Governance features require authentication and a team workspace. See the Getting Started Guide for setup.
Policy States
Every policy in a workspace has one of four states, shown as a colored badge on the policy card:Immutability Rule
Policies in Approved or Production state cannot be edited directly. To make changes, create a new version — the original version remains intact in the version history. This ensures a complete audit trail of every policy that was ever approved or deployed.State Transitions
Policies follow a forward lifecycle, with rollback paths available when needed:Forward Transitions
Rollback Transitions
Rolling back creates a new Draft version, preserving the full history.
Approval Process
The approval workflow ensures policies are reviewed before reaching production.Configuring Approvers
- Open Workspace Settings → Governance
- Set the number of required approvers (1–5)
- Add team members as designated approvers
- Click Save
Submitting for Review
- Open a policy in Draft state
- Click “Request Approval”
- The policy moves to Review state
- All designated approvers receive a notification
Reviewing a Policy
- Open the policy — you’ll see the Approval Panel on the right side
- Review the code changes using the Diff View
- Add inline comments on specific lines if you have feedback
- Choose: Approve (optional comment) or Reject (required reason)
Promoting to Production
After a policy reaches Approved state:- Open the policy
- Click “Deploy to Production”
- Confirm the deployment
- The policy moves to Production state
Emergency Bypass
Sometimes a critical fix needs to skip the normal approval process.Prerequisites
- Emergency bypass must be enabled in Workspace Settings
- Only workspace Owners can perform an emergency bypass
Using Emergency Bypass
- Click the “Emergency Bypass” button
- Enter a detailed reason (required)
- Click “Confirm Bypass”
- The policy is promoted immediately
Impact Analysis
Before promoting a policy, run an impact analysis to understand how changes affect existing test scenarios.Running Impact Analysis
- Open a policy with pending changes
- Click “Run Impact Analysis”
- Results appear in the Impact Analysis Panel
Understanding Results
Recommendations
Auto-Approval Rules
For low-risk changes, configure rules that automatically approve policy versions.
Configure in Workspace Settings → Governance → Auto-Approval Rules.
Best Practices
Workspace Setup
- Start with 2 required approvers for production policies
- Assign approvers from different roles for diverse review perspectives
- Enable emergency bypass but establish team norms for when it’s acceptable
Policy Development
- Keep policies small and focused — one concern per policy
- Write test scenarios before requesting review
- Use meaningful version bumps
Production Governance
- Review emergency bypass events weekly
- Use auto-approval only for truly low-risk changes
- Monitor the audit trail for unusual patterns
- Export compliance reports monthly
Related Guides
- Getting Started — Sign in, create workspaces, write your first policy
- Compliance Mapping — Map policies to OWASP, NIST, SOC2, ISO 27001, GDPR
- Audit Trail — Immutable logging, filtering, and export
- CI/CD Integration — Automated policy testing with GitHub Actions

