*[documentation](/README.md#documentation) / Writing Policies*
# Writing Policies
The following picture shows the structure of a Kyverno Policy:
Each Kyverno policy contains one or more rules. Each rule has a match clause, an optional excludes clause, and a mutate, validate, or generate clause.
When Kyverno receives an admission controller request, i.e. a validation or mutation webhook, it first checks to see if the resource and user information matches or should be excluded from processing. If both checks pass, then the rule logic to mutate, validate, or generate resources is applied.
The following YAML provides an example for the match and validate clauses.
````yaml
apiVersion : kyverno.io/v1
kind : ClusterPolicy
metadata :
name : policy
spec :
# 'enforce' to block resource request if any rules fail
# 'audit' to allow resource request on failure of rules, but create policy violations to report them
validationFailureAction: enforce
# Each policy has a list of rules applied in declaration order
rules:
# Rules must have a unique name
- name: "check-pod-controller-labels"
# Each rule matches specific resource described by "match" field.
match:
resources:
kinds: # Required, list of kinds
- Deployment
- StatefulSet
name: "mongo*" # Optional, a resource name is optional. Name supports wildcards * and ?
namespaces: # Optional, list of namespaces. Supports wilcards * and ?
- "dev*"
- test
selector: # Optional, a resource selector is optional. Selector values support wildcards * and ?
matchLabels:
app: mongodb
matchExpressions:
- {key: tier, operator: In, values: [database]}
# Optional, subjects to be matched
subjects:
- kind: User
name: mary@somecorp.com
# Optional, roles to be matched
roles:
# Optional, clusterroles to be matched
clusterroles:
# Resources that need to be excluded
exclude: # Optional, resources to be excluded from evaulation
resources:
kinds:
- Daemonsets
name: "*"
namespaces:
- prod
- "kube*"
selector:
matchLabels:
app: mongodb
matchExpressions:
- {key: tier, operator: In, values: [database]}
# Optional, subjects to be excluded
subjects:
# Optional, roles to be excluded
roles:
# Optional, clusterroles to be excluded
clusterroles:
- cluster-admin
- admin
# rule is evaluated if the preconditions are satisfied
# all preconditions are AND/&& operation
preconditions:
- key: name # compares (key operator value)
operator: Equal
value: name # constant "name" == "name"
- key: "{{serviceAccountName}}" # refer to a pre-defined variable serviceAccountName
operator: NotEqual
value: "user1" # if service
# Each rule can contain a single validate, mutate, or generate directive
...
````
Each rule can validate, mutate, or generate configurations of matching resources. A rule definition can contain only a single **mutate**, **validate**, or **generate** child node. These actions are applied to the resource in described order: mutation, validation and then generation.
# Variables:
Variables can be used to reference attributes that are loaded in the context using a [JMESPATH](http://jmespath.org/) search path.
Format: `{{}}`
Resources available in context:
- Resource: `{{request.object}}`
- UserInfo: `{{request.userInfo}}`
## Pre-defined Variables
- `serviceAccountName` : the variable removes the suffix system:serviceaccount:: and stores the userName.
Example userName=`system:serviceaccount:nirmata:user1` will store variable value as `user1`.
- `serviceAccountNamespace` : extracts the `namespace` of the serviceAccount.
Example userName=`system:serviceaccount:nirmata:user1` will store variable value as `nirmata`.
Examples:
1. Refer to resource name(type string)
`{{request.object.metadata.name}}`
2. Build name from multiple variables(type string)
`"ns-owner-{{request.object.metadata.namespace}}-{{request.userInfo.username}}-binding"`
3. Refer to metadata struct/object(type object)
`{{request.object.metadata}}`
# PreConditions:
Apart from using `match` & `exclude` conditions on resource to filter which resources to apply the rule on, `preconditions` can be used to define custom filters.
```yaml
- name: generate-owner-role
match:
resources:
kinds:
- Namespace
preconditions:
- key: "{{request.userInfo.username}}"
operator: NotEqual
value: ""
```
In the above example, if the variable `{{request.userInfo.username}}` is blank then we dont apply the rule on resource.
Operators supported:
- Equal
- NotEqual
# Background processing
Kyverno applies policies in foreground and background mode.
- `foreground`: leverages admission control webhooks to intercept the resource api-request and apply policy on it.
- `background`: policy-controller applies policies on the existing resoruces after configured re-conciliation time.
A policy is always enable for `foreground` processing, but `background` processing is configurable using a boolean flag at `{spec.background}`.
```
spec:
background: true
rules:
- name: default-deny-ingress
```
- Unless specified the default value is `true`
- As the userInformation is only avaiable in the incoming api-request, a policy using userInfo filters and variables reffering to `{{request.userInfo}}` can only be processed in foreground mode.
- When a new policy is created, the policy validation will throw an error if using `userInfo` with a policy defined in background mode.
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*Read Next >> [Validate](/documentation/writing-policies-validate.md)*