Policy checks API reference

Note: HCP Terraform Free Edition includes one policy set of up to five policies. In HCP Terraform Plus Edition, you can connect a policy set to a version control repository or create policy set versions via the API. Refer to HCP Terraform pricing for details.

Policy checks are the default workflow for Sentinel. Policy checks use the latest version of the Sentinel runtime and have access to cost estimation data. This set of APIs provides endpoints to get, list, and override policy checks.

Warning: Policy checks are deprecated and will be permanently removed in August 2025. We recommend that you start using policy evaluations to avoid disruptions.

List Policy Checks

This endpoint lists the policy checks in a run.

Note: The sentinel hash in the result attribute structure represents low-level Sentinel details generated by the policy engine. The keys or structure may change over time. Use the data in this hash at your own risk.

GET /runs/:run_id/policy-checks

Parameter	Description
`run_id`	The ID of the run to list policy checks for.

Query Parameters

This endpoint supports pagination with standard URL query parameters. Remember to percent-encode [ as %5B and ] as %5D if your tooling doesn't automatically encode URLs. If neither pagination query parameters are provided, the endpoint will not be paginated and will return all results.

Parameter	Description
`page[number]`	Optional. If omitted, the endpoint will return the first page.
`page[size]`	Optional. If omitted, the endpoint will return 20 policy checks per page.

Sample Request

curl \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  https://app.terraform.io/api/v2/runs/run-CZcmD7eagjhyXavN/policy-checks

Sample Response

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "polchk-9VYRc9bpfJEsnwum",
      "type": "policy-checks",
      "attributes": {
        "result": {
          "result": false,
          "passed": 0,
          "total-failed": 1,
          "hard-failed": 0,
          "soft-failed": 1,
          "advisory-failed": 0,
          "duration-ms": 0,
          "sentinel": {...}
        },
        "scope": "organization",
        "status": "soft_failed",
        "status-timestamps": {
          "queued-at": "2017-11-29T20:02:17+00:00",
          "soft-failed-at": "2017-11-29T20:02:20+00:00"
        },
        "actions": {
          "is-overridable": true
        },
        "permissions": {
          "can-override": false
        }
      },
      "relationships": {
        "run": {
          "data": {
            "id": "run-veDoQbv6xh6TbnJD",
            "type": "runs"
          }
        }
      },
      "links": {
        "output": "/api/v2/policy-checks/polchk-9VYRc9bpfJEsnwum/output"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Show Policy Check

This endpoint gets information about a specific policy check ID. Policy check IDs can appear in audit logs.

GET /policy-checks/:id

Parameter	Description
`id`	The ID of the policy check to show.

Sample Request

curl \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  https://app.terraform.io/api/v2/policy-checks/polchk-9VYRc9bpfJEsnwum

Sample Response

{
  "data": {
    "id": "polchk-9VYRc9bpfJEsnwum",
    "type": "policy-checks",
    "attributes": {
      "result": {
        "result": false,
        "passed": 0,
        "total-failed": 1,
        "hard-failed": 0,
        "soft-failed": 1,
        "advisory-failed": 0,
        "duration-ms": 0,
        "sentinel": {...}
      },
      "scope": "organization",
      "status": "soft_failed",
      "status-timestamps": {
        "queued-at": "2017-11-29T20:02:17+00:00",
        "soft-failed-at": "2017-11-29T20:02:20+00:00"
      },
      "actions": {
        "is-overridable": true
      },
      "permissions": {
        "can-override": false
      }
    },
    "relationships": {
      "run": {
        "data": {
          "id": "run-veDoQbv6xh6TbnJD",
          "type": "runs"
        }
      }
    },
    "links": {
      "output": "/api/v2/policy-checks/polchk-9VYRc9bpfJEsnwum/output"
    }
  }
}

Override Policy

This endpoint overrides a soft-mandatory or warning policy.

POST /policy-checks/:id/actions/override

Parameter	Description
`id`	The ID of the policy check to override.

Sample Request

curl \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/vnd.api+json" \
  --request POST \
  https://app.terraform.io/api/v2/policy-checks/polchk-EasPB4Srx5NAiWAU/actions/override

Sample Response

{
  "data": {
    "id": "polchk-EasPB4Srx5NAiWAU",
    "type": "policy-checks",
    "attributes": {
      "result": {
        "result": false,
        "passed": 0,
        "total-failed": 1,
        "hard-failed": 0,
        "soft-failed": 1,
        "advisory-failed": 0,
        "duration-ms": 0,
        "sentinel": {...}
      },
      "scope": "organization",
      "status": "overridden",
      "status-timestamps": {
        "queued-at": "2017-11-29T20:13:37+00:00",
        "soft-failed-at": "2017-11-29T20:13:40+00:00",
        "overridden-at": "2017-11-29T20:14:11+00:00"
      },
      "actions": {
        "is-overridable": true
      },
      "permissions": {
        "can-override": false
      }
    },
    "links": {
      "output": "/api/v2/policy-checks/polchk-EasPB4Srx5NAiWAU/output"
    }
  }
}

The GET endpoints above can optionally return related resources, if requested with the include query parameter. The following resource types are available:

Resource Name	Description
`run`	The run this policy check belongs to.
`run.workspace`	The associated workspace of the run.

Policy checks API reference

List Policy Checks

Query Parameters

Sample Request

Sample Response

Show Policy Check

Sample Request

Sample Response

Override Policy

Sample Request

Sample Response

Available Related Resources