gensee policy

gensee policy is the CLI for inspecting, creating, validating, and updating the local policy document used by hooks, gensee run, and the dashboard.

Gensee Crate always has a bundled default policy. For local customization, use gensee policy setup to walk through the dashboard-style settings, artifact definitions, and decision rules, then write a user policy to $GENSEE_HOME/policy.json. When GENSEE_POLICY_FILE is unset, that user policy is auto-loaded if present.

Commands

Command	Effect
gensee policy path	Show which policy source is active.
gensee policy print-default	Print the bundled default policy.
gensee policy init	Write the bundled default to $GENSEE_HOME/policy.json.
gensee policy init --force	Overwrite the user policy with the bundled default.
gensee policy setup	Walk through dashboard-style policy settings, artifact definitions, and decision rules, then write $GENSEE_HOME/policy.json.
gensee policy validate <file>	Validate a policy file with the same parser used by the runtime.
gensee policy get <key>	Read a supported dotted config key.
gensee policy set <key> <value>	Update a supported dotted config key in the user policy.

Common Workflow

export GENSEE_HOME="$PWD/.gensee-dev"

gensee policy path
gensee policy setup
gensee policy validate "$GENSEE_HOME/policy.json"

After validation passes, the next hook or CLI policy evaluation will use the updated policy automatically.

Guided Setup

gensee policy setup prompts through the same high-level sections shown in the dashboard Policy tab:

• resource governance limits
• network egress hosts, proxy URL, and proxy requirement
• max runtime
• non-interactive fail-closed enforcement
• watch system-event backend
• allowlisted path prefixes
• artifact definitions for executable, memory, skill, and control-plane files
• decision-rule actions for file access, command, executable-content, and URL rules

Press Enter to keep each current value, or type a new value. Lists are comma-separated; nullable fields such as proxy URL and max runtime accept none or unset. Watch system events accept eslogger or none; decision rules accept deny, ask, or allow.

Supported set Keys

gensee policy set is intentionally limited to runtime configuration knobs. Use a text editor for rule-content changes.

• resource_governance.max_read_bytes
• resource_governance.max_file_subjects_per_tool
• resource_governance.max_shell_segments_per_tool
• resource_governance.max_tool_calls_per_session
• resource_governance.max_network_egress_per_session
• resource_governance.max_file_accessed_rate_per_min
• resource_governance.max_network_rate_per_min
• egress.allow_hosts
• egress.proxy_url
• egress.require_proxy
• runtime.max_runtime_seconds
• enforcement.noninteractive
• watch.system_events
• allow_path_prefixes

Precedence

Policy configuration resolves in this order:

1. Environment variables.
2. Active JSON policy document.
3. Built-in defaults.

GENSEE_POLICY_FILE can point at a custom policy path. If that file is unreadable, invalid JSON, or has an unsupported schema_version, Gensee Crate fails closed and denies tool calls until the policy is fixed.

Rule Authoring

For the full policy document format, default rule behavior, matcher structure, and JSON schema notes, see Safety policy.