Spanda

Policy Engine

Status: Experimental (verify-time) · Phase: Verify, Operate · Priority: P1.5 (verify-time), P3.4 (runtime)

Declarative operational rules enforced at verification and during run/sim when --enforce-policy is set.

Syntax

policy WarehousePolicy {
    max_speed = 1.0 m/s;
    requires_kill_switch;
    requires_capability [ gps_navigation, obstacle_avoidance ];
    min_readiness_score = 80;
    operation_hours = "06:00-22:00";
}

Rules (verify-time)

Rule	Checks
`max_speed = N m/s`	Every robot `safety { max_speed }` is at or below the policy limit
`requires_kill_switch`	Program declares at least one `kill_switch`
`requires_capability [ … ]`	Every robot `exposes capabilities` includes each listed capability
`min_readiness_score = N`	Readiness rollup score meets the threshold
`operation_hours = "HH:MM-HH:MM"`	Range format is valid (clock enforcement is runtime, P3.4)

policy Name { } is distinct from swarm policy round_robin; — the parser disambiguates by block vs statement form.

CLI

spanda verify examples/showcase/policy/warehouse.sd --policy WarehousePolicy
spanda verify examples/showcase/policy/warehouse.sd --policy WarehousePolicy --json
spanda readiness examples/showcase/policy/warehouse.sd --policy WarehousePolicy
spanda deploy gate examples/showcase/policy/warehouse.sd --operational-policy WarehousePolicy
spanda sim examples/showcase/policy/warehouse.sd --enforce-policy WarehousePolicy
spanda run examples/showcase/policy/warehouse.sd --enforce-policy WarehousePolicy

Policy evaluation runs after hardware compatibility when --policy is set. Failures surface as policy violations in the verify report.

Core types

OperationalPolicyDecl — named rule set (AST)
OperationalPolicyRule — individual constraint variant
PolicyViolation — failed rule with severity and message
PolicyEvaluationReport — pass/fail rollup for one policy

Enforcement phases

Phase	When	Command	Status
1	Verify-time	`spanda verify --policy WarehousePolicy`	Experimental
2	Readiness	Policy factor in readiness score (`spanda readiness --policy <name>`)	Experimental
3	Deploy gates	`spanda deploy gate --operational-policy <name>`	Experimental
4	Runtime	Policy monitor in interpreter (`--enforce-policy`)	Experimental

Integration

Composes with spanda-readiness, spanda-security, safety rules, and deployment gates.

Crate

spanda-policy — AST types in spanda-ast::policy_decl, parser in spanda-parser, evaluator in evaluate_policy.

Showcase: examples/showcase/policy/warehouse.sd · smoke: scripts/policy_smoke.sh

See deployment-gates.md · compliance-profiles.md · platform-maturity-roadmap.md.

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