Versioned Policies
Policy rules that carry explicit version identifiers, enabling any historical decision to be replayed against the exact policy logic that was active when the decision was made.
What it means
Versioned policies treat policy rules the same way software teams treat code — with explicit version control, publish history, and the ability to roll back or reference any previous version. When a policy is updated, the new version is published with a version identifier, and the previous version remains accessible.
The critical capability that versioning enables is decision replay: given a decision record containing the policy_set_version at evaluation time, it is possible to replay that decision against the exact same policy logic and verify that the outcome is identical. This is audit reproducibility — the ability to demonstrate that a past decision was made correctly under the rules in force at the time.
Versioned policies also enable policy change management: changes can be reviewed in diff form, tested in a simulator before publishing, and rolled back if needed — with full audit trail of who published each version and when.
Why enterprise executives need to understand this
For audit and compliance teams, versioned policies are what make the audit log meaningful. A log record that says "decision was ALLOW" is not useful if the policy rules that produced that decision have since changed. Versioned policies ensure that records can always be traced back to the specific rules in effect at decision time — a requirement for any audit that spans policy change events.
How Corules implements this
Every Corules policy module and policy set carries a version identifier. When a policy set is published, it receives a version tag. Every decision record in the audit ledger captures the policy_set_version at evaluation time. The Corules simulator can replay any past decision by loading the stored context and specifying the historical policy version — producing a verified identical outcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can policy changes be reviewed before publishing?
Yes. Corules provides a policy simulator that evaluates proposed policy changes against sample decisions before publishing. Teams can compare outcomes under the current version vs. the proposed version, ensuring no unintended consequences before the new policy goes live.
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