UIAP Policy Extension

UIAP Policy Extension v0.1

Field	Value
Status	Draft
Version	0.1
Date	2026-03-27
Dependencies	[UIAP-CORE]
Editors	Patrick

1. Purpose

UIAP Policy Extension v0.1 defines how an application describes and evaluates at runtime machine-readable rules for:

• permitted agent actions,
• confirmations,
• sensitive data,
• redaction,
• audit,
• human handoff.

The Extension builds on UIAP Core v0.1, Capability Model v0.1, Web Profile v0.1, and Action Runtime v0.1.

Normative Terms

The key words MUST, MUST NOT, SHOULD, MAY in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 and BCP 14, when and only when they appear in ALL CAPS.

2. Identifier and Negotiation

type ExtensionId = "uicp.policy";
type ExtensionVersion = "0.1";

An implementation using this extension MUST negotiate it during the handshake:

{
  "id": "uicp.policy",
  "versions": ["0.1"],
  "required": false
}

3. Scope and Principles

1. Policy is locally enforceable. An app or bridge MUST be able to enforce a policy decision even when the agent wants something different.
2. Policy is decision-oriented, not prompt-oriented.
3. Policy separates permission, risk, sensitivity, audit obligation, and handoff obligation.
4. Policy MUST be evaluated before every non-trivial Action.
5. Policy MUST NOT be weaker than browser or platform boundaries.

---

4. Core Concepts

4.1 Principals

type PrincipalType = "user" | "agent" | "bridge" | "observer" | "system";

interface PolicyPrincipal {
  type: PrincipalType;
  id: string;
  roles?: string[];
  grants?: PolicyGrant[];
}

4.2 Grants

type PolicyGrant =
  | "observe"
  | "guide"
  | "draft"
  | "act"
  | "admin"
  | "read.sensitive"
  | "read.secret"
  | "write.sensitive"
  | "billing"
  | "identity"
  | "security";

Semantics

• observe: Read the UI but change nothing
• guide: Highlight/focus/navigate without side effects
• draft: Reversible drafts or field suggestions
• act: Normal operational actions
• admin: Privileged actions
• Additional grants govern sensitive domains and data

4.3 Data Classes

type DataClass =
  | "public"
  | "internal"
  | "personal"
  | "sensitive"
  | "credential"
  | "secret"
  | "payment"
  | "legal";

4.4 Side-Effect Classes

type SideEffectClass =
  | "none"
  | "local_ui"
  | "internal_persist"
  | "external_message"
  | "identity_change"
  | "billing_change"
  | "security_change"
  | "irreversible";

4.5 Policy Decisions

type PolicyEffect =
  | "allow"
  | "confirm"
  | "deny"
  | "handoff";

4.6 Reason Codes

type PolicyReasonCode =
  | "grant_missing"
  | "route_denied"
  | "target_denied"
  | "risk_confirm"
  | "risk_blocked"
  | "sensitive_data"
  | "secret_data"
  | "credential_data"
  | "external_effect"
  | "privileged_action"
  | "user_activation_missing"
  | "human_actor_required"
  | "unsafe_retry"
  | "redaction_required"
  | "policy_default";

---

5. Policy Document

interface PolicyDocument {
  modelVersion: "0.1";
  extension: "uicp.policy";
  profile?: string; // e.g. "web@0.1"

  defaults: PolicyDefaults;
  rules: PolicyRule[];

  redaction?: RedactionRule[];
  audit?: AuditPolicy;
  handoff?: HandoffPolicy;

  metadata?: Record<string, unknown>;
}

interface PolicyDefaults {
  onSafeRisk: PolicyEffect;       // RECOMMENDED: "allow"
  onConfirmRisk: PolicyEffect;    // RECOMMENDED: "confirm"
  onBlockedRisk: PolicyEffect;    // RECOMMENDED: "handoff"
  onUnknownAction: PolicyEffect;  // RECOMMENDED: "deny"
  onSensitiveRead: PolicyEffect;  // RECOMMENDED: "confirm"
  onSecretRead: PolicyEffect;     // RECOMMENDED: "deny"
}

5.1 Policy Rules

interface PolicyRule {
  id: string;
  enabled?: boolean;
  priority?: number; // higher wins

  when: PolicyPredicate;
  effect: PolicyEffect;

  obligations?: PolicyObligation[];
  reason?: string;
}

interface PolicyPredicate {
  actionIds?: string[];
  routeIds?: string[];
  stableIds?: string[];
  roles?: UIRole[];

  riskLevels?: RiskLevel[];
  riskTags?: RiskTag[];

  dataClasses?: DataClass[];
  sideEffectClasses?: SideEffectClass[];

  principals?: string[];          // principal.id
  principalTypes?: PrincipalType[];
  requiredGrants?: PolicyGrant[];

  executionModes?: ExecutionMode[];
}

5.2 Obligations

type PolicyObligation =
  | {
      type: "audit";
      level?: AuditLevel;
    }
  | {
      type: "redact";
      paths: string[];
      replacement?: string;
    }
  | {
      type: "limitExecutionModes";
      modes: ExecutionMode[];
    }
  | {
      type: "requireVerification";
      policy: "any" | "all";
      signals?: SuccessSignal[];
    }
  | {
      type: "requireUserActivation";
    }
  | {
      type: "requireHumanActor";
      reason?: string;
    }
  | {
      type: "maxAttempts";
      value: number;
    };

---

6. Policy Context

interface PolicyContext {
  sessionId?: string;
  revision?: RevisionId;

  principal: PolicyPrincipal;

  actionId: ActionId;
  target?: {
    ref?: TargetRef;
    stableId?: StableId;
    role?: UIRole;
    name?: string;
    scopeId?: ScopeId;
    documentId?: DocumentId;
  };

  risk?: RiskDescriptor;
  dataClasses?: DataClass[];
  sideEffectClass?: SideEffectClass;

  executionMode?: ExecutionMode;
  routeId?: string;

  userActivation?: {
    isActive?: boolean;
    hasBeenActive?: boolean;
  };

  retryOfActionHandle?: string;
  attempt?: number;

  args?: Record<string, unknown>;
  metadata?: Record<string, unknown>;
}

---

7. Policy Decision

interface PolicyDecision {
  decision: PolicyEffect;
  reasonCodes: PolicyReasonCode[];

  obligations?: PolicyObligation[];
  effectiveExecutionModes?: ExecutionMode[];

  redactions?: RedactionPlan[];
  audit?: AuditDirective;

  cacheTtlMs?: number;
}

interface RedactionPlan {
  path: string;
  replacement: string;
}

type AuditLevel = "none" | "decision" | "result" | "full";

interface AuditDirective {
  level: AuditLevel;
  emitRecord: boolean;
}

---

8. Message Types

8.1 uicp.policy.get

Request

interface PolicyGetPayload {}

Response: uicp.policy.document

interface PolicyDocumentPayload {
  policy: PolicyDocument;
  revision?: string;
}

---

8.2 uicp.policy.evaluate

Request

interface PolicyEvaluatePayload {
  context: PolicyContext;
}

Response: uicp.policy.decision

interface PolicyDecisionPayload {
  contextHash?: string;
  decision: PolicyDecision;
}

---

8.3 uicp.policy.changed

Event

interface PolicyChangedPayload {
  revision: string;
  reason?: "role_change" | "tenant_change" | "feature_flag" | "policy_update" | string;
  policy: PolicyDocument;
}

---

8.4 uicp.policy.audit

Event

interface PolicyAuditPayload {
  record: PolicyAuditRecord;
}

interface PolicyAuditRecord {
  auditId: string;
  ts: string;
  sessionId?: string;

  principal: PolicyPrincipal;
  actionId?: ActionId;
  target?: TargetRef;

  decision: PolicyEffect;
  reasonCodes: PolicyReasonCode[];

  obligations?: PolicyObligation[];
  sideEffectClass?: SideEffectClass;

  outcome?: "preflight" | "granted" | "confirmed" | "executed" | "failed" | "denied" | "handoff";
  stateRevision?: RevisionId;

  metadata?: Record<string, unknown>;
}

---

9. Evaluation Order

A Policy Executor MUST derive decisions in this order:

1. Explicit deny rules
2. Grant check
3. Target/route blocklists
4. Data classes and redaction obligations
5. Risk level and risk tags
6. Side-effect class
7. User activation / human actor obligations
8. Defaults

Recommended Safe Baseline

• safe + sufficient grants -> allow
• confirm -> confirm
• blocked -> handoff
• secret/credential read without special grant -> deny
• Non-idempotent retry with sideEffectState="unknown" -> deny or handoff

---

10. Redaction Model

Redaction MUST be modeled separately from action permissibility.

interface RedactionRule {
  id: string;
  when: {
    dataClasses?: DataClass[];
    stableIds?: StableId[];
    routeIds?: string[];
  };
  applyTo: Array<"snapshot" | "signal" | "returnValue" | "audit">;
  replacement?: string; // default: "[REDACTED]"
}

Rules

1. Redaction MAY partially mask an object without denying the Action itself.
2. credential and secret SHOULD be redacted by default.
3. Audit data SHOULD be redacted more aggressively than runtime data.

---

11. Handoff Model

Browsers and platforms require genuine user interaction or trusted input in certain cases. Therefore, handoff is not an error but a normal policy outcome. navigator.userActivation provides the activation state, Event.isTrusted distinguishes browser/user-agent-generated events from dispatchEvent() events, and HTMLElement.click() does not automatically replace every user-activation-gated situation. ([MDN Web Docs][2])

interface HandoffPolicy {
  triggers: HandoffTrigger[];
  defaultMessage?: string;
}

type HandoffTrigger =
  | "user_activation_required"
  | "credential_entry"
  | "payment_approval"
  | "external_auth"
  | "captcha"
  | "legal_acknowledgement"
  | "ambiguity"
  | "security_sensitive";

Rules

• When an obligation contains requireUserActivation and userActivation.isActive !== true, the decision MUST be at least handoff.
• When requireHumanActor is active, no autonomous execution MAY follow.
• handoff SHOULD be able to produce a human-readable explanation text.

---

12. Minimal Conformance Scope

A conforming uicp.policy@0.1 implementation MUST:

• Support uicp.policy.get and uicp.policy.evaluate,
• Validate PolicyDocument and PolicyDecision,
• Distinguish between confirm, deny, handoff, and allow,
• Be able to apply Redaction Rules,
• Be able to produce Audit Records,
• Treat blocked risk more strictly than confirm.

---

13. Example Policy

{
  "modelVersion": "0.1",
  "extension": "uicp.policy",
  "profile": "web@0.1",
  "defaults": {
    "onSafeRisk": "allow",
    "onConfirmRisk": "confirm",
    "onBlockedRisk": "handoff",
    "onUnknownAction": "deny",
    "onSensitiveRead": "confirm",
    "onSecretRead": "deny"
  },
  "rules": [
    {
      "id": "deny-credentials",
      "priority": 100,
      "when": {
        "dataClasses": ["credential", "secret"]
      },
      "effect": "deny",
      "obligations": [
        {
          "type": "audit",
          "level": "decision"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "confirm-create-video",
      "priority": 50,
      "when": {
        "actionIds": ["video.create"]
      },
      "effect": "confirm",
      "obligations": [
        {
          "type": "requireVerification",
          "policy": "all",
          "signals": [
            { "kind": "route.changed", "pattern": "/videos/:id" },
            { "kind": "toast.contains", "text": "erstellt" }
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "audit",
          "level": "result"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "redaction": [
    {
      "id": "mask-secrets",
      "when": {
        "dataClasses": ["secret", "credential"]
      },
      "applyTo": ["snapshot", "audit", "returnValue"],
      "replacement": "[REDACTED]"
    }
  ],
  "audit": {
    "level": "result",
    "includeArgs": false,
    "includeReturnValue": false
  },
  "handoff": {
    "triggers": [
      "user_activation_required",
      "credential_entry",
      "payment_approval",
      "external_auth"
    ],
    "defaultMessage": "Please complete this step yourself."
  }
}

---

Normative References

• [UIAP-CORE] UIAP Core v0.1
• [RFC2119] Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels, BCP 14

Security Considerations

• Policy documents SHOULD only be loaded from trusted sources.
• A local deny decision MUST always take precedence and MUST NOT be overridden by an external service.
• Audit logs MUST be stored in a tamper-proof manner.
• Sensitive data MUST be redacted before logging.
• requireUserActivation SHOULD be set for all irreversible or externally effective actions.

Changelog

Version	Date	Changes
0.1	2026-03-27	Initial draft