---
title: "Feature Overview"
source: Openlane GRC Platform
source_url: https://github.com/theopenlane/core
licence: Apache-2.0
domain: security
subdomain: openlane-grc
date_added: 2026-04-25
---

![](assets/logo.png)


This repository houses the core server and orchestration elements which are at
the heart of the [Openlane](https://www.theopenlane.io) cloud service. [Sign up for an account today](https://console.theopenlane.io/signup) (no credit card required) and try it out!

## Feature Overview

- Creation of new programs that include pre-built templates, controls, risks, etc., for standards like SOC2, ISO27001, NIST800-53, and more
- Automated Task assignments and configurable workflows with task reminders and escalation
- Evidence upload, approval processes, and other configurable automation to get you through your audits
- Robust user and group management with a myriad of RBAC controls / toggles to ensure individuals in your company see what they are supposed to see
- Multiple authentication methods and organization-level controls for authorized domains including organization-wide SSO
- Automated domain scanning with assets and other resources created automatically for your approval
- Questionnaire creation, customization, and automation for easier internal and external interactions with your staff, auditors, and vendors
- Notification customizations, channel definitions, comments and histories on all your objects
- Easy to use documentation editors and storage for Policies and Procedures, or whatever documentation is needed
  .... and more!

### High-level Roadmap

- Trust Center and vanity domains - Now available!
- Automated Evidence collection
- Continuous GRC features
- Vulnerability Management
- Source code scanning
- Internal training programs and tracking mechanisms

For more information or to learn about how to use the system, visit our [docs page](https://docs.theopenlane.io)

## Development

> [!TIP]
>   This repo takes heavy use of `go:build` flags to help with compile times, which can result in tooling like VSCode showing errors of unknown functions. It is suggested to add the following build flags to your settings:
>
> `-tags=cli,test,codegen,examples`

## Layout

The repo contains three main modules:

1. core - this is the root go module, containing all the main api for openlane.
1. common - this contains packages that core depends on, along with external repos. This commonly holds type definitions that need to be exported and referenced by other applications
1. cli - this contains the openlane-cli, this is dependent on the `go-client` which is currently in another repo, but the cli is frequently used within development so we've left this here for now

### Dependencies

The vast majority of behaviors of the system can be turned on or off by updating
the configuration parameters found in `config`; in some instances, we've made
features or integrations with third party systems which are "always on", but
we're happy to receive PR's wrapping those dependencies if you are interested in
running the software without them!

### Installing Dependencies

Setup [Taskfile](https://taskfile.dev/installation/) by following the
instructions and using one of the various convenient package managers or
installation scripts. After installation, you can then simply run `task install`
to load the associated dependencies. Nearly everything in this repository
assumes you already have a local golang environment setup so this is not
included. Please see the associated documentation.

### Installing the CLI

You can install the Openlane CLI by running `brew install --cask theopenlane/tap/openlane`

### Updating Configuration Settings

See the [README](/config/README.md) in the `config` directory.

### Starting the Server

1. Copy the config, this is in .gitignore so you do not have to worry about
   accidentally committing secrets. This will be done automatically if it doesn't
   already exist when starting the api server locally with the Taskfile.

   ```bash
   cp ./config/config-dev.example.yaml ./config/.config.yaml
   ```

1. Update the configuration with whatever respective settings you desire; the
   defaults inside should allow you to run the server without a problem

> [!TIP]
>   When developing locally, unless you are specifically testing subscriptions and module enforcement, ensure the following settings are set to false:
>
>   ```yaml
>    entConfig:
>      modules:
>        enabled: false
>
>    subscription:
>      enabled: false
>   ```
>

1. Use the task commands to start the server

   Run the core server in development mode with dependencies in docker

   ```bash
   task run-dev
   ```

   Run fully in docker

   ```bash
   task docker:all:up
   ```

   Run fully in docker, with a published image:
   ```bash
   task docker:core:published
   ```

1. In a separate terminal, with the server running, you can create a verified
   test user by running:

   ```bash
   task cli:user:all
   ```

1. Once this command has finished ^, you can login and perform actions as user
   `mitb@theopenlane.io` with password `mattisthebest1234`

### CSRF Tokens

The server enforces CSRF protection on all mutating requests. Clients must
include a valid token in the `X-CSRF-Token` header. Existing client code can
create a client with the CSRF Token using the following function. This function
will grab a valid CSRF token from the `/livez` endpoint and send it for subsequent requests.

```go
 client.ClientWithCSRFToken(ctx, opts...)
```

You can also manually call `InitCSRF` on the client:

```go
ctx := context.Background()
if err := client.InitCSRF(ctx); err != nil {
    // handle error
}
```

The CLI has been updated to call `ClientWithCSRFToken` automatically, but other custom clients will need to adopt one of the approaches.

> [!NOTE]
> Because the CSRF middleware stores the token only in the client’s cookie and not on the server, restarting the core server (or core server running in Kubernetes pods) does not invalidate the token. When the middleware receives a request, it checks the token in the `csrf_token` cookie against the `X-CSRF-Token` header. If the cookie is already present, that same token is used — no new token is generated. The token cookie persists until it expires (default 24h), so clients will continue to send the same value even if the server has restarted.
>
> Therefore, rolling restarts on Kubernetes will not force new tokens to be issued and should not cause requests to fail, provided the client retains its CSRF cookie.


### Creating Queries in GraphQL

It's recommended to use the
[apollo sandbox](https://studio.apollographql.com/sandbox/explorer) and ensure
the following origin is allowed in your `config/.config.yaml`

```
server:
  cors:
    allowOrigins:
      - https://studio.apollographql.com
```

In the apollo settings you will need to configure your connection settings:

1. Endpoint: `http://localhost:17608/query`
1. Shared Headers: `Authorization` `Bearer tolp_REDCATED`

You can obtain a local personal access token or api token against your local api by running:

```
task cli:token:create
```

```
task cli:pat:create
```

These are also created automatically when you setup the test user using `task cli:user:all`

### OpenFGA Playground

You can load up a local openFGA environment with the compose setup in this
repository; `task fga:up` - this will launch an interactive playground where you
can model permissions model(s) or changes to the models

### Creating a new Schema

To ease the effort required to add additional schemas into the system a
template + task function has been created. This isn't doing anything terribly
complex, but it's attempting to ensure you have the _minimum_ set of required
things needed to create a schema - most notably: you need to ensure the IDMixin
is present (otherwise you will get ID type conflicts) and a standard set of
schema annotations.

NOTE: you still have to make intelligent decisions around things like the
presence / integration of hooks, interceptors, policies, etc. This is saving you
about 10 seconds of copy-paste, so don't over estimate the automation, here.

To generate a new schema, you can run `task db:newschema -- [yourschemaname]` where
you replace the name within `[]`. Please be sure to note that this isn't a
command line flag so there's a space between `--` and the name.

### Migrations

We use [atlas](https://atlasgo.io/) and
[goose](https://github.com/pressly/goose) to create and manage our DB
migrations - you can trigger one via `task atlas:create` and that will generate
the necessary migrations. There should be two migration files created in
`db/migrations` and `db/migrations-goose-postgres`, one for the base schema and one for the history schema.
On every PR, the Atlas integration also creates comments with any issues related to the schema changes
/ migrations.

## Deploying

The only "supported" method of deploying today is locally, but all required docker containers are available in the GitHub container registry for deployment in Kubernetes.

## Contributing

See the [contributing](.github/CONTRIBUTING.md) guide for more information.

## UI

We have additionally open-sourced the [Openlane UI](https://github.com/theopenlane/openlane-ui) and you can run / use this technology locally (or host it on your own servers) but we have not undergone efforts to ensure things such as links to our Terms of Service or Privacy policy, or other proprietary branding or assets owned by theopenlane, Inc., are fully configurable or removable.

## Technology

At its core, this repo is a collection of services built on top of an entity
framework which allows us to:

- Model database schemas as graph structures
- Define schemas as programmatic go code
- Execute complex database queries and graph traversals easily
- Extend and customize using templates and code generation utilities
- Type-safe resolvers and GraphQL schema stitching
- Code generated audit / history tables for defined schemas

On top of this powerful core we also have an incredible amount of pluggable,
extensible services:

- Authentication: we today support password, Single Sign-On (SSO), OAuth2 / Social login providers
  (Github, Google), Passkeys as well as standard OIDC Discovery flows (NOTE: you will need to create your own github or google client secrets and leverage them to take advantage of this capability)
- Multi-factor: built-in 2FA mechanisms, TOTP
- Authorization: extensible and flexible permissions constructs via openFGA
  based on Google Zanzibar
- Session Management: built-in session management with JWKS key validation,
  encrypted cookies and sessions
- Robust Middleware: cache control, CORS, Rate Limiting, transaction rollbacks,
  and more
- Queuing and Scheduling: Task management and scheduling with
  [riverqueue](https://github.com/riverqueue/river)
- External Storage Providers: store data in AWS S3, Cloudflare R2 or locally
- External Database Providers: Leverage NeonDB, or other PostgreSQL compatible
  vendors and libraries
- Data Isolation and Management: Hierarchal organizations and granular
  permissions controls

## Sponsoring

If any of our code or projects have helped you or you just want to help us out, we massively appreciate a sponsorship on our github project of any level!
