# Policy as Code (PaC)

> For AI agents: the complete glossary index is at [llms.txt](https://glossary.cncf.io/llms.txt).
> Markdown versions of every glossary page are available by appending `index.md` to the page URL.

Policy as Code is the practice of storing the definition of policies as one or more files in machine-readable and processable form. 
This replaces the traditional model where policies are documented in human-readable form in separate documents.

## Problem it addresses

Building applications and infrastructures are often constrained by many policies that an organization defines, 
e.g. security policies that forbid storing secrets in source code, running a container with superuser permissions, 
or storing some data outside a specific geo region.
It is very labor-intensive and error-prone for developers and reviewers to manually check applications and infrastructure against documented policies. 
Manual processes cannot meet the responsiveness and scale requirements of cloud native applications.

## How it helps

Describing policies through code enables repeatability and reduces errors (unlike when done manually). 
Another advantage of Policy as Code is that code can be managed by a version control system like Git.
Git creates a change log history which is particularly helpful when something does not work as expected.
It allows the user to determine who made the change and revert back to a previous version.

---

- Canonical URL: https://glossary.cncf.io/policy-as-code/
- Status: Completed
- Last modified November 30, 2023: ` chore: remove duplicated lines ` ([e57ed31](https://github.com/cncf/glossary/commit/e57ed3109d8084268bac253d77a19e799d83bcf9))
- Source: https://github.com/cncf/glossary/blob/main/content/en/policy-as-code.md
- License: [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)