# Creating Amazon Verified Permissions policy templates
Creating policy templates

You can create policy templates in Verified Permissions using the Amazon Web Services Management Console, the Amazon CLI, or the Amazon SDKs. Policy templates allow a policy to be defined once and then used with multiple principals and resources. Once you create a policy template you can then create template-linked policies to use the policy templates with specific principals and resources. For more information, see [Creating Amazon Verified Permissions template-linked policies](policy-templates-create-policy.md).

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#### [ Amazon Web Services Management Console ]

**To create a policy template**

1. Open the [Verified Permissions console](https://console.amazonaws.cn/verifiedpermissions/). Choose your policy store.

1. In the navigation pane on the left, choose **Policy templates**.

1. Choose **Create policy template**.

1. In the **Details** section, type a **Policy template description**.

1. In the **Policy template body** section, use placeholders `?principal` and `?resource` to allow policies created based on this template to customize permissions they grant. You can choose **Format** to format the syntax of your policy template with the recommended spacing and indentation.

1. Choose **Create policy template**.

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#### [ Amazon CLI ]

**To create a policy template**  
You can create a policy template by using the [CreatePolicyTemplate](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/verifiedpermissions/latest/apireference/API_CreatePolicyTemplate.html) operation. The following example creates a policy template with a placeholder for the principal.

The file `template1.txt` contains the following.

```
"VacationAccess"
permit(
    principal in ?principal,
    action == Action::"view",
    resource == Photo::"VacationPhoto94.jpg"
);
```

```
$ aws verifiedpermissions create-policy-template \
    --description "Template for vacation picture access" 
    --statement file://template1.txt 
    --policy-store-id PSEXAMPLEabcdefg111111
{
    "createdDate": "2023-05-18T21:17:47.284268+00:00",
    "lastUpdatedDate": "2023-05-18T21:17:47.284268+00:00",
    "policyStoreId": "PSEXAMPLEabcdefg111111",
    "policyTemplateId": "PTEXAMPLEabcdefg111111"
}
```

**To create a policy template with a policy template name**  
You can optionally specify a policy template name when creating a policy template. The name must be unique for all policy templates within the policy store and prefixed with `name/`. You can use the name in place of the policy template ID.

```
$ aws verifiedpermissions create-policy-template \
    --description "Template for vacation picture access" \
    --statement file://template1.txt \
    --policy-store-id PSEXAMPLEabcdefg111111 \
    --name name/example-policy-template
{
    "createdDate": "2023-06-12T20:47:42.804511+00:00",
    "lastUpdatedDate": "2023-06-12T20:47:42.804511+00:00",
    "policyStoreId": "PSEXAMPLEabcdefg111111",
    "policyTemplateId": "PTEXAMPLEabcdefg111111"
}
```

**Note**  
If you specify a name that is already associated with another policy template in the policy store, you receive a `ConflictException` error.

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