The condition builder

The condition builder is how you make custom rules in Studio. You add rules (single checks) and groups (sets of checks), and choose how they combine. You never type a rule’s structure.

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Where

It appears in Access → Policies → New policy (under Who passes), and inline wherever you choose Custom condition in a rule picker (a table’s Access tab, a bucket, a channel, a route, a subscription’s Only when…).

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Groups: how checks combine

At the top of a group, pick one: Click + Group to nest: “signed in and (the owner or an admin)” is an All of containing an Any of. An empty All of says No rules: everyone passes; an empty Any of says No rules: nobody passes.

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Kinds of check

Click + Rule, then open the first menu:

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Compare values

Choose the Comparison operator:

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Check a value

exists (it is present), is set / true (present and not empty or false), is empty (missing or empty).

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The values you type

Each side of a comparison is either a path (it starts with $ and reads a fact about the request) or a plain value:

• $auth.user_id is the caller’s id; $record.owner_id is a column on the record; $input.status is something being submitted.
• draft, 3, yes are plain values. Write $$ for a literal dollar sign.

The box suggests the common paths as you type. See Facts a rule can check.

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Build one: “the owner or an admin, but only while not locked”

1. Open New policy. Leave All of selected.
2. Click + Group, switch it to Any of.
   • In the group, + Rule → Owns the record (field) → owner_id.
   • + Rule → Has role → admin.
3. Back in the outer All of, + Rule → Compare values…: $record.locked does not equal true.
4. Name it owner_or_admin_unlocked. Create policy.

Read back as a sentence: All of these pass: (any of: owns the record, has role admin) and locked is not true.

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Tips

• Prefer the dedicated kinds (Has role, Owns the record) to comparisons you make yourself: they read better and Pawabase can turn them into database filters.
• Keep groups shallow. More than three levels? Split into named rules (Named rules).
• Use Use example on the New policy sheet to see a working rule.