Policy Engine API

The Policy Engine API lets admins build and manage the full policy stack: packs containing rules, chains that assemble packs in priority order, and a simulation endpoint for safe pre-flight testing. All endpoints require admin authentication (Authorization: Bearer <admin-token>).

Concepts

Policy packs and rules

A policy pack is a named, versioned container of rules. Rules within a pack are evaluated in ascending sequence order. Each rule declares:

conditions — what must match (entity types, regex, provider/model, risk score, user group)
applies_to — input, output, or both
action — the terminal action taken on a match (ALLOW, BLOCK, CANCEL, REDACT, ROUTE_TO)

All active conditions within a single rule are ANDed. The first rule whose conditions all match fires its action; subsequent rules in the same pack are not evaluated.

Pack types:

Type	Description
`custom`	Tenant-created packs — fully editable
`bundle`	System-supplied compliance bundles — rules are read-only
`template`	Instantiated from a policy template

Policy chains

A chain assembles multiple packs into an ordered sequence for a given scope. Two scopes exist:

Scope	Description
`org`	The organisation-level primary chain — applies to all users
`user`	Per-user personal override chain — evaluated before the org chain

During evaluation, the user chain is checked first. If no terminal action is reached, the org chain is evaluated next.

Combining algorithms

Each chain has a combining_algorithm:

Algorithm	Behaviour
`first_applicable`	Firewall default. Evaluation stops at the first matched terminal action.
`deny_overrides`	XACML-style. All rules are evaluated; any `BLOCK` or `CANCEL` takes precedence over `ALLOW`.

Effective policy resolution

The fully resolved policy for a specific user combines the user chain, org chain, and all System Default settings via a three-level cascade:

System Default → Group (lowest priority)
             → Org chain (policies)
             → User chain (personal overrides, highest priority)

Policy Packs

List packs

GET /api/admin/policy-packs/

Returns all packs visible to the tenant — both custom packs and system bundles.

Response 200 OK

[
  {
    "id": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
    "tenant_id": "9c0e1d2f-...",
    "name": "PCI-DSS Baseline",
    "description": "Blocks transmission of PANs and CVVs.",
    "pack_type": "bundle",
    "compliance_standard": "PCI-DSS",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "is_active": true,
    "rule_count": 8,
    "created_at": "2025-11-01T00:00:00Z",
    "updated_at": "2026-01-15T12:00:00Z"
  }
]

Create a pack

POST /api/admin/policy-packs/

Creates a new custom pack. Bundle and template packs cannot be created via this endpoint.

Request body

{
  "name": "Internal Data Policy",
  "description": "Prevents leaking confidential project names.",
  "compliance_standard": null
}

Response 201 Created — returns the created pack object.

Get pack detail

GET /api/admin/policy-packs/{id}

Returns the pack metadata plus the full ordered list of rules.

Response 200 OK

{
  "id": "3fa85f64-...",
  "name": "Internal Data Policy",
  "pack_type": "custom",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "is_active": true,
  "rule_count": 2,
  "rules": [
    {
      "id": "a1b2c3d4-...",
      "name": "Block project code names",
      "sequence": 1,
      "applies_to": "input",
      "conditions": {
        "regex_patterns": ["Project (?:Apollo|Hermes|Athena)"]
      },
      "action": { "type": "BLOCK", "message": "Confidential project names are not permitted." },
      "is_active": true
    }
  ]
}

Update pack metadata

PUT /api/admin/policy-packs/{id}

Updates the pack name, description, or is_active flag. Only custom packs can be updated.

Request body (all fields optional)

{
  "name": "Internal Data Policy v2",
  "description": "Updated description.",
  "is_active": false
}

Response 200 OK — returns the updated pack.

Delete a pack

DELETE /api/admin/policy-packs/{id}

Permanently deletes a custom pack and its rules. Returns 204 No Content. System bundles cannot be deleted.

Rules

List rules

GET /api/admin/policy-packs/{id}/rules/

Returns all rules for the specified pack, ordered by sequence.

Add a rule

POST /api/admin/policy-packs/{id}/rules/

Adds a new rule to the pack. The rule is appended at the end of the sequence unless sequence is specified.

Request body

{
  "name": "Redact SSN on output",
  "description": "Replaces detected SSNs in model responses.",
  "sequence": 5,
  "applies_to": "output",
  "conditions": {
    "entity_types": ["ssn"],
    "min_risk_score": 0.8
  },
  "action": {
    "type": "REDACT",
    "replacement": "[SSN REDACTED]"
  },
  "is_active": true
}

Condition fields

Field	Type	Description
`entity_types`	`string[]`	DLP entity type labels (e.g. `"credit_card"`, `"ssn"`, `"api_key"`)
`regex_patterns`	`string[]`	One or more regex patterns — any match fires
`providers`	`string[]`	Limit to specific AI providers (e.g. `"openai"`, `"anthropic"`)
`models`	`string[]`	Limit to specific model IDs
`user_groups`	`string[]`	Limit to users in these groups
`min_risk_score`	`float`	Minimum DLP confidence score (0.0–1.0)

Action types

Action type	Additional fields	Description
`ALLOW`	—	Explicitly permit; stops chain evaluation
`BLOCK`	`message`	Reject the request/response with a 400
`CANCEL`	`message`	Cancel the streaming response mid-flight
`REDACT`	`replacement`	Replace matched spans in the text
`ROUTE_TO`	`endpoint_id`	Forward to an alternative provider endpoint

Response 201 Created — returns the created rule.

Update a rule

PUT /api/admin/policy-packs/{id}/rules/{rule_id}

Updates an existing rule. Only provided fields are modified.

Response 200 OK

Delete a rule

DELETE /api/admin/policy-packs/{id}/rules/{rule_id}

Returns 204 No Content.

Reorder rules

POST /api/admin/policy-packs/{id}/rules/reorder

Sets a new sequence for one or more rules in a single atomic operation.

Request body

{
  "entries": [
    { "id": "a1b2c3d4-...", "sequence": 1 },
    { "id": "b2c3d4e5-...", "sequence": 2 },
    { "id": "c3d4e5f6-...", "sequence": 3 }
  ]
}

Response 200 OK — returns the full updated rule list.

Chains

Get org policy chain

GET /api/admin/policy-chains/

Returns the organisation’s policy chain including all referenced pack summaries in sequence order.

Response 200 OK

{
  "id": "chain-uuid-...",
  "scope": "org",
  "combining_algorithm": "first_applicable",
  "packs": [
    {
      "id": "entry-uuid-...",
      "pack_id": "pack-uuid-...",
      "pack_name": "PCI-DSS Baseline",
      "pack_type": "bundle",
      "rule_count": 8,
      "sequence": 1,
      "is_active": true
    }
  ],
  "created_at": "2025-11-01T00:00:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-03-10T08:00:00Z"
}

Update org chain

PUT /api/admin/policy-chains/org

Replaces the chain’s pack order and combining algorithm. All existing entries are replaced.

Request body

{
  "packs": [
    { "id": "pack-uuid-a", "sequence": 1 },
    { "id": "pack-uuid-b", "sequence": 2 }
  ],
  "combining_algorithm": "deny_overrides"
}

Response 200 OK

Simulate policy evaluation

POST /api/admin/policy-chains/simulate

Evaluates a hypothetical prompt against the org chain without routing to any AI provider. Returns the match result and a full evaluation trace showing which rules were checked and why.

Request body

{
  "prompt": "Please send me a list of all employees with their SSNs.",
  "provider": "openai",
  "model": "gpt-4o",
  "user_groups": ["finance"]
}

Response 200 OK

{
  "matched": true,
  "matched_pack_id": "pack-uuid-...",
  "matched_pack_name": "PII Baseline",
  "matched_rule_id": "rule-uuid-...",
  "matched_rule_name": "Block SSN requests",
  "matched_sequence": 2,
  "action": { "type": "BLOCK", "message": "PII requests are not permitted." },
  "match_reason": "entity_type=ssn matched",
  "evaluation_trace": [
    {
      "pack_id": "pack-uuid-...",
      "pack_name": "PII Baseline",
      "rule_id": "rule-uuid-...",
      "rule_name": "Allow finance group PII preview",
      "sequence": 1,
      "matched": false,
      "match_reason": null
    },
    {
      "pack_id": "pack-uuid-...",
      "pack_name": "PII Baseline",
      "rule_id": "rule-uuid-...",
      "rule_name": "Block SSN requests",
      "sequence": 2,
      "matched": true,
      "match_reason": "entity_type=ssn matched"
    }
  ]
}

The trace lists every rule evaluated, in order, until the chain terminates. Use this to debug unexpected allow/block decisions before deploying policy changes.

System Bundles

List system bundles

GET /api/admin/policy-packs/bundles/

Returns all system-supplied policy bundles available for inclusion in org chains.

Effective Policy

Get effective policy for a user

GET /api/admin/policy/effective/{user_id}

Resolves the fully effective policy for a specific user by cascading System Default → Group → User. Each setting in the response includes a source field indicating where the value originated.

Response 200 OK

{
  "user_id": "user-uuid-...",
  "quotas": {
    "daily_token_limit": { "value": 500000, "source": "group" },
    "monthly_token_limit": { "value": 5000000, "source": "system_default" }
  },
  "model_access": {
    "allowed_providers": { "value": ["openai", "anthropic"], "source": "org_chain" }
  },
  "dlp_rules": { "source": "org_chain" },
  "content_filters": { "source": "org_chain" }
}

Errors

Status	Condition
`404 Not Found`	User ID does not exist in the tenant

Policy Templates

Policy templates provide reusable configuration bundles that can be applied to groups with a single API call.

List templates

GET /api/admin/policy-templates

Get template

GET /api/admin/policy-templates/{template_id}

Create template

POST /api/admin/policy-templates

Request body

{
  "name": "Healthcare Baseline",
  "description": "HIPAA-aligned defaults for clinical users.",
  "template_type": "compliance",
  "config": {
    "dlp_rules": ["phi_detector"],
    "content_filters": ["medical_jailbreak"]
  }
}

Update template

PUT /api/admin/policy-templates/{template_id}

Delete template

DELETE /api/admin/policy-templates/{template_id}

Returns 204 No Content.

Apply template to a group

POST /api/admin/policy-templates/{template_id}/apply/{group_id}

Applies the template’s configuration to the specified group. Returns an ApplyTemplateResponse summarising which settings were modified.

Error codes

Status	Meaning
`400 Bad Request`	Invalid request body or rule validation failure
`403 Forbidden`	Caller is not an admin
`404 Not Found`	Pack, rule, chain, or template not found
`409 Conflict`	Attempt to mutate a read-only bundle pack