# Policy

## Purpose

Policies control whether an operation on a named resource is allowed. They may be authored in configuration files, but policy evaluation is its own runtime concern.

The first policy consumer is provider availability:

```text
action:   provider.use
resource: provider ID, such as openai or company-ai
```

Provider configuration and provider policy remain separate:

- `providers` describes endpoints, options, and model overrides.
- `experimental.policies` determines whether an operation using a provider is allowed.

A provider can be correctly configured and have valid credentials while policy still denies its use.

## Goals

- Replace legacy `enabled_providers` and `disabled_providers`.
- Keep the default experience unchanged when users specify no policy.
- Support wildcard matching for actions and resources.
- Provide one small policy vocabulary that can later cover operations such as `plugin.load` or `mcp.connect`.
- Let user policy override repository policy, and later allow organization-managed policy to override both.
- Keep evaluation simple: matching statements are applied in order and the last match wins.

## Non-Goals

- Policies do not configure endpoints, credentials, models, or provider options.
- Policies do not make unusable resources usable.
- Policies do not currently provide conditions, principals, approval prompts, or enforced configuration values.
- This spec does not define how organization-managed policies are delivered.

## Statement Shape

```jsonc
{
  "experimental": {
    "policies": [
      {
        "effect": "deny",
        "action": "provider.use",
        "resource": "openai",
      },
    ],
  },
}
```

```ts
interface PolicyInfo {
  effect: "allow" | "deny"
  action: string
  resource: string
}
```

The `Policy` module owns the shared `Policy.Info` interface, `Policy.Effect` type, and evaluator. Domains define their supported typed statement schemas; for example, `Catalog.ProviderPolicy` fixes `action` to `"provider.use"`. The config schema gathers those domain-defined statement schemas into the accepted `experimental.policies` union because config files are one place statements can be authored while the capability is experimental.

## Matching

Both `action` and `resource` use opencode's existing wildcard matching behavior.

Examples:

| Action         | Resource    | Matches                                                                      |
| -------------- | ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `provider.use` | `openai`    | Only use of provider ID `openai`                                             |
| `provider.use` | `company-*` | Use of provider IDs such as `company-us` and `company-eu`                    |
| `provider.*`   | `*`         | Any provider operation on any provider, if more actions are introduced later |

No pattern-specific precedence exists. A specific resource does not automatically beat a wildcard resource. Written/evaluation order controls the result.

## Evaluation

To evaluate an operation and resource:

1. Start with `allow`.
2. Consider every statement whose `action` and `resource` match the requested action and resource.
3. Each matching statement replaces the current decision with its `effect`.
4. The last matching statement determines the result.

Conceptually:

```ts
function evaluate(action: string, resource: string, fallback: Policy.Effect, statements: Policy.Info[]) {
  return (
    statements.findLast(
      (statement) => Wildcard.match(action, statement.action) && Wildcard.match(resource, statement.resource),
    )?.effect ?? fallback
  )
}
```

Each caller supplies the default effect appropriate for its operation. Catalog provider use supplies `"allow"`, so no provider policy statements means normal behavior continues: otherwise usable providers are allowed.

## Ordering Within One Config Document

Statements remain in the order written by the user.

To deny all providers except Anthropic:

```jsonc
{
  "experimental": {
    "policies": [
      {
        "effect": "deny",
        "action": "provider.use",
        "resource": "*",
      },
      {
        "effect": "allow",
        "action": "provider.use",
        "resource": "anthropic",
      },
    ],
  },
}
```

Result:

```text
provider.use / anthropic -> allow
provider.use / openai    -> deny
```

To allow internal providers except experimental ones:

```jsonc
{
  "experimental": {
    "policies": [
      { "effect": "deny", "action": "provider.use", "resource": "*" },
      { "effect": "allow", "action": "provider.use", "resource": "company-*" },
      { "effect": "deny", "action": "provider.use", "resource": "company-experimental-*" },
    ],
  },
}
```

Result:

```text
company-stable: allowed
company-experimental-fast: denied
openai: denied
```

## Ordering Across Authored Config Documents

Ordinary settings and policies have different precedence needs:

- Ordinary settings are read forward, so location-specific settings override user-global settings.
- Policies are read by reversing authored config documents, so user-global policy can override repository policy.
- Statements inside each document keep their written order.

At minimum, this means a repository cannot silently re-enable something the user denied globally.

Project config:

```jsonc
{
  "experimental": {
    "policies": [{ "effect": "allow", "action": "provider.use", "resource": "openai" }],
  },
}
```

User-global config:

```jsonc
{
  "experimental": {
    "policies": [{ "effect": "deny", "action": "provider.use", "resource": "openai" }],
  },
}
```

Result:

```text
provider.use / openai -> deny
```

The relative policy precedence of direct project files and `.opencode` files is intentionally deferred until `.opencode` configuration is reviewed.

## Organization-Managed Policy

Organization-managed policy is not ordinary authored config. When implemented, managed statements must be appended after the reversed authored statements so they have final authority.

```text
repository policy -> user-global policy -> organization-managed policy
```

Plugins must not be allowed to add, remove, or override policy statements. Plugins can contribute functionality or configured providers; policy determines whether opencode permits an operation through its managed execution paths.

Provider policy is not a full sandbox for executable plugins. A denied provider must not be usable through the normal provider/model path, but arbitrary plugin code requires separate governance if that becomes a compliance requirement.

## Interaction With Provider Configuration

```jsonc
{
  "providers": {
    "company-ai": {
      "endpoint": {
        "type": "openai/responses",
        "url": "https://ai.company.example/v1/responses",
      },
    },
  },
  "experimental": {
    "policies": [
      { "effect": "deny", "action": "provider.use", "resource": "*" },
      { "effect": "allow", "action": "provider.use", "resource": "company-ai" },
    ],
  },
}
```

The provider entry configures `company-ai`; the policy statements make it the only provider permitted for use.

Provider policy applies regardless of how a provider becomes known or usable, including:

- models.dev catalog data
- environment credentials
- saved accounts
- built-in provider plugins
- explicit provider configuration

## Applying Provider Policy

Provider records and model overrides should be assembled before checking provider policy. Otherwise later provider loading could recreate a provider that was already filtered.

Intended flow:

1. Build provider/model catalog entries.
2. Apply configured provider and model overrides.
3. Ask `Policy.Service` to evaluate `provider.use` for each provider ID.
4. Prevent denied providers from being selectable or used.

Whether denied providers are removed entirely or retained as disabled records for diagnostics remains an implementation decision.

## Legacy Migration

Legacy deny list:

```jsonc
{
  "disabled_providers": ["openai", "google"],
}
```

Equivalent v2 policy:

```jsonc
{
  "experimental": {
    "policies": [
      { "effect": "deny", "action": "provider.use", "resource": "openai" },
      { "effect": "deny", "action": "provider.use", "resource": "google" },
    ],
  },
}
```

Legacy allowlist:

```jsonc
{
  "enabled_providers": ["anthropic", "openai"],
}
```

Equivalent v2 policy:

```jsonc
{
  "experimental": {
    "policies": [
      { "effect": "deny", "action": "provider.use", "resource": "*" },
      { "effect": "allow", "action": "provider.use", "resource": "anthropic" },
      { "effect": "allow", "action": "provider.use", "resource": "openai" },
    ],
  },
}
```
