in December 2022, OpenFGA has evolved significantly: |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +- **Performance improvements**: Substantial optimizations in query execution and caching, enabling sub-millisecond authorization checks at scale |
| 26 | +- **Enhanced capabilities**: Introduction of conditional tuples, modular models, and list users functionality to support more complex authorization scenarios |
| 27 | +- **Expanded ecosystem**: New SDKs, database adapters (including SQLite), Terraform provider, and IDE plugins |
| 28 | +- **Production hardening**: Improved observability, configuration options, and operational tooling based on real-world deployment feedback |
| 29 | +- **Security posture**: Comprehensive security assessments, vulnerability management processes, and regular dependency updates |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +These improvements reflect our commitment to building a reliable, performant authorization system ready for enterprise production use. |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +## How We Got Here |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +OpenFGA was open sourced in June 2022 and accepted as a CNCF Sandbox project in December 2022. Since then, we've seen incredible community support: |
| 36 | + |
| 37 | +- Regular community meetings since 2022, available on [our YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@OpenFGA), along with more than 40 presentations from community members. |
| 38 | +- Contributions from the community—whether through questions, feedback, feature requests, PRs, bug reports, or guides and tools built around OpenFGA. |
| 39 | +- [Grafana Labs](https://grafana.com/) joined the maintainer team. |
| 40 | +- 600+ contributors across the OpenFGA organization. |
| 41 | +- 5,000+ GitHub stars across our repositories. |
| 42 | +- Presence at six consecutive KubeCon conferences (US and EU) with breakout sessions and a kiosk. |
| 43 | +- Production adopters include [Canonical](https://canonical.com/), [Docker](https://www.docker.com), [Grafana Labs](https://grafana.com), [Read AI](https://read.ai/), [Agicap](https://agicap.com), [Headspace](https://headspace.com), [Zuplo](https://zuplo.com), [Sourcegraph](https://sourcegraph.com/), [OpenObserve](https://openobserve.ai/) and [LakeKeeper](https://lakekeeper.io/) along with [many others](https://github.com/openfga/community/blob/main/ADOPTERS.md). |
| 44 | +- Several adopters [went on the record](https://github.com/cncf/toc/tree/main/projects/openfga) in interviews with CNCF around their OpenFGA experience through the due diligence project. |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +## Thank You |
| 47 | + |
| 48 | +OpenFGA's success is the result of contributions from many individuals and organizations. We want to highlight a few who made significant impact: |
| 49 | + |
| 50 | +### Community Contributors |
| 51 | + |
| 52 | +- [Massimiliano Gori](https://www.linkedin.com/in/massi-gori) believed in OpenFGA early and led integration across Canonical. |
| 53 | +- [Pauline Jamin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulinejamin) spearheaded adoption at [Agicap](https://agicap.com) and presented their learnings at [KubeCon Europe 2024](https://colocatedeventseu2024.sched.com/event/1YFhM/implementing-modern-cloud-native-authorization-using-openfga-andres-aguiar-okta-pauline-jamin-agicap). |
| 54 | +- [JT aka Hawxy](https://github.com/Hawxy) has been maintaining [Fga.net](https://github.com/Hawxy/Fga.Net) for years, and has been graciously providing us feedback since. |
| 55 | +- [Andrew Powers](https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-powers-geo) led [Read AI](https://www.read.ai/) implementation supporting collaboration and RAG for enterprise search. |
| 56 | +- [Joao Guerreiro](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joguer) led the implementation at [Grafana](https://grafana.com/) and presented their journey at [KubeCon Europe 2025](https://kccnceu2025.sched.com/event/1txIJ/from-chaos-to-control-migrating-access-control-to-openfga-in-a-multi-tenant-world-jo-guerreiro-grafana-labs-poovamraj-thanganadar-thiagarajan-okta). |
| 57 | +- [Dan Cech](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dancech) from [Grafana](https://grafana.com/) contributed the SQLite adapter and serves as a maintainer. |
| 58 | +- [Nathan Totten](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathantotten) led [Zuplo](https://zuplo.com/) integration, implementing [authorization at the edge](https://zuplo.com/examples/openfga) for the API gateway. |
| 59 | +- [Gurleen Sethi](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gurleensethi) led the implementation of organization and team management at [Docker, Inc](https://www.docker.com/). |
| 60 | +- [Siddhant Khare](https://github.com/Siddhant-K-code) was the first independent contributor who onboarded as a maintainer of the OpenFGA project. |
| 61 | +- [Maurice Ackel](https://github.com/mauriceackel) donated the [OpenFGA Terraform Provider](https://registry.terraform.io/providers/openfga/openfga/latest/docs), and joined as a maintainer. |
| 62 | +- [Yann D'Isanto](https://www.linkedin.com/in/yann-d-19851110) from [Agicap](https://agicap.com), who contributed the JetBrains IDE plugin. |
| 63 | +- [Martin Besozzi](https://www.linkedin.com/in/embesozzi) has been involved in the OpenFGA community from the beginning, driving integrations with [Keycloak](https://www.keycloak.org/). |
| 64 | + |
| 65 | +### CNCF Support |
| 66 | + |
| 67 | +- [Chris Aniszczyk](https://www.linkedin.com/in/caniszczyk) helped guide the project donation and acceptance. |
| 68 | +- [Eddie Knight](https://www.linkedin.com/in/knight1776), [Evan Anderson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/evankanderson), [Marina Moore](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marina-moore-5a7242105) and [Justin Cappos](https://github.com/JustinCappos) from [CNCF TAG Security](https://tag-security.cncf.io/) supported the self-assessment and helped strengthen our posture for due diligence. |
| 69 | +- [Karena Angell](https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenaangell) and [Faseela K](https://www.linkedin.com/in/faseela-k-42178528) helped us navigate the due diligence process and carried much of the heavy lift to make it happen. |
| 70 | + |
| 71 | +## What's Next |
| 72 | + |
| 73 | +Incubation is a milestone, not a destination. Our focus continues on: |
| 74 | + |
| 75 | +- **Performance**: Optimizing latency and throughput for large-scale deployments |
| 76 | +- **Developer Experience**: Enhanced tooling, IDE plugins, and debugging capabilities |
| 77 | +- **Integrations**: Expanding our ecosystem with more identity providers, frameworks, and platforms |
| 78 | +- **Documentation**: Comprehensive guides, tutorials, and real-world implementation patterns |
| 79 | +- **Governance**: Strengthening our contributor pathways and security practices |
| 80 | + |
| 81 | +Our next milestone: CNCF Graduation. Track our progress on the [project roadmap](https://github.com/orgs/openfga/projects/1). |
| 82 | + |
| 83 | +## Get Involved |
| 84 | + |
| 85 | +This achievement belongs to every contributor, user, and community member who has supported OpenFGA. Thank you for being part of our journey! |
| 86 | + |
| 87 | +**New to OpenFGA?** Start here: |
| 88 | +- [Try OpenFGA locally](https://openfga.dev/docs/getting-started) and explore the documentation |
| 89 | +- [Join our CNCF Slack community](https://openfga.dev/community) to ask questions and connect with users |
| 90 | + |
| 91 | +**Already using OpenFGA?** |
| 92 | +- [Star the repo](https://github.com/openfga/openfga) and follow development |
| 93 | +- Share your adoption story—add your organization to our [ADOPTERS.md](https://github.com/openfga/community/blob/main/ADOPTERS.md) |
| 94 | +- Check out the [roadmap](https://github.com/orgs/openfga/projects/1) and contribute to upcoming features |
| 95 | + |
| 96 | + |
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