You do not need a long document, but you do need a written one. A one or two page open source policy that covers approval, inventory, licenses, updates and end of life answers most customer questions and gives your engineers a rule to point to.
What a policy is for
A policy turns "we try to be careful" into something a customer can read and an auditor can test. NIST SP 800-218 asks producers to define the requirements that acquired open source components must meet and verify compliance through the component life cycle (task PW.4.4). A written policy is how you define those requirements.
It also protects engineers. When a customer asks "can you add this library?" the policy gives a neutral answer.
The six sections to include
| Section | One line it should settle |
|---|---|
| Approval | Who can add a new dependency and what is checked first |
| Inventory | Where the list of components lives and how often it updates |
| Licenses | Which license families are allowed, which need review |
| Vulnerabilities | How advisories are triaged and who decides timing |
| Updates | How and when components are upgraded |
| End of life | What happens when a component is no longer maintained |
Keep each section to a few sentences. Name an owner role, not a person.
Wording that survives a follow-up question
Prefer verbs you can prove. "Dependencies are reviewed before first use" is testable. "Dependencies are carefully vetted" is not.
Avoid fixed time promises you cannot meet. If your policy says critical issues are fixed in 48 hours and the logs show five days, the policy becomes evidence against you. Use ranges tied to severity and say how exceptions are recorded.
How to answer when the customer asks "do you have one?"
Say yes, give the title and the last review date, and offer a summary. If it does not exist yet, say a policy is being drafted, give a date, and describe the practice you follow today. Do not describe a draft as approved.
The post on audit readiness for open source usage policies goes deeper on proving the policy is followed.
Rolling it out
A policy nobody reads does not help. Present it to engineering in a short session, link it from the pull request template and add a line to onboarding. Point to specific rules when decisions come up. When a rule causes friction, change the rule through the review process rather than letting people route around it.
Try it yourself
Click through it at your own pace, or open it full screen.
Click through the gate and see how a written rule becomes a pull request check. A policy that a pipeline enforces is easier to defend than one that lives in a wiki.
Safeguard supports policies, gates and guardrails, so the written rule can be applied automatically to pull requests.
Quick check
How often should the policy be reviewed?
At least yearly, and after any incident that exposed a gap. Record the date in the document.
Can the policy be a section of our secure development policy?
Yes. What matters is that the six topics are covered and that a customer can be shown the text.
Sources
Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.
