DESCRIBE POLICY

Applies to: check marked yes Databricks SQL check marked yes Databricks Runtime 16.4 and above check marked yes Unity Catalog only

Shows the details of a policy as property-value pairs.

To run this statement, you must have the READ METADATA or MANAGE privilege on the target securable, or own it. READ METADATA grants read-only visibility into the policy; MANAGE or ownership is still required to create, edit, or delete policies.

Syntax

{ DESC | DESCRIBE } POLICY policy_name ON { CATALOG catalog_name | SCHEMA schema_name | TABLE table_name }

Parameters

  • policy_name

    The name of the policy to describe. If the policy does not exist on the securable, Azure Databricks raises POLICY_NOT_FOUND.

  • catalog_name

    The name of the catalog on which the policy is defined.

  • schema_name

    The name of the schema on which the policy is defined.

  • table_name

    The name of the table on which the policy is defined.

Result

The statement returns a formatted report. The fields included depend on the policy type. Fields that are not set on the policy are omitted.

Examples

> DESCRIBE POLICY rf ON TABLE datagov.test.orders;

Name                    rf
On Securable Type       TABLE
On Securable            datagov.test.orders
To Principals           account users
For Securable Type      TABLE
Match Columns           has_tag('priority') AS u1
Policy Type             ROW_FILTER
  Function Name         datagov.test.hide_urgent_orders
  Using Columns         u1
Created By              user@databricks.com
Created At              2025-12-31 AD at 19:41:07 UTC
Updated By              user@databricks.com
Updated At              2026-01-01 AD at 22:01:17 UTC

The following example describes an ABAC GRANT policy, which reports the target securable type and the granted privileges:

> DESCRIBE POLICY grant_anthropic_model_services ON SCHEMA system.ai;

Name                    grant_anthropic_model_services
On Securable Type       SCHEMA
On Securable            system.ai
Comment                 Grant EXECUTE on Anthropic model services
To Principals           data_scientists
Except Principals       contractors
For Securable Type      MODEL_SERVICE
When Condition          has_tag_value('ai.model_creator', 'anthropic')
Policy Type             GRANT
  Granted Privileges    EXECUTE
Created By              user@databricks.com
Created At              2026-08-26 AD at 14:02:11 UTC
Updated By              user@databricks.com
Updated At              2026-08-26 AD at 14:02:11 UTC
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