Adding a Configuration Policy

Policies allow enterprise administrators to lock configuration settings via OS-level mechanisms (Windows Group Policy, macOS managed preferences, Linux config files) or via Copilot account-level policy data. This skill covers the complete procedure.

When to Use

• Adding a new policy: field to any configuration property
• Modifying an existing policy (rename, category change, etc.)
• Reviewing a PR that touches policy registration
• Adding account-based policy support via IPolicyData

Architecture Overview

Policy Sources (layered, last writer wins)

Source	Implementation	How it reads policies
OS-level (Windows registry, macOS plist)	NativePolicyService via @vscode/policy-watcher	Watches Software\Policies\Microsoft\{productName} (Windows) or bundle identifier prefs (macOS)
Linux file	FilePolicyService	Reads /etc/vscode/policy.json
Account/GitHub	AccountPolicyService	Reads IPolicyData from IDefaultAccountService.policyData, applies value() function
Multiplex	MultiplexPolicyService	Combines OS-level + account policy services; used in desktop main

Key Files

File	Purpose
src/vs/base/common/policy.ts	PolicyCategory enum, IPolicy interface
src/vs/platform/policy/common/policy.ts	IPolicyService, AbstractPolicyService, PolicyDefinition
src/vs/platform/configuration/common/configurations.ts	PolicyConfiguration — bridges policies to configuration values
src/vs/workbench/services/policies/common/accountPolicyService.ts	Account/GitHub-based policy evaluation
src/vs/workbench/services/policies/common/multiplexPolicyService.ts	Combines multiple policy services
src/vs/workbench/contrib/policyExport/electron-browser/policyExport.contribution.ts	--export-policy-data CLI handler
src/vs/base/common/defaultAccount.ts	IPolicyData interface for account-level policy fields
build/lib/policies/policyData.jsonc	Auto-generated policy catalog (DO NOT edit manually)
build/lib/policies/policyGenerator.ts	Generates ADMX/ADML (Windows), plist (macOS), JSON (Linux)
build/lib/test/policyConversion.test.ts	Tests for policy artifact generation

Procedure

Step 1 — Add the policy field to the configuration property

Find the configuration registration (typically in a *.contribution.ts file) and add a policy object to the property schema.

Required fields:

Determining minimumVersion: Always read version from the root package.json and use the major.minor portion. For example, if package.json has "version": "1.112.0", use minimumVersion: '1.112'. Never hardcode an old version like '1.99'.

policy: {
    name: 'MyPolicyName',                          // PascalCase, unique across all policies
    category: PolicyCategory.InteractiveSession,    // From PolicyCategory enum
    minimumVersion: '1.112',                        // Use major.minor from package.json version
    localization: {
        description: {
            key: 'my.config.key',                   // NLS key for the description
            value: nls.localize('my.config.key', "Human-readable description."),
        }
    }
}

Optional: value function for account-based policy:

If this policy should also be controllable via Copilot account policy data (from IPolicyData), add a value function:

policy: {
    name: 'MyPolicyName',
    category: PolicyCategory.InteractiveSession,
    minimumVersion: '1.112',                        // Use major.minor from package.json version
    value: (policyData) => policyData.my_field === false ? false : undefined,
    localization: { /* ... */ }
}

The value function receives IPolicyData (from src/vs/base/common/defaultAccount.ts) and should:

• Return a concrete value to override the user's setting
• Return undefined to not apply any account-level override (falls through to OS policy or user setting)

If you need a new field on IPolicyData, add it to the interface in src/vs/base/common/defaultAccount.ts.

Optional: enumDescriptions for enum/string policies:

IMPORTANT: If the configuration property has type: 'string' and an enum array, you must include enumDescriptions in the localization block with the same number of entries as the enum array. Without this, npm run export-policy-data will fail with: enumDescriptions must exist and have the same length as enum for policy "...".

localization: {
    description: { key: '...', value: nls.localize('...', "...") },
    enumDescriptions: [
        { key: 'opt.none', value: nls.localize('opt.none', "No access.") },
        { key: 'opt.all', value: nls.localize('opt.all', "Full access.") },
    ]
}

Step 2 — Ensure PolicyCategory is imported

import { PolicyCategory } from '../../../../base/common/policy.js';

Existing categories in the PolicyCategory enum:

• Extensions
• IntegratedTerminal
• InteractiveSession (used for all chat/Copilot policies)
• Telemetry
• Update

If you need a new category, add it to PolicyCategory in src/vs/base/common/policy.ts and add corresponding PolicyCategoryData localization.

Step 3 — Validate TypeScript compilation

Check the VS Code - Build watch task output, or run:

npm run compile-check-ts-native

Step 4 — Export the policy data

Regenerate the auto-generated policy catalog:

npm run export-policy-data

This script handles transpilation, sets up GITHUB_TOKEN (via gh CLI or GitHub OAuth device flow), and runs --export-policy-data. The export command reads extension configuration policies from the distro's product.json via the GitHub API and merges them into the output.

This updates build/lib/policies/policyData.jsonc. Never edit this file manually. Verify your new policy appears in the output. You will need code review from a codeowner to merge the change to main.

Policy for extension-provided settings

Extension authors cannot add policy: fields directly—their settings are defined in the extension's package.json, not in VS Code core. Instead, policies for extension settings are defined in vscode-distro's product.json under the extensionConfigurationPolicy key.

How it works

1. Source of truth: The extensionConfigurationPolicy map lives in vscode-distro under mixin/{quality}/product.json (stable, insider, exploration).
2. Runtime: When VS Code starts with a distro-mixed product.json, configurationExtensionPoint.ts reads extensionConfigurationPolicy and attaches matching policy objects to extension-contributed configuration properties.
3. Export/build: The --export-policy-data command fetches the distro's product.json at the commit pinned in package.json and merges extension policies into the output. Use npm run export-policy-data which sets up authentication automatically.

Distro format

Each entry in extensionConfigurationPolicy must include:

"extensionConfigurationPolicy": {
    "publisher.extension.settingName": {
        "name": "PolicyName",
        "category": "InteractiveSession",
        "minimumVersion": "1.99",
        "description": "Human-readable description."
    }
}

• name: PascalCase policy name, unique across all policies
• category: Must be a valid PolicyCategory enum value (e.g., InteractiveSession, Extensions)
• minimumVersion: The VS Code version that first shipped this policy
• description: Human-readable description string used to generate localization key/value pairs for ADMX/ADML/macOS/Linux policy artifacts

Adding a new extension policy

1. Add the entry to extensionConfigurationPolicy in all three quality product.json files in vscode-distro (mixin/stable/, mixin/insider/, mixin/exploration/)
2. Update the distro commit hash in package.json to point to the distro commit that includes your new entry — the export command fetches extension policies from the pinned distro commit
3. Regenerate policyData.jsonc by running npm run export-policy-data (see Step 4 above)
4. Update the test fixture at src/vs/workbench/contrib/policyExport/test/node/extensionPolicyFixture.json with the new entry

Test fixtures

The file src/vs/workbench/contrib/policyExport/test/node/extensionPolicyFixture.json is a test fixture that must stay in sync with the extension policies in the checked-in policyData.jsonc. When extension policies are added or changed in the distro, this fixture must be updated to match — otherwise the integration test will fail because the test output (generated from the fixture) won't match the checked-in file (generated from the real distro).

Downstream consumers

Consumer	What it reads	Output
policyGenerator.ts	policyData.jsonc	ADMX/ADML (Windows GP), .mobileconfig (macOS), policy.json (Linux)
vscode-website (gulpfile.policies.js)	policyData.jsonc	Enterprise policy reference table at code.visualstudio.com/docs/enterprise/policies
vscode-docs	Generated from website build	docs/enterprise/policies.md

GitHub Preview Features

If your setting is a GitHub Preview Feature — meaning it's a Copilot/chat feature that organizations can disable via their GitHub account-level policy — you must add a value function that checks policyData.chat_preview_features_enabled.

When to add this flag

Add the chat_preview_features_enabled check when all of these apply:

• The setting controls a Copilot or chat feature (e.g., agent tools, hooks, MCP, auto-approve)
• The feature is in preview or experimental status (typically tagged 'preview' or 'experimental')
• An organization admin should be able to disable it for all users in their org via GitHub account policy

How it works

The chat_preview_features_enabled field on IPolicyData (defined in src/vs/base/common/defaultAccount.ts) is populated from the user's GitHub Copilot token entitlements. When an organization admin disables preview features, chat_preview_features_enabled is set to false.

Pattern

Add a value function to the policy that returns a disabling value when chat_preview_features_enabled === false, and undefined otherwise (to fall through to the user's own setting):

policy: {
    name: 'MyPreviewFeaturePolicy',
    category: PolicyCategory.InteractiveSession,
    minimumVersion: '1.xx', // Must match the first VS Code release that ships this policy.
    value: (policyData) => policyData.chat_preview_features_enabled === false ? false : undefined,
    localization: {
        description: {
            key: 'my.setting.description',
            value: nls.localize('my.setting.description', "Description of the setting."),
        }
    }
}

Key details:

• Always compare with === false, not !policyData.chat_preview_features_enabled — the field is optional and undefined means "no policy data available", which should not disable the feature.
• Return undefined when the flag is not false so the account-level policy does not override the user's setting.
• Return the disabling value for the setting's type: false for booleans, a restrictive string/enum value for other types.

Real-world examples

See chat.tools.global.autoApprove and chat.useHooks in src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/browser/chat.contribution.ts for existing settings that use this pattern.

Examples

Search the codebase for policy: to find all the examples of different policy configurations.

Learnings

• Never hand-edit build/lib/policies/policyData.jsonc (its header explicitly forbids it). If npm run export-policy-data is failing, fix the script — don't patch the JSON. Common cause: running it in the wrong working directory (e.g. main repo instead of a worktree), which silently exports the wrong source tree.