Policy Templates

Policy templates provide pre-configured guardrail policies that you can use as a starting point for your organization. Instead of manually creating policies and guardrails, you can select a template that matches your use case and deploy it with one click.

Using Policy Templates

In the UI

1. Navigate to Policies → Templates tab in the LiteLLM Admin UI
2. Browse available templates (e.g., "PII Protection", "Cost Control", "HR Compliance")
3. Click "Use Template" on any template
4. Review the guardrails that will be created:
   • Existing guardrails are marked with a green checkmark
   • New guardrails can be selected/deselected
5. Click "Create X Guardrails & Use Template"
6. Review and customize the pre-filled policy form
7. Click "Create Policy" to save

Workflow

Select Template → Review Guardrails → Create Selected → Edit Policy → Save

The system automatically:

• ✅ Detects which guardrails already exist
• ✅ Creates only the missing guardrails you select
• ✅ Pre-fills the policy form with template data
• ✅ Lets you customize before saving

Available Templates

Templates are fetched from GitHub with automatic fallback to local backup.

Current Templates

1. Advanced PII Protection (Australia)

• Complexity: High
• Use Case: Comprehensive PII detection for Australian organizations
• Guardrails:
  • Australian tax identifiers (TFN, ABN, Medicare)
  • Australian passports
  • International PII (SSN, passports, national IDs)
  • Contact information (email, phone, address)
  • Financial data (credit cards, IBAN)
  • API credentials (AWS, GitHub, Slack) - BLOCKS requests
  • Network infrastructure (IP addresses)
  • Protected class information (gender, race, religion, disability, etc.)

2. Baseline PII Protection

• Complexity: Low
• Use Case: Basic protection for internal tools and testing
• Guardrails:
  • Australian tax identifiers
  • API credentials
  • Financial data

Creating Your Own Policy Templates

You can contribute policy templates for the entire LiteLLM community to use.

Template Structure

Templates are defined in JSON format with the following structure:

{
  "id": "unique-template-id",
  "title": "Display Title",
  "description": "Detailed description of what this template protects",
  "icon": "ShieldCheckIcon",
  "iconColor": "text-purple-500",
  "iconBg": "bg-purple-50",
  "guardrails": [
    "guardrail-name-1",
    "guardrail-name-2"
  ],
  "complexity": "Low|Medium|High",
  "guardrailDefinitions": [
    {
      "guardrail_name": "example-guardrail",
      "litellm_params": {
        "guardrail": "litellm_content_filter",
        "mode": "pre_call",
        "patterns": [
          {
            "pattern_type": "prebuilt",
            "pattern_name": "email",
            "action": "MASK"
          }
        ],
        "pattern_redaction_format": "[{pattern_name}_REDACTED]"
      },
      "guardrail_info": {
        "description": "What this guardrail does"
      }
    }
  ],
  "templateData": {
    "policy_name": "policy-name",
    "description": "Policy description",
    "guardrails_add": ["guardrail-name-1", "guardrail-name-2"],
    "guardrails_remove": []
  }
}

Field Descriptions

Display Fields

• id: Unique identifier (lowercase with hyphens)
• title: User-facing name shown in UI
• description: Detailed explanation of what the template protects
• icon: Icon name (must be available in UI icon map)
• iconColor: Tailwind CSS text color class
• iconBg: Tailwind CSS background color class
• guardrails: Array of guardrail names (for display only)
• complexity: Badge showing difficulty ("Low", "Medium", or "High")

Guardrail Definitions

• guardrailDefinitions: Array of complete guardrail configurations
  • Each must be a valid guardrail object that can be sent to /guardrails POST endpoint
  • If a guardrail already exists, it will be skipped
  • Can be empty [] if template uses only existing guardrails

Policy Configuration

• templateData: Object that pre-fills the policy form
  • policy_name: Suggested name (user can edit)
  • description: Policy description
  • guardrails_add: Array of guardrail names to include
  • guardrails_remove: Array to remove (usually [] for templates)
  • inherit: (Optional) Parent policy name for inheritance

Example Template

Here's a complete example for a HIPAA compliance template:

{
  "id": "hipaa-compliance",
  "title": "HIPAA Compliance Policy",
  "description": "Healthcare compliance policy that masks PHI and enforces HIPAA regulations for healthcare applications.",
  "icon": "ShieldCheckIcon",
  "iconColor": "text-red-500",
  "iconBg": "bg-red-50",
  "guardrails": [
    "phi-detector",
    "medical-record-blocker",
    "patient-id-masker"
  ],
  "complexity": "High",
  "guardrailDefinitions": [
    {
      "guardrail_name": "phi-detector",
      "litellm_params": {
        "guardrail": "litellm_content_filter",
        "mode": "pre_call",
        "patterns": [
          {
            "pattern_type": "prebuilt",
            "pattern_name": "us_ssn",
            "action": "MASK"
          },
          {
            "pattern_type": "prebuilt",
            "pattern_name": "email",
            "action": "MASK"
          },
          {
            "pattern_type": "prebuilt",
            "pattern_name": "us_phone",
            "action": "MASK"
          }
        ],
        "pattern_redaction_format": "[PHI_REDACTED]"
      },
      "guardrail_info": {
        "description": "Detects and masks Protected Health Information (PHI)"
      }
    }
  ],
  "templateData": {
    "policy_name": "hipaa-compliance-policy",
    "description": "HIPAA compliance policy for healthcare applications",
    "guardrails_add": [
      "phi-detector",
      "medical-record-blocker",
      "patient-id-masker"
    ],
    "guardrails_remove": []
  }
}

Contributing Templates

To contribute a policy template for everyone to use:

Step 1: Create Your Template JSON

1. Create a JSON file following the structure above
2. Test it locally by adding it to your local policy_templates.json
3. Verify all guardrails work correctly
4. Ensure descriptions are clear and helpful

Step 2: Submit a Pull Request

1. Fork the LiteLLM repository
2. Add your template to policy_templates.json at the root
3. Add your template to litellm/policy_templates_backup.json (keep both in sync)
4. Create a pull request with:
   • Clear description of what the template protects
   • Use case examples
   • Any relevant compliance frameworks (HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2, etc.)

Guidelines

DO:

• ✅ Use clear, descriptive names
• ✅ Include comprehensive descriptions
• ✅ Test all guardrails thoroughly
• ✅ Document pattern sources (e.g., "Based on NIST guidelines")
• ✅ Group related guardrails logically
• ✅ Consider different complexity levels

DON'T:

• ❌ Include credentials or secrets
• ❌ Use overly broad patterns that may have false positives
• ❌ Duplicate existing templates
• ❌ Use custom code without thorough testing

Using Templates Offline

For air-gapped or offline deployments, set the environment variable:

export LITELLM_LOCAL_POLICY_TEMPLATES=true

This forces the system to use the local backup (litellm/policy_templates_backup.json) instead of fetching from GitHub.

Template Sources

• GitHub (default): https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BerriAI/litellm/main/policy_templates.json
• Local backup: litellm/policy_templates_backup.json

Templates are automatically fetched from GitHub on each request, with fallback to local backup on any failure.

Available Pattern Types

When creating guardrails for templates, you can use these prebuilt patterns:

Identity Documents

• passport_australia, passport_us, passport_uk, passport_germany, etc.
• us_ssn, us_ssn_no_dash
• au_tfn, au_abn, au_medicare
• nl_bsn_contextual
• br_cpf, br_rg, br_cnpj

Financial

• visa, mastercard, amex, discover, credit_card
• iban

Contact Information

• email
• us_phone, br_phone_landline, br_phone_mobile
• street_address
• br_cep (Brazilian postal code)

Credentials

• aws_access_key, aws_secret_key
• github_token
• slack_token
• generic_api_key

Network

• ipv4, ipv6

Protected Class

• gender_sexual_orientation
• race_ethnicity_national_origin
• religion
• age_discrimination
• disability
• marital_family_status
• military_status
• public_assistance

See the full patterns list for all available patterns.

Related Docs

• Guardrail Policies
• Policy Tags
• Content Filter Patterns
• Custom Code Guardrails