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Policy as Code for Infrastructure

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Harness provides governance using Open Policy Agent (OPA), Policy Management, and Rego policies.

You can create a policy and apply it to all infrastructure definitions in your Account, Org, or Project. The policy is evaluated on infrastructure-level events:

  • On Save — evaluated when an infrastructure definition is created or updated.
  • On Run — evaluated when a pipeline that references the infrastructure definition is executed.

For more details, see the Harness Governance Quickstart.

Prerequisites​

Step 1: Add a policy​

  1. In Harness, go to Account Settings → Policies → New Policy.

  2. Enter a Name for your policy and click Apply.

  3. Add your Rego policy in the editor.

    You can write your own Rego policy or use a sample from the Library panel. Select the Library tab, choose Entity: Infrastructure from the dropdown, and pick one of the built-in samples:

    Infrastructure sample policies in the Library panel

    Harness ships a sample policy for infrastructure definitions:

    • Infrastructure – Block runtime input for connector and namespace: Prevents infrastructure definitions from using runtime inputs (<+input>) for the connector or namespace fields.

    Below is the Rego policy for this sample.

Block runtime inputs for connector and namespace​

This policy denies infrastructure definitions that use runtime inputs for the connectorRef or namespace fields. This ensures that teams explicitly set these values rather than deferring them to pipeline execution time.

package infra

deny[msg] {
  input.infrastructureEntity.spec.connectorRef == "<+input>"
  msg := "Runtime input is not allowed for connector"
}

deny[msg] {
  input.infrastructureEntity.spec.namespace == "<+input>"
  msg := "Runtime input is not allowed for namespace"
}
  1. Click Save.

Step 2: Add the policy to a policy set​

After creating your policy, add it to a Policy Set before it can be enforced on infrastructure definitions.

  1. Go to Policies → Policy Sets → New Policy Set.

  2. Enter a Name and optional Description for the Policy Set.

  3. In Entity type, select Infrastructure.

  4. In On what event should the Policy Set be evaluated, select On Save, On Run, or both depending on when you want the policy enforced.

    • On Save — the policy is evaluated every time a user creates or updates the infrastructure definition.
    • On Run — the policy is evaluated when a pipeline that uses the infrastructure definition is executed.

  5. Click Continue.

    note

    Existing infrastructure definitions are not automatically evaluated against new policies. Policies are applied only when an infrastructure definition is saved (created or updated) or when a pipeline referencing it is run.

  6. In Policy evaluation criteria, click Add Policy.

  7. In the Select Policy dialog, choose the scope (Project, Org, or Account) and select the policy you created.

    Select a policy for the policy set

  8. Select the severity and action for policy violations:

    • Warn & continue — a warning is displayed if the policy is not met, but the infrastructure definition is saved and you can proceed.
    • Error and exit — an error is displayed and the infrastructure definition is not saved if the policy is not met.

  9. Click Apply, then click Finish.

  10. The Policy Set is automatically set to Enforced. To disable enforcement, toggle off the Enforced button.

Step 3: Apply the policy to an infrastructure definition​

After creating and enforcing your Policy Set, it is automatically evaluated whenever an infrastructure definition event matches the configured trigger.

  1. Go to Deployments → Environments → select an environment → Infrastructure Definitions.

  2. Create or edit an infrastructure definition and click Save.

  3. Based on your selection in the Policy Evaluation criteria:

    • If the infrastructure definition meets the policy, it is saved successfully.
    • If the infrastructure definition violates the policy and the severity is Warn & continue, it is saved with a warning.
    • If the infrastructure definition violates the policy and the severity is Error and exit, the save is blocked and an error is displayed.

See also​