Method and apparatus for specifying policies for authorizing apis

Abstract

Some embodiments provide API (Application Programming Interface) authorization platform that allows API-authorization policy stacks to be created and enforced. Policy stacks (called 'stacks') define API-authorization policies across different sets of managed resources in a workspace. A stack in some embodiments defines a uniform set of one or more API-authorization policies for multiple different sets of resources so that the set of policies do not have to be specified independently for each set of resources. By instituting common policies across multiple managed resource sets (also called managed systems), stacks can be used to guarantee uniform baseline policies for the workspace. A stack is typically applied to several managed resources that share a common trait (e.g., share a particular type). The API-authorization platform of some embodiments allows an administrator to define the traits of the managed resources through labels (e.g., key value pairs) that are associated with the stacks and the managed systems. This platform in some embodiments also allows a stack to specify an exception for a managed system based on one or more features of the system that are expressed in a rich feature data structure of the system.