Approval policy

Included from Basic tier

An approval policy is one row of the change-governance matrix: which node paths and actions it covers (plus optional metadata predicates), who approves, how many approvals are needed, and the deadlines and extra requirements that ride along. At create time every matched, enabled policy freezes into one line of the subject's approval checklist. Served by the v2 ChangeGovernanceService: ListApprovalPolicies, GetApprovalPolicy, CreateApprovalPolicy, UpdateApprovalPolicy and DeleteApprovalPolicy, with writes delegated by scope_path.

ApprovalPolicy

ApprovalPolicy is one matrix row of the model.

Field	Type	Meaning
action_patterns	array of string	Action-name globs; empty covers every action.
approval_validity_seconds	integer/string	The approval validity (default 14 days), clocked from checklist completion; a lapse voids the approvals and re-gates the subject.
approvers	ApprovalApprovers	Who may approve covered subjects: named users (stored and matched as principal ids — a write accepts a principal id, a username one account holds, or <provider>:<username>), groups, or resolution kinds such as impacted_asset_owners.
authorisations	EstateAuthorisations	The caller's update/delete standing on the policy's own /governance/change rule path — affordance honesty for the register; the server still gates every write.
created_at	timestamp	When the record was created.
created_by	string	Username of the creating identity.
enabled	boolean	Whether the record is enabled.
id	string	The record's identity.
metadata_predicates	array of ApprovalMetadataPredicate	Metadata predicates AND-composed with the path and action match.
name	string	Display name.
path_pattern	string	The node paths the policy covers, e.g. /projects/x/environments/prod/**.
quorum	integer	Distinct approving identities required (default 1).
quorum_ttl_seconds	integer/string	The quorum TTL (default 7 days): a pending request expires into rejected when the effective TTL — the smallest across the matched lines — lapses.
require_change_reference	boolean	A typed external reference must be present at approval.
require_step_up	boolean	Executing a matched create requires an elevated session before any approval gate is evaluated (customer policy only ever ADDS step-up — platform floors stay the un-relaxable minimum).
require_window	boolean	Covered subjects start only inside an open admitting maintenance window.
scope_path	string	The delegation scope the policy belongs to ('' = global): writes require the change-governance determination on /governance/change.
self_approval	boolean	Default false: neither the requester's nor the change owner's approval ever counts.
strict	boolean	A strict line is never subsumed by run-level satisfaction.
updated_at	timestamp	When the record was last updated.

ApprovalMetadataPredicate

ApprovalMetadataPredicate is one metadata conjunct in the shared selector grammar (evaluated against effective node metadata).

Field	Type	Meaning
field	string	The field key, ., e.g. "core.criticality".
op	string	"eq" | "in" | "true" | "false" | "unclassified" | "before" | "after" | "elapsed" (the date ops compare ISO-8601 YYYY-MM-DD values).
values	array of string	The comparison values: exactly one for eq, before, after (the date ops take an ISO-8601 YYYY-MM-DD date), one or more for in; true, false, unclassified and elapsed take none.

What settings change this

Node-settings requires_approval_from entries are the retired run-level approvers lane (see opschain docs settings). They are convertible into approval policies with opschain approval-policies convert-settings-approvers (ChangeGovernanceService.ConvertSettingsApprovers); the step-level requires_approval_from: wait gate inside composed-action YAML is a separate mechanism and stays as authored.

Related pages

• opschain docs change-governance — the matrix, matching and delegation model these rows feed.
• opschain docs resources/approval — the checklist a matched policy's line lands on.
• opschain docs metadata — the effective node metadata the predicates evaluate against.
• opschain docs change-governance — the component page, including the packs:change-governance entitlement that enforces the funnel.