Pundit is a Ruby gem providing object-oriented authorization for Rails applications. It defines policy classes (plain Ruby objects) with query methods like `update?` and scope classes for scoping records. The core is a `Pundit::Context` that handles authorization, policy finding, and caching. It integrates with Rails controllers via `Pundit::Authorization` mixin, offering `authorize`, `policy`, `policy_scope`, and strong parameter helpers. It includes RSpec matchers for testing policies and generators for Rails. The architecture is clean, well-tested, and actively maintained.