Policies

Policies describe where decision rules are attached in the system graph.

At the structure level, policies guide or constrain interpretation, authorization, routing, coordination, or execution. They explain why a command is accepted, rejected, routed, delayed, retried, compensated, or interpreted differently by different observers. This describes decision scope and meaning, not a specific policy engine or enforcement substrate.

Policies may cover:

• Authority and permissions.
• Validation rules.
• Routing decisions.
• Retry and rate-limiting behavior.
• Coordination choices.
• Retention and replay.
• Recovery and compensation.

Policies are observer-relative when they affect command interpretation inside a specific observer boundary.

Related concepts: command, observer, transition, invariants, rate limiting, retry, coordination.