You can comment on and edit policies in Drata when the policy is in Draft or New status. Once a policy enters a review or approval stage—such as Needs Approval or Approved—commenting and editing actions are restricted to maintain policy integrity. This guide outlines when actions are allowed, how to manage comments, and how to edit policies using ownership controls.
Prerequisites
To comment on or edit a policy:
The policy must be in Draft or New status.
You can’t add comments or make edits when a policy is in Needs Approval, Approved, or other restricted statuses.
Only the Policy Owner can move a policy back to Draft or reassign ownership to another user for collaboration.
Add a Comment to a Policy
You can only add comments in Draft or New status.
Open the policy in the Policy Center page.
Confirm the policy is in Draft or New status.
Highlight the relevant text.
Select the comment icon.
Enter your comment and submit.
Comments are disabled in all other statuses to preserve the integrity of in-review or approved policies.
Comment Retention
Comments are preserved when a policy changes status.
Moving a policy from Approved or Needs Approval back to Draft does not delete existing comments.
Note: Comments are not visible to users in My Drata.
This helps maintain a complete feedback history during updates and revisions.
Edit a Policy
Policies can only be edited in Draft or New status.
If the policy is locked (for example, in Needs Approval or Approved), follow these steps:
The Policy Owner moves the policy back to Draft.
Make the required edits.
Republish the policy when complete.
The Policy Owner can temporarily assign ownership to another user to complete edits, then reassign it afterward.