Define Domino Governance policies

Governance policies define review and approval workflows for key scientific outputs, such as models, reports, and AI systems. Use policies to codify internal risk controls, regulatory frameworks, or corporate standards across your organization.

You can build policies in two ways:

  • Policy Builder: A visual UI for defining policies step-by-step

  • YAML: A code-based method for advanced customization

Once published, policies enforce compliance at runtime when applied to governed bundles.

Use cases for policies

  • Require approvals before releasing models or reports

  • Capture evidence and risk classifications during review

  • Show or hide questions based on input

  • Define multi-stage workflows with approvers and conditions

  • Use gates to restrict specific actions, such as publishing apps or creating model endpoints, until all required approvals are complete

About gating

Gating controls when certain operations are allowed based on policy status. For example, you can block a user from publishing an app until all stages in the associated policy bundle are approved.

Gates must be defined in YAML. Gating in Domino Governance has details about how gates work and how to define them.

Permissions and access

Only users with the GovernanceAdmin role can create, edit, or publish policies in Domino.

This role also grants access to:

  • The Governance Dashboard

  • Compliance views and audit trail

  • Governance APIs

CloudAdmins automatically have GovernanceAdmin permissions. All other users must be explicitly assigned the role.

Assign the GovernanceAdmin role

To create or manage policies, a user must be granted the GovernanceAdmin role through the Admin console:

  1. In the Admin console, go to Manage Resources > Users.

  2. Select the user to update.

  3. Click Edit.

  4. Select GovernanceAdmin (Admin role for Governance) from the list of roles.

  5. Click Save.

Create a Governance policy

You can create a policy either from scratch or by using an existing template. Both methods allow you to use the Policy Builder UI or the Code editor.

Start a new policy

Follow these steps to begin defining your policy:

  1. Go to Govern > Policies, then click Create Policy.

  2. Choose None (start from scratch) or choose a policy template.

  3. Enter a name and description.

  4. Click Create.

Choose a View

Once created, the policy opens in the UI editor by default. You can switch between these views at any time:

  • Policy Builder (UI editor): Guided form for building stages, rules, and questions

  • Graph view: Visual overview of the policy’s workflow

  • Code editor: Raw YAML editor for advanced configuration

Note: If editing YAML directly, remember to replace user-organization-name with your organization’s name to correctly assign approvers.

Policies are written in YAML and must be published before use. Build Domino governance policies in our documentation has more building blocks for advanced customization.

Use the Policy Builder

The Policy Builder is a guided interface for defining policy components without writing YAML.

Governance Policy Builder

In this UI editor, you can:

  • Define policy stages such as validation or deployment

  • Assign approvers to each stage

  • Add evidence questions approvers must answer

  • Add scripted checks for model validation

  • Configure classification and visibility rules

Domino automatically generates YAML behind the scenes as you work in the builder. You can view or modify this YAML in the Code editor at any time.

Classification and visibility rules

Use these rule types to control what content approvers see during the workflow.

Classification Rules apply tags or labels to a policy execution based on collected evidence. These outputs can:

  • Trigger downstream rules

  • Influence policy bundle matching

  • Inform audit or compliance filters

Visibility Rules show or hide specific stages or questions based on earlier responses. Use logic statements like if risk_level = high to shape the approval flow. Some common use cases:

  • Show a compliance checklist if a model uses PII

  • Hide deployment questions if the output is a report

  • Apply nested logic to reflect more complex decision trees

Archive Governance policies

You can archive policies to reduce clutter in the policy table. Archived policies:

  • Cannot be restored

  • Do not link to a detail page

  • Only appear when the Archived filter is applied

Archive a policy

  1. Go to Govern > Policies and find the policy to archive.

  2. Click the … menu next to the policy.

  3. Select Archive.

  4. If no active bundles use the policy, click Confirm.

  5. If active bundles are using the policy, Domino shows a warning and prevents archival.

Next steps