policy.yaml

File location

.wayglass/policy.yaml at the root of the repository. wayglass init writes the example below if the file does not exist. The Worker reads the copy on the trunk, at the commit each intent forked from; see Policy.

The file is parsed strictly. Unknown keys are errors, so a typo such as whne: cannot turn a rule into a catch-all. wayglass propose and wayglass policy test both fail with policy_invalid on a file that does not validate.

Top level

Key	Required	Meaning
version	yes	Must be 1
classify	no	How changes are tagged: area, data_class, risk
rules	no	Ordered list of rules; the first enforcing match decides
default	no	Used when no enforcing rule matches. Defaults to human_approve with the reason “No rule matched; a person decides.”

classify

classify:
  area:
    <name>: [<glob>, ...]
  data_class:
    <name>: { content: [<regex>, ...], paths: [<glob>, ...] }
  risk:
    <level>: { lines_changed_over: <n>, files_changed_over: <n> }

Key	Rules
area.<name>	At least one glob. ** matches any number of directories, including none. A change gets the area when any changed path matches
data_class.<name>	At least one of content (Go RE2 regular expressions, matched against each added line) or paths (globs, matched against changed paths)
risk.<level>	<level> is medium, high or critical; low is the default and takes no threshold. At least one threshold, neither negative. The highest level whose threshold is exceeded applies

See Tags for what each tag means. Jurisdiction is not configured here; it comes from the project’s namespace.

rules

Each rule:

Key	Required	Meaning
when	yes	Condition; must set at least one field
action	yes	auto_merge, agent_review, human_approve, multi_approve, quarantine or block
reason	yes	Why; recorded with every decision this rule makes
name	no	Label for the rule in decisions, logs and policy test. Must be unique. Without one, the label is rules[<index>]
approvers	only for multi_approve	Number of distinct approvers, at least 2. Default 2. Not allowed on other actions
mode	no	enforce (default) or shadow. A shadow rule is recorded but never decides
shadow	no	Older spelling of mode: shadow. shadow: true with mode: enforce is an error

when

Field	Matches when
area	Any changed file is in any of the listed areas
only_area	Every changed file is in at least one of the listed areas. Use it for permissive rules
data_class	The change has any of the listed data classes
risk	The change’s risk is one of the listed levels
jurisdiction	The project’s jurisdiction is one of the listed values (case-insensitive)

Each field takes a string or a list of strings. Every field that is set must match (AND); within a field, any value matches (OR). Areas (in area and only_area) and data classes must be defined under classify.

default

default: { action: human_approve, reason: "No rule matched; a person decides." }

action and reason are required; approvers follows the same rule as in a rule.

Actions

Action	Decision status	propose exits
auto_merge	approved	0
agent_review	pending_agent	0
human_approve	pending_human	4
multi_approve	pending_human	4
quarantine	quarantined	4
block	blocked	3

Example

The policy wayglass init writes:

version: 1
classify:
  area:
    docs: ["docs/**", "**/*.md"]
    web: ["web/**"]
    auth: ["**/auth/**", "**/login*"]
    infra: ["worker/wrangler.jsonc", ".github/**"]
  data_class:
    secrets: { content: ["(?i)api[_-]?key", "art_v[0-9]+_([a-z]+_)?[0-9a-f]{40}"] }
    pii: { content: ["(?i)\\bssn\\b", "(?i)date_of_birth"] }
  risk:
    high: { lines_changed_over: 400 }
rules:
  - { when: { data_class: secrets }, action: block, reason: "Secrets never land." }
  - { when: { area: infra }, action: multi_approve, approvers: 2, reason: "Infra changes affect everyone." }
  - { when: { area: auth }, action: human_approve, reason: "Auth is a security boundary." }
  - { when: { jurisdiction: eu, data_class: pii }, action: quarantine, reason: "EU personal data needs DPO review." }
  - { when: { only_area: docs, risk: low }, action: auto_merge, reason: "Routine docs change; every file is docs." }
  - { when: { risk: low }, action: agent_review, reason: "Low risk; second agent checks intent vs diff." }
default: { action: human_approve, reason: "No rule matched; a person decides." }

Shadow mode

rules:
  - name: trial-pii-review
    when: { data_class: pii }
    action: quarantine
    reason: "Trial: all personal data gets a DPO look."
    mode: shadow

How shadow matches are recorded, and how to replay history through a draft policy with wayglass policy test, is covered in Policy.