ALTER_POLICY(7pg18)

👑 ALTER POLICY 💅

okay bestie, so this is the PostgreSQL 18.6 Documentation page for ALTER POLICY, and it's genuinely one of my faves because it's short and it does exactly one thing. no notes. ✨

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✨ NAME ✨

ALTER_POLICY — change the definition of a row-level security policy 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

ALTER POLICY name ON table_name RENAME TO new_name

ALTER POLICY name ON table_name
    [ TO { role_name | PUBLIC | CURRENT_ROLE | CURRENT_USER | SESSION_USER } [, ...] ]
    [ USING ( using_expression ) ]
    [ WITH CHECK ( check_expression ) ]

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So. ALTER POLICY changes the definition of an existing row-level security policy. that's it, that's the job. 🫶

but like — listen — ALTER POLICY only lets you modify two-ish things:

• the set of roles the policy applies to
• the USING expression
• the WITH CHECK expression

and that's the whole menu. if you wanna change other properties of a policy — like the command it applies to, or whether it's permissive or restrictive — the policy must be dropped and recreated. no shortcuts, no glow-up, it's giving delete-and-repost. 😭

also, to use ALTER POLICY, you must own the table that the policy applies to. ownership check, no cap. 👑

In the second form of ALTER POLICY, the role list, using_expression, and check_expression are replaced independently if specified. When one of those clauses is omitted, the corresponding part of the policy stays unchanged — like, it just chills there, untouched. main character energy for real. 💅

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🦋 PARAMETERS 🦋

• name — the name of an existing policy to alter. gotta exist, bestie, we're not manifesting here.
• table_name — the name (optionally schema-qualified) of the table that the policy is on.
• new_name — the new name for the policy. rebrand era ✨
• role_name — the role(s) to which the policy applies. Multiple roles can be specified at one time. To apply the policy to all roles, use PUBLIC. everyone's invited, it's a party 🌈
• using_expression — the USING expression for the policy. See CREATE POLICY (CREATE_POLICY(7)) for details. 👀
• check_expression — the WITH CHECK expression for the policy. See CREATE POLICY (CREATE_POLICY(7)) for details. 👀

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🍓 COMPATIBILITY 🍓

ALTER POLICY is a PostgreSQL extension. not standard SQL, it's our little thing, iykyk 💜

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• CREATE POLICY (CREATE_POLICY(7))
• DROP POLICY (DROP_POLICY(7))

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lowkey reminder: if you can't change it here, you gotta DROP it and make a whole new one. dramatic? yes. correct? also yes. 💀

mwah — this was PostgreSQL 18.6, dated 2026. go own your tables and slay your policies, bestie 🧚⭐💖