Synthetic Data Generation with Open Policy Agent (OPA)

The request to enforce policy on data you don’t yet have is becoming common. Synthetic data generation with Open Policy Agent (OPA) makes it possible.

OPA is a CNCF project that lets you define fine-grained policies in Rego. It is designed to evaluate requests in real time, returning allow or deny decisions based on rules. Synthetic data generation adds a new layer: creating realistic but safe datasets that match the shape, schema, and constraints of production data without containing sensitive values.

The workflow is simple. First, define your policy in OPA. Policies can cover access control, schema validation, or compliance checks. Next, use synthetic data tools to build data that obeys those rules. Because the data is simulated, you can run stress tests, security audits, and integration pipelines without exposing real customer information.

Key benefits of combining OPA with synthetic data:

• Compliance by design: Policies enforce rules that generated data must meet, ensuring GDPR, HIPAA, or SOC 2 alignment.
• Early testing: You catch policy violations before real data arrives.
• Security: No secrets, no personal data, reduced breach risk.
• Repeatability: The same policy and generator yield consistent test datasets.

OPA evaluates JSON input, which means synthetic datasets can be shaped in JSON to match actual API responses or DB exports. Modern synthetic data platforms let you parameterize values, ranges, and types. Then OPA can run in CI/CD, blocking builds where generated data does not meet policy rules.

This combination changes how teams prepare for launches. Service contracts can be validated against generated payloads. Compliance teams can check system logic without waiting for production traffic. Large-scale load testing becomes safe and fast.

The engineering focus shifts from reacting to policy violations to preventing them. OPA handles the decision logic. Synthetic data generation provides the sandbox in which every request is legal—or fails safely.

You can see OPA synthetic data generation in action without writing boilerplate or waiting days for setup. Visit hoop.dev and run it live in minutes.