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Runtime Policy

Reviewed 19 July 2026 Canonical definition Part of: Runtime Control & Guardrail Terms →

A runtime policy is a governance rule that is evaluated and enforced while an AI agent is actively executing, rather than at deployment time. Runtime policies respond to real-time context, the data being accessed, the current risk score, the identity making the request, and can block, throttle, log, or escalate actions without requiring a redeployment.

§01 / QUESTIONSterm: Runtime Policy
Questions

Common questions.

What is Runtime Policy?

A runtime policy is a governance rule that is evaluated and enforced while an AI agent is actively executing, rather than at deployment time.

How is Runtime Policy used in production?

Runtime policies respond to real-time context, the data being accessed, the current risk score, the identity making the request, and can block, throttle, log, or escalate actions without requiring a redeployment.

Which terms are related to Runtime Policy?

Closely related concepts include Runtime Enforcement, Policy Enforcement Point, Agent Context Isolation, Jailbreak (AI Agent). Each is defined in the Prefactor glossary.

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