---
title: "How do I create a policy template?"
slug: "how-do-i-create-a-policy-template"
updated: 2024-10-25T16:23:43Z
published: 2024-10-25T16:23:43Z
canonical: "support.lusid.com/how-do-i-create-a-policy-template"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.lusid.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How do I create a policy template?

Policy templates allow you to efficiently create and update [policies](/v1/docs/what-are-a-policy-and-a-policy-collection) for common LUSID features and data points.

Providing you are a LUSID user with sufficient privileges, you can create a policy template, for example to grant a user access to read portfolios within a particular scope. You can then [generate or update a policy](/v1/docs/how-do-i-create-a-policy-from-a-policy-template) on-the-fly using one or more policy templates.

Currently, you can create your own policy templates and use them to generate and update policies. In future, LUSID will provide pre-built templates for common features and data, which you will be able to use to efficiently generate and update your own policies from.

## Using the Access REST API

Currently, you can create one policy template per API call.

1. [Obtain an API access token.](https://support.lusid.com/v1/docs/how-do-i-obtain-and-use-a-short-lived-api-access-token-from-okta)
2. Call the [CreatePolicyTemplate](https://www.lusid.com/docs/api/access/endpoints/policy-templates/CreatePolicyTemplate) API for your LUSID domain, passing in your API access token and:
  - A `code` to uniquely identify the template.
  - A friendly `displayName` and `description`.
  - An array of `templatedSelectors` containing the selectors to be included in policies generated from the template, with each item including:
    - The `application` the policy relates to.
    - A `tag` to identify whether this is a `Feature` and/or `Data` policy template. This allows you to track the policy types and [create different feature and/or data policies from the same template](/v1/docs/how-do-i-create-a-policy-from-a-policy-template).
    - A `selector` type, structured in the same way as a selector in a [data](/v1/docs/how-do-i-create-a-data-policy) or [feature](/v1/docs/how-do-i-create-a-feature-policy) policy, of either:

> [!NOTE]
> Note
> 
> The `selector` parameters required vary depending on the selector type and whether you are creating a template for a [feature policy](/v1/docs/what-are-a-policy-and-a-policy-collection) or a [data policy](/v1/docs/what-are-a-policy-and-a-policy-collection). Read the corresponding articles to learn more about the required structure for each `selector` type.
      - `metadataSelectorDefinition`
      - `matchAllSelectorDefinition`
      - `IdSelectorDefinition`; for this example, this selector type should contain:
        - An `identifier`, for example a `scope` to assign access to.
        - Optionally, a `name` and `description` to help identify the selector.
        - `actions` for the policy, including:
          - A `scope` value, for example `default`.
          - An `entity` value, for example `Portfolio`.
          - The `activity` to grant access to, for example `Read`.

The following example creates a policy template containing selectors for reading portfolios in the `Finbourne-Examples` scope:

```json
curl -X POST "https://<your-domain>.lusid.com/access/api/policytemplates"
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <your-API-access-token>"
  -d "{
  "code": "read-portfolio-scope",
  "displayName": "Read portfolios in scope",
  "description": "Policy template that grants read access to portfolio data within the Finbourne-Examples scope",
  "templatedSelectors": [
    {
      "application": "LUSID",
      "tag": "Data",
      "selector": {
        "idSelectorDefinition": {
          "identifier": {
            "scope": "Finbourne-Examples"
          },
          "actions": [
            {
              "scope": "default",
              "activity": "Read",
              "entity": "Portfolio"
            }
          ],
          "name": "access-Finbourne-Examples-scope",
          "description": "Allow readonly access to the Finbourne-Examples portfolio scope"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}"
```

You can now use the [GeneratePolicyFromTemplate](https://www.lusid.com/docs/api/access/endpoints/policy-templates/GeneratePolicyFromTemplate) API to combine selectors defined in the policy template above with other policy template selectors and efficiently create or update policies. [See how to do this.](/v1/docs/how-do-i-create-a-policy-from-a-policy-template)

## Using the LUSID web app

Coming soon