---
type: docs
title: "How-To: Scope components to one or more applications"
linkTitle: "Scope access to components"
weight: 300
description: "Limit component access to particular Dapr instances"
---

Dapr components are namespaced (separate from the Kubernetes namespace concept), meaning a Dapr runtime instance can only access components that have been deployed to the same namespace.

When Dapr runs, it matches it's own configured namespace with the namespace of the components that it loads and initializes only the ones matching its namespaces. All other components in a different namespace are not loaded.

## Namespaces
Namespaces can be used to limit component access to particular Dapr instances.

{{< tabs "Self-Hosted" "Kubernetes">}}

{{% codetab %}}
In self hosted mode, a developer can specify the namespace to a Dapr instance by setting the `NAMESPACE` environment variable.
If the `NAMESPACE` environment variable is set, Dapr does not load any component that does not specify the same namespace in its metadata.

For example given this component in the `production` namespace
```yaml
apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: statestore
  namespace: production
spec:
  type: state.redis
  version: v1
  metadata:
  - name: redisHost
    value: redis-master:6379
```

To tell Dapr which namespace it is deployed to, set the environment variable:

MacOS/Linux:

```bash
export NAMESPACE=production
# run Dapr as usual
```
Windows:

```powershell
setx NAMESPACE "production"
# run Dapr as usual
```
{{% /codetab %}}

{{% codetab %}}
Let's consider the following component in Kubernetes:

```yaml
apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: statestore
  namespace: production
spec:
  type: state.redis
  version: v1
  metadata:
  - name: redisHost
    value: redis-master:6379
```

In this example, the Redis component is only accessible to Dapr instances running inside the `production` namespace.
{{% /codetab %}}

{{< /tabs >}}

## Using namespaces with service invocation

When using service invocation an application in a namespace you have to qualify it with the namespace. For example calling the `ping` method on `myapp` which is scoped to the `production` namespace would be like this.

```bash
https://localhost:3500/v1.0/invoke/myapp.production/method/ping
```

Or using a curl command from an external DNS address, in this case `api.demo.dapr.team` would be like this.

MacOS/Linux:
```
curl -i -d '{ "message": "hello" }' \
     -H "Content-type: application/json" \
     -H "dapr-api-token: ${API_TOKEN}" \
     https://api.demo.dapr.team/v1.0/invoke/myapp.production/method/ping
```

## Using namespaces with pub/sub
Read [Pub/Sub and namespaces]({{< ref "component-scopes.md" >}}) for more information on scoping components.

## Application access to components with scopes

Developers and operators might want to limit access for one database to a certain application, or a specific set of applications.
To achieve this, Dapr allows you to specify `scopes` on the component YAML. Application scopes added to a component limit only the applications with specific IDs to be able to use the component.

The following example shows how to give access to two Dapr enabled apps, with the app IDs of `app1` and `app2` to the Redis component named `statestore` which itself is in the `production` namespace

```yaml
apiVersion: dapr.io/v1alpha1
kind: Component
metadata:
  name: statestore
  namespace: production
spec:
  type: state.redis
  version: v1
  metadata:
  - name: redisHost
    value: redis-master:6379
scopes:
- app1
- app2
```

## Example

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8W-iBDNvCUM?start=1763" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

## Related links

- [Configure Pub/Sub components with multiple namespaces]({{< ref "pubsub-namespaces.md" >}})
- [Use secret scoping]({{< ref "secrets-scopes.md" >}})
- [Limit the secrets that can be read from secret stores]({{< ref "secret-scope.md" >}})