> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tenbyte.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Access Rules Overview

> Set up access control for your Tenbyte CDN distribution with country, IP, referrer, and token-based restrictions.

Access rules let you control who can fetch content from your Tenbyte CDN distribution. Each rule scopes a set of policies (country, IP, referrer, and token authentication) to a path prefix or regex pattern, so different parts of your distribution can have different protections.

## How access rules work

* A distribution can have multiple access rules.
* Each rule targets a URL pattern (prefix or regex).
* Within a rule, you can enable any combination of the four policies below.
* Requests that match the pattern must satisfy every enabled policy on that rule.

| Policy                                                                                | Use case                                             |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| [Country Access Policy](/docs/cdn/distributions/access-rules/country-access-policy)   | Geo-block or geo-allow regions                       |
| [IP Access Policy](/docs/cdn/distributions/access-rules/ip-access-policy)             | Allow or block specific IPs / CIDR ranges            |
| [Referrer Access Policy](/docs/cdn/distributions/access-rules/referrer-access-policy) | Stop hotlinking from other domains                   |
| [Token Authentication](/docs/cdn/distributions/access-rules/token-authentication)     | Issue time-limited signed URLs for protected content |

## General Info

The **General Info** section defines the rule name, type, and matching pattern.

<Frame caption="General information">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/vidinfra/ejWP9ITFPl3vu2w-/images/cdn/24.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=ejWP9ITFPl3vu2w-&q=85&s=7038cc4aa00b2280dce274128c0d2c14" alt="Info" width="912" height="372" data-path="images/cdn/24.png" />
</Frame>

* **Rule Name** — unique identifier for the rule.
* **Rule Type** — how the match pattern is interpreted:
  1. **Prefix** — applies to URLs that begin with the pattern.
  2. **Regex** — applies to URLs matching the regular expression.
* **Match Pattern** — the path or pattern the rule applies to.

<Note>
  Spaces are not allowed, the pattern cannot start with `*`, and it must start with `/`.
</Note>

## Create an access rule

1. Open **CDN** → **Distributions** → select your distribution.
2. Go to **Access Rules** → **Add Access Rules**.
3. Fill in **Rule Name**, **Rule Type**, and **Match Pattern**.
4. Toggle on the policies you want to enforce and configure each.
5. Click **Create Access Rules**.