CEL expressions examples
Common patterns and examples
Employee vs contractor identification
// Check if user is an employee
subject.email.endsWith("@company.com")
// Check if user is a contractor
!subject.email.endsWith("@company.com")
// Check if user is a contractor with specific domain
subject.email.endsWith("@contractor.com")
Department-based access control
// Single department
subject.department == "Engineering"
// Multiple departments
subject.department == "Engineering" || subject.department == "IT"
// Exclude specific department
subject.department != "HR"
User status and type filtering
// Active users only
subject.status == UserStatus.ENABLED
// Human users only (exclude service accounts)
subject.type == UserType.HUMAN
// Service accounts only
subject.type == UserType.SERVICE || subject.type == UserType.SYSTEM
Manager-based routing
// Route to manager
c1.directory.users.v1.FindByEmail(subject.manager)
// Route to manager's manager (skip-level)
c1.directory.users.v1.GetManagers(c1.directory.users.v1.FindByEmail(subject.manager))
Access conflict detection
// Check for any access conflicts
task.analysis.hasConflictViolations
// Check for specific access conflict
"conflict123" in task.analysis.conflictViolations
Time-based access control
// Permanent access
task.isGrantPermanent == true
// Temporary access (more than 2 hours)
task.isGrantPermanent == false && task.grantDuration > duration("2h")
// Short-term access (less than 1 day)
task.grantDuration < duration("24h")
Task origin routing
// Requests from Slack
task.origin == TaskOrigin.SLACK
// Requests not from web interface
task.origin != TaskOrigin.WEBAPP
// API-created requests
task.origin == TaskOrigin.API
Custom user attributes
// Check custom attribute
subject.attributes.contractor == "true"
// Check if custom attribute exists
has(subject.attributes.securityClearance)
// Conditional logic based on custom attribute
has(subject.attributes.director) ? subject.attributes.director == "boss@company.com" : subject.manager == "manager@company.com"
Operators
CEL supports common Boolean operators, like !, <, >, <=, >=, ||, &&, ==, !=, and in. All operators work as they do in C, and in functions as a “list contains” operator.
CEL allows for basic arithmetic operations, with +, -, *, and \ for adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing.
CEL also supports ternary operators, similar to C or JavaScript. These are formed as “If this ? then check this : otherwise check this”.
Example condition expressions
Basic syntax examples
These examples show fundamental CEL syntax and operators:
Simple comparisons:
subject.email == "user@company.com"
subject.department == "Engineering"
subject.status == UserStatus.ENABLED
Boolean operators:
subject.status == UserStatus.ENABLED && subject.department == "IT"
subject.department == "Engineering" || subject.department == "IT"
!subject.email.endsWith("@company.com")
Function calls:
c1.user.v1.HasApp(subject, "app123")
c1.user.v1.HasEntitlement(subject, "app123", "entitlement456")
Ternary operators:
subject.department == "IT" ? subject : c1.directory.users.v1.FindByEmail(subject.manager)
Advanced examples
Complex conditional logic:
has(subject.attributes.director) ?
subject.attributes.director == "boss@company.com" :
subject.manager == "manager@company.com"
Access conflict detection:
task.analysis.hasConflictViolations
"conflict123" in task.analysis.conflictViolations
Time-based access:
task.isGrantPermanent == false && task.grantDuration > duration("2h")
Access profile enrollment:
c1.user.v1.AutomaticallyGrantedFromEnrollment(subject, entitlement.appId, entitlement.id)
Expressions that return users
Simple user returns:
subject // Self-approval
c1.directory.users.v1.FindByEmail(subject.manager) // Route to manager
Conditional user routing:
subject.department == "IT" ? subject : c1.directory.users.v1.FindByEmail(subject.manager)
Complex nested routing:
has(subject.profile.propThatOnlyExistsSometimes) ?
subject.profile.propThatOnlyExistsSometimes == "Value That Happens" ?
c1.directory.users.v1.FindByEmail("some.email@company.com") :
c1.directory.users.v1.GetByID("user123") :
c1.directory.users.v1.GetByID("fallback123")
Real-world policy examples
These examples are based on actual customer requests and common use cases. Use them as starting points for your own policies, adapting the logic to match your organization’s needs.
Access control and security
Proactively check for potential access conflicts
Customer scenario: A financial services company needs to prevent users from having conflicting access that could violate compliance requirements.
Business problem: Users requesting access that would create security conflicts need special review by the security team.
Expected outcome: Access requests with conflicts are automatically routed to security for manual review.
Condition expressions:
// Route any request with access conflicts to security team
task.analysis.hasConflictViolations
// Route specific access conflicts to security team
"conflict123" in task.analysis.conflictViolations
Route access requests based on where they were created
Customer scenario: A healthcare company wants to ensure that access requests from external systems (like Slack) receive additional scrutiny.
Business problem: Requests from non-web interfaces may be less secure or properly vetted.
Expected outcome: External requests are routed to managers for review, while web requests can be auto-approved.
Condition expressions:
// Route Slack requests to manager for review
task.origin == TaskOrigin.SLACK
// Route non-web requests to manager for review
task.origin != TaskOrigin.WEBAPP
User management and routing
Custom review flow for contractors
Customer scenario: A technology company has both full-time employees and contractors, and needs different approval workflows for each.
Business problem: Contractors require manager approval for all access, while employees can self-approve low-risk access.
Expected outcome: Contractors are routed to their manager, employees can self-approve.
Condition expression:
// Route contractors to manager, employees to self-review
!subject.email.endsWith("@company.com")
Assign a skip-level review
Customer scenario: A large enterprise needs to ensure that high-privilege access requests are reviewed by senior management, not just direct managers.
Business problem: Some access requests require approval from higher-level management for security and compliance.
Expected outcome: High-privilege requests are routed to the manager’s manager for review.
Condition expression:
// Route to manager's manager (skip-level review)
c1.directory.users.v1.GetManagers(c1.directory.users.v1.FindByEmail(subject.manager))
Automation and efficiency
Pre-approve access based on group membership
Customer scenario: A software company wants to automatically approve access for users who already have similar access in related systems.
Business problem: Users with existing access to similar systems can be trusted with related access without manual review.
Expected outcome: Users with existing access are automatically approved for related access.
Condition expression:
// Auto-approve if user has access to related app and entitlement
c1.user.v1.HasApp(subject, "okta-app-id") &&
c1.user.v1.HasEntitlement(subject, "jira-app-id", "admin-role-id")
Pre-approve access for employees who are currently on call
Customer scenario: A technology company needs to ensure on-call engineers can quickly access production systems during emergencies.
Business problem: On-call engineers need immediate access to production systems without waiting for approval.
Expected outcome: Users currently on-call are automatically approved for production access.
Condition expression:
// Auto-approve if user is in any on-call rotation
c1.user.v1.HasEntitlement(subject, "pagerduty-app-id", "oncall-schedule-1") ||
c1.user.v1.HasEntitlement(subject, "pagerduty-app-id", "oncall-schedule-2")
Auto-certify low-risk access
Customer scenario: A consulting company wants to automatically certify access for employees who have proven trustworthy with similar access.
Business problem: Regular access reviews are time-consuming for low-risk access that employees clearly need.
Expected outcome: Low-risk access is automatically certified for trusted employees.
Condition expression:
// Auto-certify if user has Google Workspace access and is in Engineering
c1.user.v1.HasApp(subject, "google-workspace-app-id") &&
subject.department == "Engineering"
Time-based access control
Approve access based on grant length
Customer scenario: A financial services company needs different approval workflows for temporary vs permanent access.
Business problem: Temporary access is lower risk and can be auto-approved, while permanent access requires manual review.
Expected outcome: Short-term access is auto-approved, permanent access requires manager review.
Condition expressions:
// Route permanent access to manager for review
task.isGrantPermanent == true
// Auto-approve temporary access over 2 hours
task.isGrantPermanent == false && task.grantDuration > duration("2h")
Advanced user assignment
Assign request to users with the same entitlement
Customer scenario: A software company wants to assign access reviews to users who already have the same access, as they understand the requirements best.
Business problem: Users with existing access are best qualified to review requests for the same access.
Expected outcome: Access requests are assigned to users who already have the same access.
Condition expressions:
// Assign to users with specific entitlement
c1.directory.apps.v1.GetEntitlementMembers("app-id", "entitlement-id")
// Assign to users with the same entitlement being requested
c1.directory.apps.v1.GetEntitlementMembers(entitlement.appId, entitlement.id)
System account management
Create a group of all system and agent accounts
Customer scenario: A technology company needs to manage all system and service accounts separately from human users.
Business problem: System accounts require different management policies than human user accounts.
Expected outcome: All system and service accounts are automatically grouped for specialized management.
Condition expression:
// Include all system and service accounts
subject.type == UserType.SERVICE || subject.type == UserType.SYSTEM
Time-based access control
Time functions enable sophisticated date and time-based policies. These examples use time functions to implement common temporal access patterns.
Check if user was hired recently
Customer scenario: A tech company wants to automatically grant onboarding access to users hired in the last 7 days.
Business problem: New employees need temporary access to onboarding resources during their first week.
Expected outcome: Users with hire dates in the last 7 days automatically get access.
Condition expression:
// In Dynamic Groups: Include users hired in the last 7 days (using profile field)
has(subject.profile.hire_date) &&
time.parse(subject.profile.hire_date, TimeFormat.DATE) > now() - duration("168h")
Auto-approve during business hours
Customer scenario: A financial services company wants to auto-approve low-risk requests during business hours but require manual review after hours.
Business problem: After-hours requests may need additional scrutiny when security teams are not immediately available.
Expected outcome: Requests during business hours (9 AM - 5 PM ET) are auto-approved.
Condition expression:
// Auto-approve requests during business hours (9 AM - 5 PM Eastern Time)
time.format(now(), "15", "America/New_York") >= "09" &&
time.format(now(), "15", "America/New_York") < "17"
Route weekend requests differently
Customer scenario: A healthcare company needs to route weekend access requests to on-call managers instead of regular managers.
Business problem: Regular managers may not be available on weekends to approve urgent access requests.
Expected outcome: Weekend requests are routed to on-call approvers.
Condition expression:
// Check if today is Saturday or Sunday in company timezone
time.format(now(), "Monday", "America/New_York") == "Saturday" ||
time.format(now(), "Monday", "America/New_York") == "Sunday"
Check if contract end date is approaching
Customer scenario: An enterprise needs to identify contractors whose contracts are ending soon for access review.
Business problem: Contractors with expiring contracts should have their access reviewed before their last day.
Expected outcome: Contractors with contracts ending in 30 days are included in review group.
Condition expression:
// In Dynamic Groups: Users whose contract end date is within 30 days
has(subject.profile.contract_end_date) &&
time.parse(subject.profile.contract_end_date, TimeFormat.DATE) - now() < duration("720h")
Alert on inactive users
Customer scenario: A company wants to automatically flag users who haven’t logged in for 90 days for access review.
Business problem: Inactive users with access pose a security risk and should have their access reviewed or revoked.
Expected outcome: Users inactive for 90+ days are automatically included in a review group.
Condition expression:
// In Dynamic Groups: Include users who haven't logged in for 90 days
has(subject.profile.last_login) &&
now() - time.parse(subject.profile.last_login, TimeFormat.RFC3339) > duration("2160h")
Check if it’s end of quarter
Customer scenario: A company wants to trigger special access reviews at the end of each fiscal quarter.
Business problem: Quarterly compliance reviews need to happen in Q4 (October-December).
Expected outcome: Policy activates during Q4 months.
Condition expression:
// Check if current month is October or later (Q4)
int(time.format(now(), "01")) >= 10
Validate date fields in profile
Customer scenario: A company stores hire dates in custom profile fields and wants to validate they’re not in the future.
Business problem: Invalid hire dates can cause issues with onboarding automations.
Expected outcome: Only users with valid past hire dates are processed.
Condition expression:
// Check if hire date is valid and in the past
has(subject.profile.hire_date) &&
time.try_parse(subject.profile.hire_date, TimeFormat.DATE, now()) <= now()
Related documentation
- Write condition expressions - Introduction to CEL expressions and where they’re used
- CEL expressions reference - Complete reference for all available objects, functions, and time functions