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Aggregate semantics in Policy Compiler - #1408

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TristonianJones merged 4 commits into
cel-expr:masterfrom
TristonianJones:aggregate-policy
Aug 17, 2026
Merged

Aggregate semantics in Policy Compiler#1408
TristonianJones merged 4 commits into
cel-expr:masterfrom
TristonianJones:aggregate-policy

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@TristonianJones

@TristonianJones TristonianJones commented Aug 7, 2026

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Add aggregate semantics into Policy Compiler.

The CEL policy compiler initially started as first-match policy compilation, ensuring at
most one result would be produced from a policy expression evaluation. With aggregate
semantics, multiple outputs can be produced on a single pass. For those familiar with K8s
validating admission policies, the effect is similar.

Ported from cel-expr/cel-java/pull/1052

====

Aggregate walks through all matching rules (including nested ones) and appends them into a list:

rule:
  aggregate:
    - condition: "true"
      output: "'FOO'"
    - condition: "true"
      output: "'BAR'"

# Output: ['FOO', 'BAR']

Few noteworthy design decisions below. All examples assume all conditions matched:

  1. For usability reasons, subrules under an aggregate ancestor will always have their lists flattened:
name: aggregate_flat_flattening_example
rule:
  aggregate:
    - rule:
        match:
          - condition: "resource.is_admin == true"
            output: "['GDPR_STANDARD', 'EU_B2C_NOTICE']"
    - condition: "true"
      output: "'FALLBACK'"
# Output: ['GDPR_STANDARD', 'EU_B2C_NOTICE', 'FALLBACK']
  1. Base case of an aggregate rule is an empty list. Nested conditional rules within an aggregate rule which outputs optional.none() are pruned (except in cases where policy output explicitly emits an optional.none()):
name: optional_pruning_example
rule:
  aggregate:
    - rule:
        match:
          - condition: "1 == 2"
            output: "'EU_NOTICE'"
    - condition: "true"
      output "'ALWAYS'"

# Output: ['ALWAYS']
name: explicit_optional_none_example
rule:
  aggregate:
    - rule:
        match:
          - condition: "resource.is_b2c == true"
            output: "optional.none()"   # Explicitly authored by user

    - condition: "true"
      output: "optional.of('ALWAYS')"

# Output: [optional.none(), optional.of('ALWAYS')]

Note: nesting aggregate clauses is currently not allowed, and will result in a compilation error.

@TristonianJones
TristonianJones requested a review from l46kok August 15, 2026 00:31
Comment thread policy/composer.go Outdated
Comment thread policy/compiler_test.go
Comment thread policy/composer.go Outdated
Comment thread policy/composer.go Outdated
@TristonianJones
TristonianJones merged commit 9f82d07 into cel-expr:master Aug 17, 2026
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@TristonianJones
TristonianJones deleted the aggregate-policy branch August 17, 2026 20:55
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2 participants