Route Policies

Route policies define the logic for filtering and manipulating routes on IOS-XR devices using Route Policy Language (RPL). They are applied at BGP neighbor attach points (import/export), redistribution boundaries, and other routing protocol interfaces to control route acceptance, modification of attributes such as local-preference, MED, and communities, and route advertisement.

Diagram

Classes

configuration (iosxr.devices)

Name	Type	Constraint	Mandatory	Default Value
route_policies	List	`[route_policies]`	No

route_policies (iosxr.devices.configuration)

Name	Type	Constraint	Mandatory	Default Value
name	String		Yes
rpl	String		Yes

RPL Data Normalization

RPL YAML Formats

RPL can be expressed in two different formats in YAML:

Inline format - Uses escaped newline characters (\n) within a quoted string. This matches how the device stores RPL data in the YANG model. Compact but harder to read for complex policies.
Multi-line format - Uses the YAML literal block scalar (|) to preserve newlines. This closely mirrors the RPL CLI output on the device. More readable for complex policies with conditional logic.

Both formats produce identical results and can be used interchangeably. The normalization layer handles both before sending to the device.

Example YAML formats

Inline format:

route_policies:
  - name: "CUSTOMER_A_IMPORT"
    rpl: "route-policy CUSTOMER_A_IMPORT\n  if destination in CUSTOMER_A_PREFIXES then\n    set local-preference 150\n    pass\n  else\n    drop\n  endif\nend-policy\n"

Multi-line format:

route_policies:
  - name: "CUSTOMER_A_IMPORT"
    rpl: |
      route-policy CUSTOMER_A_IMPORT
        if destination in CUSTOMER_A_PREFIXES then
          set local-preference 150
          pass
        else
          drop
        endif
      end-policy

Sample Configuration:

The following configuration describes how to configure a BGP inbound route policy on a Cisco IOS-XR device via CLI.

route-policy CUSTOMER_A_IMPORT
  if destination in CUSTOMER_A_PREFIXES then
    set local-preference 150
    set extcommunity rt (65000:1001) additive
    pass
  else
    drop
  endif
end-policy

Example YAML Code:

Example-1: BGP inbound policy with prefix filtering and RT tagging.

iosxr:
  devices:
    - name: router-1
      host: 10.10.10.1:57400
      configuration:
        route_policies:
          - name: "CUSTOMER_A_IMPORT"
            rpl: |
              route-policy CUSTOMER_A_IMPORT
                if destination in CUSTOMER_A_PREFIXES then
                  set local-preference 150
                  set extcommunity rt (65000:1001) additive
                  pass
                else
                  drop
                endif
              end-policy

Example-2: BGP outbound policy with community-based filtering and MED (inline).

iosxr:
  devices:
    - name: router-1
      host: 10.10.10.1:57400
      configuration:
        route_policies:
          - name: "PEER_EXPORT"
            rpl: "route-policy PEER_EXPORT\n  if community matches-any CUSTOMER_COMMUNITIES then\n    set med 100\n    pass\n  else\n    drop\n  endif\nend-policy\n"

Example-3: BGP local-preference policy for primary/backup path selection.

iosxr:
  devices:
    - name: router-1
      host: 10.10.10.1:57400
      configuration:
        route_policies:
          - name: "PRIMARY_PATH"
            rpl: |
              route-policy PRIMARY_PATH
                if as-path in TRANSIT_AS_PATHS then
                  set local-preference 200
                elseif community matches-any TE_COMMUNITIES then
                  set local-preference 150
                else
                  set local-preference 100
                endif
                pass
              end-policy

Example-4: AS path prepending for outbound traffic engineering.

iosxr:
  devices:
    - name: router-1
      host: 10.10.10.1:57400
      configuration:
        route_policies:
          - name: "BACKUP_PEER_OUT"
            rpl: |
              route-policy BACKUP_PEER_OUT
                if destination in CUSTOMER_A_PREFIXES then
                  prepend as-path 65000 3
                  set community (65000:666) additive
                endif
                pass
              end-policy

Example-5: OSPF to BGP redistribution with tag-based filtering.

iosxr:
  devices:
    - name: router-1
      host: 10.10.10.1:57400
      configuration:
        route_policies:
          - name: "OSPF_TO_BGP_REDIST"
            rpl: |
              route-policy OSPF_TO_BGP_REDIST
                if tag in OSPF_REDIST_TAGS then
                  set community (65000:500)
                  set med 200
                  pass
                else
                  drop
                endif
              end-policy

Example-6: Simple pass-all policy for iBGP sessions.

iosxr:
  devices:
    - name: router-1
      host: 10.10.10.1:57400
      configuration:
        route_policies:
          - name: "IBGP_PASS_ALL"
            rpl: |
              route-policy IBGP_PASS_ALL
                pass
              end-policy