cel-expr/cel-go

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

3085 stars · 305 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

cel-go is a Go implementation of the Common Expression Language (CEL), a fast, portable, non-Turing complete expression language with gradual typing. It parses, type-checks, and evaluates single expressions against host-provided variables and functions, making it safe to embed in performance-critical applications.

Use cases

• evaluate authorization rules for API requests
• add user-defined filter expressions to API list calls
• validate protocol buffer messages with declarative constraints
• embed a safe sandboxed expression evaluator in a Go application
• evaluate policy predicates over structured data like JWT claims
• let users write simple configuration expressions without scripting languages

When to choose

• you need fast, predictable-cost expression evaluation in Go (nanoseconds to microseconds)
• you want a safe, non-Turing complete alternative to embedding a full scripting language
• you need type-checked expressions over protobufs, JSON, lists, and maps
• you're building policy, validation, or filtering features where expressions change rarely but evaluate often

When to avoid

• you need a full scripting language with loops, state, or side effects
• your application is not written in Go or targeting the Go ecosystem
• you need Turing-complete programmability or user-defined functions with complex control flow

Facets

library · maturity stable

parser interpreter security authorization programming-languages developer-tools security apis go cross-platform expression-language cel policy-engine type-checking non-turing-complete sandboxed-evaluation

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="cel-expr/cel-go")