Policy

policy.yaml holds named configuration values for a flow. They are referenced in CEL as policy.* and in prompts as {{variable}}.

policy.yaml

sla_hours: 24
max_escalations: 3

# in a guard
check: "entity.escalation_count < policy.max_escalations"

Inheritance

Policy is hierarchical. A child flow inherits the root and parent policy, and overrides specific keys:

# parent policy.yaml
timeout_hours: 24
max_retries: 3

# child policy.yaml
timeout_hours: 48    # overrides the parent; max_retries stays 3

Guards and prompt templates resolve a key by walking child → parent → root.

Budget thresholds

Cost control is configured here. When token spend crosses a declared percentage the platform emits platform.budget_threshold_crossed with a matching level:

budget_warning_percent: 60
budget_throttle_percent: 80
budget_emergency_percent: 95

If these keys are absent, budget monitoring is disabled. An emergency raises a mailbox item for a human. See Budget and cost.

Policy-sheet rows: business rules as typed tables

A handler can carry a list of rules:. Some rules decide which branch runs; others just compute a value the branch will use — by looking something up in a table, running a validation, or calling a compute module. Those tables and validations are declared here in policy. Condition rules (when:/case:/range:/else:) select the branch; value rows derive their values in the compute phase, before the handler decides what to do. The value rows come in three kinds: Lookup rows match an input tuple against an inline finite table:

nodes.yaml

ticket.classified:
  rules:
    - id: pick_queue
      lookup:
        on: [payload.category, payload.priority]
        entries:
          - {key: [billing, high],  value: senior-billing}
          - {key: [billing, low],   value: billing}
          - {key: [technical, high], value: oncall}
        into: computed.queue
        default: fail             # a miss fails the handler with an error naming this row and the values it looked up

A later rule reads computed.queue to pick the branch. Validation rows run a named validation set (declared under validation: in policy.yaml) and bind a typed result:

- id: validate_manifest
  validate:
    set: deploy_manifest
    input: {source_ref: payload.source_ref}
    into: computed.validation.deploy_manifest
- id: invalid_manifest
  when: computed.validation.deploy_manifest.valid == false
  emit: deploy.manifest_invalid

Compute-module rows run sandboxed algorithmic logic (Compute modules). The constraints on value rows:

Value rows derive only — they cannot emit, advance, or write state.
A condition rule consumes their computed.* binding and owns the branch.
One rule declares exactly one row type.
computed.* lives only for the handler — persist a value explicitly with data_accumulation.

Other policy-owned settings

policy.yaml is also where these are declared:

Setting	What it is
`criteria`	Agent judgment rule sets.
`validation`	Validation sets used by validate rows.
`modules`	Compute modules.
`mcp_servers`	MCP server registrations (Tools).
`workspace_classes`	The `/workspace` scope per agent class.
`permission_bundles`	Named permission sets.

Getting started

Core concepts

Build a flow

Handlers

Patterns

Operating Swarm

Inheritance

Budget thresholds

Policy-sheet rows: business rules as typed tables

Other policy-owned settings

​Inheritance

​Budget thresholds

​Policy-sheet rows: business rules as typed tables

​Other policy-owned settings

Inheritance

Budget thresholds

Policy-sheet rows: business rules as typed tables

Other policy-owned settings