Policies

Policies are the rule sets that determine if a feature flag is active or not for a given context.

Policy Structure

Policies are defined as a set of rules against a specific piece of data from the Context

There are four types of rules that can be defined within a policy:

Expressions

Expressions are for matching values within the Context.

Operators

Operators are used to compare the subject against a value.

Context Value Type	Operator	Policy Value Type	Description
scalar	=	scalar	Context and Policy values are identical
scalar	!=	scalar	Context and Policy values are not identical
scalar	<, <=, >, >=	scalar	Context value is <, <=, >, >= than the Policy value
scalar	contains exactly, contains any	scalar	Context value contains the Policy value (as strings)
scalar	does not contains exactly, does not contains any	scalar	Context value does not contain the Policy value (as strings)
scalar	regex match exactly, regex match any	scalar	Context value matches the Policy value as regex
scalar	does not regex match exactly, does not regex match any	scalar	Context value does not match the Policy value as regex
scalar	is one of	scalar	Unsupported
scalar	is not one of	scalar	Unsupported
scalar	=, is one of	array	Context value exists within the Policy array
scalar	!=, is not one of	array	Context value does not exist within the Policy array
scalar	contains exactly	array	Context value contains all of the Policy values
scalar	contains any	array	Context value contains one of the Policy values
scalar	does not contains exactly	array	Context value is not contained in all of the Policy values
scalar	does not contains any	array	Context value is not contained in one of the Policy values
scalar	regex match exactly	array	Context value matches all of the Policy values as regex
scalar	regex match any	array	Context matches one of the Policy array values as regex
scalar	does not regex match exactly	array	Context value does not match all of the Policy values as regex
scalar	does not regex match any	array	The Context value does not match any of the Policy values as regex
scalar	is not one of	array	Context value does not exist within the Policy array
scalar	<, <=, >, >=	array	Unsupported
array	=	scalar	One of the Context values is identical to the Policy value
array	!=	scalar	None of the Context values are identical to the Policy value
array	contains exactly	scalar	All of the Context values within the Policy value (as strings)
array	does not contain exactly	scalar	All of the Context values do not exist within the Policy value (as strings)
array	contains any	scalar	One of the Context values exists within the Policy value (as strings)
array	does not contains any	scalar	One of the Context values does not exist within the Policy value (as strings)
array	regex match exactly	scalar	All of the Context Values match the Policy value as regex
array	does not regex match exactly	scalar	All of the Context values do not match the Policy value as regex
array	regex match any	scalar	One of the Context values matches the Policy value as regex
array	does not regex match any	scalar	One of the Context values does not match the Policy value as regex
array	is one of	scalar	Unsupported
array	is not one of	scalar	Unsupported
array	<, <=, >, >=	scalar	All Context values are <, <=, >, >= to the Policy value
array	=	array	Context and Policy values are identical (ordering ignored)
array	!=	array	Context and Policy values are not identical (ordering ignored)
array	contains exactly	array	All Context values exist within the Policy array
array	does not contains exactly	array	All of the Context values do not exist within the Policy array
array	contains any	array	One of the Context values exists within the Policy array
array	does not contains any	array	None of the Context values exist within the Policy array
array	regex match exactly	array	All of the Context values match all of the Policy values as regex
array	does not regex match exactly	array	All of the Context values do not match all of the Policy values as regex
array	regex match any	array	One of the Context values matches one of the Policy values as regex
array	does not regex match any	array	All of the Context values do not match any of the Policy values as regex
array	is one of	array	All of the Context values exist within the Policy array
array	is not one of	array	All of the Context values do not exist within the Policy array
array	<, <=, >, >=	array	Unsupported

Policies

You can nest policies within policies. This allows for more complex policies to be defined using composition.

NOTE

Beacon will detect recursive policies and disallow them. This is to prevent infinite loops in policy evaluation.

Date/Time

Date/Time rules are for time-based feature flag activation. They allow you to enable or disable features based on specific dates and times.

The context value is a date/time string that will be parsed and compared against the current time. The supported operators are:

Operators

• less than or equal (<=): Feature is active if current time is before or equal to the specified date/time
• greater than or equal (>=): Feature is active if current time is after or equal to the specified date/time (default behavior)

Examples

Activate a feature until a specific date:

• Type: DateTime
• Operator: <=
• Context Value: 2025-12-31 23:59:59

Activate a feature after a specific date:

• Type: DateTime
• Operator: >=
• Context Value: 2025-01-01 00:00:00

Operators

Operators are used to create boolean expressions between Expressions, Policies, and DateTime rules.