diff --git a/docs/source/distributions/configuration.md b/docs/source/distributions/configuration.md
index 9548780c6..6362effe8 100644
--- a/docs/source/distributions/configuration.md
+++ b/docs/source/distributions/configuration.md
@@ -385,6 +385,125 @@ And must respond with:
 
 If no access attributes are returned, the token is used as a namespace.
 
+### Access control
+
+When authentication is enabled, access to resources is controlled
+through the `access_policy` attribute of the auth config section under
+server. The value for this is a list of access rules.
+
+Each access rule defines a list of actions either to permit or to
+forbid. It may specify a principal or a resource that must match for
+the rule to take effect.
+
+Valid actions are create, read, update, and delete. The resource to
+match should be specified in the form of a type qualified identifier,
+e.g.  model::my-model or vector_db::some-db, or a wildcard for all
+resources of a type, e.g. model::*. If the principal or resource are
+not specified, they will match all requests.
+
+The valid resource types are model, shield, vector_db, dataset,
+scoring_function, benchmark, tool, tool_group and session.
+
+A rule may also specify a condition, either a 'when' or an 'unless',
+with additional constraints as to where the rule applies. The
+constraints supported at present are:
+
+ - 'user with <attr-value> in <attr-name>'
+ - 'user with <attr-value> not in <attr-name>'
+ - 'user is owner'
+ - 'user is not owner'
+ - 'user in owners <attr-name>'
+ - 'user not in owners <attr-name>'
+
+The attributes defined for a user will depend on how the auth
+configuration is defined.
+
+When checking whether a particular action is allowed by the current
+user for a resource, all the defined rules are tested in order to find
+a match. If a match is found, the request is permitted or forbidden
+depending on the type of rule. If no match is found, the request is
+denied.
+
+If no explicit rules are specified, a default policy is defined with
+which all users can access all resources defined in config but
+resources created dynamically can only be accessed by the user that
+created them.
+
+Examples:
+
+The following restricts access to particular github users:
+
+```yaml
+server:
+  auth:
+    provider_config:
+      type: "github_token"
+      github_api_base_url: "https://api.github.com"
+  access_policy:
+  - permit:
+      principal: user-1
+      actions: [create, read, delete]
+    description: user-1 has full access to all resources
+  - permit:
+      principal: user-2
+      actions: [read]
+      resource: model::model-1
+    description: user-2 has read access to model-1 only
+```
+
+Similarly, the following restricts access to particular kubernetes
+service accounts:
+
+```yaml
+server:
+  auth:
+    provider_config:
+      type: "oauth2_token"
+      audience: https://kubernetes.default.svc.cluster.local
+      issuer: https://kubernetes.default.svc.cluster.local
+      tls_cafile: /home/gsim/.minikube/ca.crt
+      jwks:
+        uri: https://kubernetes.default.svc.cluster.local:8443/openid/v1/jwks
+        token: ${env.TOKEN}
+    access_policy:
+    - permit:
+        principal: system:serviceaccount:my-namespace:my-serviceaccount
+        actions: [create, read, delete]
+      description: specific serviceaccount has full access to all resources
+    - permit:
+        principal: system:serviceaccount:default:default
+        actions: [read]
+        resource: model::model-1
+      description: default account has read access to model-1 only
+```
+
+The following policy, which assumes that users are defined with roles
+and teams by whichever authentication system is in use, allows any
+user with a valid token to use models, create resources other than
+models, read and delete resources they created and read resources
+created by users sharing a team with them:
+
+```
+    access_policy:
+    - permit:
+        actions: [read]
+        resource: model::*
+      description: all users have read access to models
+    - forbid:
+        actions: [create, delete]
+        resource: model::*
+      unless: user with admin in roles
+      description: only user with admin role can create or delete models
+    - permit:
+        actions: [create, read, delete]
+      when: user is owner
+      description: users can create resources other than models and read and delete those they own
+    - permit:
+        actions: [read]
+      when: user in owner teams
+      description: any user has read access to any resource created by a user with the same team
+```
+
 ### Quota Configuration
 
 The `quota` section allows you to enable server-side request throttling for both