In the DSL there are two kinds of words: keywords you must type exactly, and names you make up (or point to). Symbols like ​:​ and [ ] are also fixed.

Built-in words. Spell them exactly.

Words you invent to fit your app.

• Type names: user, document, folder, organization. You could call them person or file instead.
• Relation names: owner, editor, viewer, parent, member. You pick these too.

There is a small twist. Sometimes you create a name, and sometimes you refer to a name you already made.

• define viewer: … → here you create the name viewer.
• … or owner → here you refer to owner, which must already exist.
• [user] → user must be a type you already defined.

• ​:​ after a relation name — required.
• [ ] around allowed types — required for a direct relation.
• # — used in tuples, like group:eng#member (not in the model itself).

Take this line:

define viewer: [user] or owner

Uppercase = keywords (fixed). <…> = names you supply.

MODEL
  SCHEMA 1.1

TYPE <your type name>
  RELATIONS
    DEFINE <your relation name>: [<allowed type>] OR <another relation>

The trick to reading a relation is to say it out loud in plain words. Below, the left side is the DSL, the right side is how you say it.

define owner: [user]

Read it as: “a user can be assigned as the owner.”
Keyword: define. Names: owner, user. This one needs a tuple to be true.

define editor: [user] or owner

Read it as: “an editor is a user assigned directly, or anyone who is already an owner.”
So every owner is also an editor, for free.

define member: [user, group#member]

Read it as: “a member can be a single user, or every member of a group.”
The comma lists two allowed types. group#member means “the members of a group.”

define viewer: [user:*]

Read it as: “every user can view this.”
The * is a wildcard. Use it for public things.

define can_delete: owner and admin

Read it as: “you can delete only if you are both an owner and an admin.”
and means both conditions must hold at the same time.

define viewer: [user] but not blocked

Read it as: “a viewer is any assigned user, except anyone who is blocked.”
but not removes people, even if they would otherwise qualify.

define viewer: viewer from parent

Read it as: “you can view this if you are a viewer of its parent.”
Follow the parent link, then check viewer on whatever you land on.

define viewer: [user] or editor or viewer from parent

Read it as: “a viewer is a user assigned directly, or an editor, or a viewer of the parent folder.”
This is the common real-world pattern: direct people, higher roles, and inherited folder access all at once.

<note tip> Rule of thumb: [ ] means a direct grant (a tuple sets it). A bare relation name means a computed grant (worked out from other relations, no tuple needed). </note>

• Authorization model
• Relationship tuples