Policy Backends

Audience

Outcome

After this page you should know what this surface is for, which source files own the behavior, which public route or adjacent page to use next, and which validation command to run before changing the claim.

Source Truth

• Public route: product/policy-backends
• Source document: helm-ai-enterprise/docs/public/product/policy-backends.md
• Public manifest: helm-ai-enterprise/docs/public-docs.manifest.json
• Source inventory: helm-ai-enterprise/docs/source-inventory.manifest.json
• Validation: corepack pnpm run docs:coverage, corepack pnpm run docs:truth, and npm run coverage:inventory from docs-platform

Do not expand this page with unsupported product, SDK, deployment, compliance, or integration claims unless the inventory manifest points to code, schemas, tests, examples, or an owner doc that proves the claim.

Troubleshooting

HELM supports multiple Policy Decision Point (PDP) backends to integrate with existing enterprise policy infrastructure.

Configuration

Use the following environment variables to configure the active PDP:

• HELM_POLICY_BACKEND: helm (default CEL), opa, or cedar.
• HELM_POLICY_VERSION: A human-readable identifier for the policy set (e.g., git hash).

OPA (Open Policy Agent)

• OPA_URL: Base URL of the OPA server (e.g., http://localhost:8181).
• HELM dispatches requests to /v1/data/helm-ai-enterprise/authz.

Cedar

• CEDAR_URL: Base URL of the Cedar sidecar (e.g., http://localhost:8182).
• HELM dispatches requests to /decide.

Fail-Closed Semantics

All external PDP adapters implement strict fail-closed behavior. If the PDP is unreachable, returns a non-200 status, or provides a malformed response, the Kernel will DENY the action.

Proof Binding

Every decision produced by a PDP is hashed via JCS and bound into the DecisionRecord and ProofGraph.

Diagram

flowchart TD
    subgraph Ingestion["1. Ingestion & Context Plane"]
        s0["Configuration"]
        s1["Fail-Closed Semantics"]
        output["Reader outcome"]
    end

    subgraph Evaluation["2. Evaluation & Policy Plane"]
        source["Pluggable Policy Backends (PDP)"]
    end

    subgraph Ledger["4. Tamper-Evident Ledger Plane"]
        s2["Proof Binding"]
    end

    %% Operational Flow Edges
    source --> s0
    s0 --> s1
    s1 --> s2
    s2 --> output

    %% Premium Styling Rules
    style source fill:#2d3748,stroke:#4a5568,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
    style s2 fill:#2f855a,stroke:#276749,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff

flowchart TD
    subgraph Ingestion["1. Ingestion & Context Plane"]
        s0["Configuration"]
        s1["Fail-Closed Semantics"]
        output["Reader outcome"]
    end

    subgraph Evaluation["2. Evaluation & Policy Plane"]
        source["Pluggable Policy Backends (PDP)"]
    end

    subgraph Ledger["4. Tamper-Evident Ledger Plane"]
        s2["Proof Binding"]
    end

    %% Operational Flow Edges
    source --> s0
    s0 --> s1
    s1 --> s2
    s2 --> output

    %% Premium Styling Rules
    style source fill:#2d3748,stroke:#4a5568,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
    style s2 fill:#2f855a,stroke:#276749,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff

Operational Readiness

Use this page as the public operating layer for Policy Backends. The source of truth is helm-ai-enterprise/docs/public/product/policy-backends.md; if this page and the implementation disagree, update the source-backed doc and rerun the validation command before publishing.

Before relying on this surface, confirm three things: the source path above still exists, the referenced commands or contracts are still present in the owning repo, and the docs-platform export surfaces still show this page in search, Markdown, llms-full.txt, and MCP without exposing protected routes.

Validation command: corepack pnpm run docs:coverage && corepack pnpm run docs:truth. For website parity, also run npm run exports:boundary and npm run thin-pages:check from docs-platform.

Expected Output

A reader should leave with a concrete next action, the source file or contract to inspect, the command that proves the claim, and a clear boundary for what is public versus protected. For reference pages, the expected output is a correctly scoped request, schema, command, or diagnostic path. For operations pages, the expected output is a reproducible readiness or failure signal that can be attached to an evaluation or support thread.

Failure Modes

If the validation command fails, do not patch this page in isolation. First identify whether the drift is in code, generated contracts, source-owner docs, or the docs manifest. If the public page needs a protected deep link, describe the protected document by name instead of exposing its route. Commercial operator details, tenant data, key ceremonies, and deployment-sensitive internals stay in protected customer or staff docs; this public page only exposes the safe developer contract.