rulehave

Rulehave is a formal framework for encoding and applying rule-based permissions, entitlements, and obligations within information systems. The framework treats 'having' a resource or capability as the outcome of evaluating a rule against a subject, resource, and context. It is used to model who may possess what under which conditions, and to determine compliance with organizational policies.

Rules in rulehave are expressed as conditional statements that map conditions to outcomes. A typical rule has a subject, a resource or capability, a condition, and an outcome operator 'have'. The language supports positive and negative outcomes, as well as time-bound and context-sensitive predicates. A small domain-specific language (DSL) is used to write rules, while an engine performs evaluation against a policy store and a current context.

Evaluation uses forward-chaining or backward-chaining inference, depending on configuration. The engine computes active possessions and flags conflicts when multiple rules grant or deny the same item. Conflict resolution relies on priorities, rule specificity, and policy hierarchy. Auditing functionality records decision paths for traceability.

Applications include access control, data governance, license management, and compliance monitoring. Rulehave can be integrated with identity and access management systems, data catalogs, and workflow engines to enforce policies automatically and to generate indicators for governance reporting.

History and status: The concept emerged in theoretical discussions of rule-based entitlement models and has since influenced policy languages and governance frameworks in some organizations. Notable components include a canonical rule structure, a policy store, and an evaluation engine. See also related topics such as rule-based systems and policy languages.