Request Syntax URI Request Parameters Request Body Response Syntax Response Elements Errors See Also

CreatePolicy

Creates a policy within the AgentCore Policy system. Policies provide real-time, deterministic control over agentic interactions with AgentCore Gateway. Using the Cedar policy language, you can define fine-grained policies that specify which interactions with Gateway tools are permitted based on input parameters and OAuth claims, ensuring agents operate within defined boundaries and business rules. The policy is validated during creation against the Cedar schema generated from the Gateway's tools' input schemas, which defines the available tools, their parameters, and expected data types. This is an asynchronous operation. Use the GetPolicy operation to poll the status field to track completion.

Request Syntax


POST /policy-engines/policyEngineId/policies HTTP/1.1
Content-type: application/json

{
   "clientToken": "string",
   "definition": { ... },
   "description": "string",
   "name": "string",
   "validationMode": "string"
}

URI Request Parameters

The request uses the following URI parameters.

policyEngineId

The identifier of the policy engine which contains this policy. Policy engines group related policies and provide the execution context for policy evaluation.

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 12. Maximum length of 59.

Pattern: [A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_]*-[a-z0-9_]{10}

Required: Yes

Request Body

The request accepts the following data in JSON format.

clientToken

A unique, case-sensitive identifier to ensure the idempotency of the request. The AWS SDK automatically generates this token, so you don't need to provide it in most cases. If you retry a request with the same client token, the service returns the same response without creating a duplicate policy.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 33. Maximum length of 256.

Pattern: [a-zA-Z0-9](-*[a-zA-Z0-9]){0,256}

Required: No

definition

The Cedar policy statement that defines the access control rules. This contains the actual policy logic written in Cedar policy language, specifying effect (permit or forbid), principals, actions, resources, and conditions for agent behavior control.

Type: PolicyDefinition object

Note: This object is a Union. Only one member of this object can be specified or returned.

Required: Yes

description

A human-readable description of the policy's purpose and functionality (1-4,096 characters). This helps policy administrators understand the policy's intent, business rules, and operational scope. Use this field to document why the policy exists, what business requirement it addresses, and any special considerations for maintenance. Clear descriptions are essential for policy governance, auditing, and troubleshooting.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 4096.

Required: No

name

The customer-assigned immutable name for the policy. Must be unique within the account. This name is used for policy identification and cannot be changed after creation.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 48.

Pattern: [A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_]*

Required: Yes

validationMode

The validation mode for the policy creation. Determines how Cedar analyzer validation results are handled during policy creation. FAIL_ON_ANY_FINDINGS (default) runs the Cedar analyzer to validate the policy against the Cedar schema and tool context, failing creation if the analyzer detects any validation issues to ensure strict conformance. IGNORE_ALL_FINDINGS runs the Cedar analyzer but allows policy creation even if validation issues are detected, useful for testing or when the policy schema is evolving. Use FAIL_ON_ANY_FINDINGS for production policies to ensure correctness, and IGNORE_ALL_FINDINGS only when you understand and accept the analyzer findings.

Type: String

Valid Values: FAIL_ON_ANY_FINDINGS | IGNORE_ALL_FINDINGS

Required: No

Response Syntax


HTTP/1.1 202
Content-type: application/json

{
   "createdAt": "string",
   "definition": { ... },
   "description": "string",
   "name": "string",
   "policyArn": "string",
   "policyEngineId": "string",
   "policyId": "string",
   "status": "string",
   "statusReasons": [ "string" ],
   "updatedAt": "string"
}

Response Elements

If the action is successful, the service sends back an HTTP 202 response.

The following data is returned in JSON format by the service.

createdAt

The timestamp when the policy was created. This is automatically set by the service and used for auditing and lifecycle management.

Type: Timestamp

definition

The Cedar policy statement that was created. This is the validated policy definition that will be used for agent behavior control and access decisions.

Type: PolicyDefinition object

Note: This object is a Union. Only one member of this object can be specified or returned.

description

The human-readable description of the policy's purpose and functionality. This helps administrators understand and manage the policy.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 4096.

name

The customer-assigned name of the created policy. This matches the name provided in the request and serves as the human-readable identifier for the policy.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 48.

Pattern: [A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_]*

policyArn

The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the created policy. This globally unique identifier can be used for cross-service references and IAM policy statements.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 96. Maximum length of 203.

Pattern: arn:aws[-a-z]{0,7}:bedrock-agentcore:[a-z0-9-]{9,15}:[0-9]{12}:policy-engine/[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9-_]{0,47}-[a-zA-Z0-9_]{10}/policy/[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9-_]{0,47}-[a-zA-Z0-9_]{10}

policyEngineId

The identifier of the policy engine that manages this policy. This confirms the policy engine assignment and is used for policy evaluation routing.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 12. Maximum length of 59.

Pattern: [A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_]*-[a-z0-9_]{10}

policyId

The unique identifier for the created policy. This is a system-generated identifier consisting of the user name plus a 10-character generated suffix, used for all subsequent policy operations.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 12. Maximum length of 59.

Pattern: [A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_]*-[a-z0-9_]{10}

status

The current status of the policy. A status of ACTIVE indicates the policy is ready for use.

Type: String

statusReasons

Additional information about the policy status. This provides details about any failures or the current state of the policy creation process.

Type: Array of strings

updatedAt

The timestamp when the policy was last updated. For newly created policies, this matches the createdAt timestamp.

Type: Timestamp

Errors

For information about the errors that are common to all actions, see Common Errors.

AccessDeniedException

This exception is thrown when a request is denied per access permissions

HTTP Status Code: 403

ConflictException

This exception is thrown when there is a conflict performing an operation

HTTP Status Code: 409

InternalServerException

This exception is thrown if there was an unexpected error during processing of request

HTTP Status Code: 500

ResourceNotFoundException

This exception is thrown when a resource referenced by the operation does not exist

HTTP Status Code: 404

ServiceQuotaExceededException

This exception is thrown when a request is made beyond the service quota

HTTP Status Code: 402

ThrottlingException

This exception is thrown when the number of requests exceeds the limit

HTTP Status Code: 429

ValidationException

The input fails to satisfy the constraints specified by the service.

HTTP Status Code: 400