# The day RBAC stops scaling: role explosion and what comes after

DevFeed: [The day RBAC stops scaling: role explosion and what comes after](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-day-rbac-stops-scaling-role-explosion-and-what-comes-after-16048.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://workos.com/blog/rbac-role-explosion-what-comes-after>)

Author: WorkOS

Published: 2026-08-06T00:18:10Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [WorkOS Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/workos-blog.md>)

Topics: [Authorization](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/authorization.md>), [Access Control](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/access-control.md>), [Graphs](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/graphs.md>)

Tags: [access-control](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/access-control.md>), [authorization](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/authorization.md>), [graph](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/graph.md>)

## AI overview

The article explains how per-resource permissions cause role explosion in growing B2B applications. It describes the operational and cognitive costs of increasingly complex RBAC models and presents Zanzibar's relationship-based graph model as an alternative.

## Source excerpt

Role-based access control breaks when roles outnumber users. Why per-resource permissions cause role explosion, and how to move past it without a rewrite.