Architecture
Decisions are shared. Authority is not.
Policy-native delivery means every consequential action can be governed by policy, but not every part of the platform is implemented as policy. The decision plane connects intent to product capabilities. It is not a fifth product.
Why the decision is shared
A repository change, an infrastructure reading, a cost constraint, and a delegated request are different authorities. They still need one explainable shape: what was asked, which facts were present, what the policy engine returned, and who acted. Sharing the decision contract does not move stores, gates, or remediations into one service.
What contributes to a decision
- Declared state — what a product already recorded as desired or approved, such as a Repave baseline.
- Observed state — what Overpass can say from accepted infrastructure snapshots and dependency edges, when those facts exist.
- Economic context — attributed spend and thresholds Toll can support, without claiming live enforcement.
- Delegation — who or what Dispatch exposed, and at what confirmation boundary.
Missing facts stay unknown. Unknown is not allow, deny, compliant, or noncompliant.
Policy does not replace product workflows
The policy engine returns a structured decision. Repave still owns repository lifecycle. Overpass still owns custody. Toll still owns economic evidence. Dispatch still owns governed interaction. Obligations and required evidence are inputs to those workflows, not a substitute for them.
Exceptions are governed, not hidden
An explicit, time-bounded exception can produce a conditional decision with review obligations. It is recorded on the decision. It is not a silent bypass and not a second unpublished path around the owning product.
In technical settings the first policy engine is Open Policy Agent. In product language it is a policy decision. That implementation can change without renaming the products.