Indykite authzen search subject

IndyKite AuthZEN - subject search

Subject search asks the AuthZEN endpoint: which subjects may perform a given action on this resource? Given a subject type, one resource, and one action, it returns the matching subject instances under the project's currently ACTIVE KBAC policies and current graph state.

It is one of three AuthZEN search endpoints, each pinning two of the three (subject, action, resource) parts and enumerating the third:

Endpoint	Pinned	Enumerates	Skill
/search/action	subject + resource	actions	indykite-authzen-search-action
/search/resource	subject + action	resources	indykite-authzen-search-resource
/search/subject	resource + action	subjects	this skill

This skill covers building and sending the request and reading the results. It does not author policies - the 2.0-kbac policies these results are evaluated against are authored with indykite-authzen-kbac-policies.

When to use

Activate this skill when the user wants to:

• list every subject of a type that may perform an action on a specific resource (e.g. "who can DEPLOY gpu-node-7?", "who can approve this document?");
• build an audit or reviewer view of who currently has access to an item;
• debug why an expected subject is or is not in a resource's permitted set.

Do not activate this skill for a single yes/no decision (indykite-authzen-evaluation), to enumerate actions or resources instead (the sibling search skills), or to author a policy or read/write graph data (search only lists subjects).

Prerequisites

• One or more ACTIVE KBAC policies whose subject.type / resource.type and actions cover the question. If none exist, author them first with indykite-authzen-kbac-policies; search over an empty policy set returns {"results": []}.
• An AppAgent with credentials configured for the calling application (Credentials guide).
• The IKG populated with the candidate subject nodes and the resource node (and any relationships the policy conditions match).
• Any partial parameters a candidate policy references, ready to pass under context.input_params.

If a prerequisite is missing, say so - an empty result set from a missing policy or absent node looks identical to a real "nothing permitted".

Steps

1. Pin the resource and the action; leave the subject a type

Subject search fixes the resource and the action, and searches across subjects of a given type:

Part	Field	Example
subject	subject.type only	Person (no id)
action	action.name	PROVISION
resource	resource.type + resource.id	Server / gpu-node-7

Do not set subject.id - the subjects are what the search returns.

2. Build the request body

{
  "subject":  { "type": "Person" },
  "resource": { "type": "Server", "id": "gpu-node-7" },
  "action":   { "name": "PROVISION" },
  "context":  { "input_params": { "max_price": 80000 } }
}

Include context.input_params only if a candidate policy references a $name partial parameter; supply each key without the $, correctly typed. A ready body: assets/search-subject-request.json.

3. Send the search

POST <API_URL>/access/v1/search/subject

The endpoint authenticates the calling application (its AppAgent credentials - always required). A user access token is accepted too, but for subject search it typically has no effect on the result set (you are enumerating subjects, not acting as one). Which credential goes in which request header is covered by the Credentials guide.

A runnable shell helper builds the authenticated request: scripts/search-subject.sh — run with --print to preview the curl (host-pinned; tokens redacted).

4. Read the results

{ "results": [ { "type": "Person", "id": "grace" }, { "type": "Person", "id": "dennis" } ] }

Each results[] entry is a subject (type + id, the external_id) allowed the action on that resource. An empty results array is a normal 200 meaning no subject of that type is permitted - not an error.

5. Verify

Empty or surprising results usually trace to: subject.id accidentally set (it takes subject.type only), resource.id not being an external_id, the action not matching a policy, a $param missing/mistyped (loosening max_price widens the set), or the subject nodes being absent. Full checklist: references/search-subject-reference.md.

Outcome

When this skill has been applied successfully:

• POST /access/v1/search/subject returns a results array of subject instances (type + id) allowed a given action on a specific resource, under current ACTIVE policies and graph state (an empty array means no subject of that type permitted — a normal 200).
• The subjects returned are consistent with single-decision (/access/v1/evaluation) results for the same triples.

Files in this skill

• references/search-subject-reference.md - endpoint, auth, request/response shape, error codes, troubleshooting, sibling endpoints.
• assets/search-subject-request.json - runnable subject-search request body for the "who can PROVISION gpu-node-7" example.
• scripts/search-subject.sh - Bash helper that posts a search request to /access/v1/search/subject (host-pinned; --print to preview).

Agent-specific notes

This skill uses generic markdown instructions and works across all agents listed in the README. The agent needs to be able to issue HTTP requests (curl, an HTTP client, or the IndyKite Terraform provider). No Claude Code hooks, Cursor @-mentions, or Copilot workspace context are required.

References

• AuthZEN guide (developer hub)
• Config API documentation - authorization policies
• Credentials guide