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+# Proposal to add include exclude policy to resource policy
+
+This enhancement will allow the user to set include and exclude filters for resources in a resource policy configmap, so that
+these filters are reusable and the user will not need to set them each time they create a backup.
+
+## Background
+As mentioned in issue [#8610](https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/velero/issues/8610).  When there's a long list of resources 
+to include or exclude in a backup, it can be cumbersome to set them each time a backup is created.  There's a requirement to
+set these filters in a separate data structure so that they can be reused in multiple backups.
+
+## High-Level Design
+We may extend the data structure of resource policy to add `includeExcludePolicy`, which include the include and exclude filters 
+in the BackupSpec.  When the user creates a backup which references the resource policy config `velero backup create --resource-policies-configmap <configmap-name>`,
+the filters in "includeExcludePolicy" will take effect to filter the resources when velero collects the resources to backup.
+
+## Detailed Design
+
+### Data Structure
+The map `includeExcludePolicy` contains four fields `includedClusterScopedResources`, `excludedClusterScopedResources`, 
+`includedNamespaceScopedResources`,`excludedNamespaceScopedResources`.  These filters work exactly as the filters defined BackupSpec with
+the same names.  An example of the policy looks like:
+```yaml
+#omitted other irrelevant fields like 'version', 'volumePolicies'
+includeExcludePolicy:
+  includedClusterScopedResources:
+    - "cr"
+    - "crd"
+    - "pv"
+  excludedClusterScopedResources:
+    - "volumegroupsnapshotclass"
+    - "ingressclass"
+  includedNamespaceScopedResources:
+    - "pod"
+    - "service"
+    - "deployment"
+    - "pvc"
+  excludedNamespaceScopedResources:
+    - "configmap"
+```
+These filters are in the form of scoped include/exclude filters, which by design will not work with the "old" resource filters.
+Therefore, when a Backup references a resource policy configmap which has `includeExcludePolicy`, and at the same time it has 
+the "old" resource filters, i.e. `includedResources`, `excludedResources`, `includeClusterResources` set in the BackupSpec, the
+Backup will fail with a validation error.
+
+### Priorities 
+A user may set the include/exclude filters in Backupspec and also in the resource policy configmap.  In this case, the filters 
+in both the Backupspec and the resource policy configmap will take effect.  When there's a conflict, the filters in the Backupspec 
+will take precedence.  For example, if resource X is in the list of `includedNamespaceScopedResources` filter in the Backupspec, but 
+it's also in the list of `excludedClusterScopedResources` in the resource policy configmap, then resource X will be included in the backup.
+In this way, users can set the filters in the resource policy configmap to cover most of their use cases, and then override them 
+in the Backupspec when needed.
+
+### Implementation
+In addition to the data structure change, we will need to implement the following changes:
+1. A new function `CombineWithPolicy` will be added to the struct `ScopeIncludesExcludes`, which will combine the include/exclude filters
+in the resource policy configmap with the include/exclude filters in the Backupspec:  
+```go
+func (ie *ScopeIncludesExcludes) CombineWithPolicy(policy resourcepolicies.IncludeExcludePolicy) {
+	mapFunc := scopeResourceMapFunc(ie.helper)
+	for _, item := range policy.ExcludedNamespaceScopedResources {
+		resolvedItem := mapFunc(item, true)
+		if resolvedItem == "" {
+			continue
+		}
+		if !ie.ShouldInclude(resolvedItem) && !ie.ShouldExclude(resolvedItem) {
+			// The existing includeExcludes in the struct has higher priority, therefore, we should only add the item to the filter
+			// when the struct does not include this item and this item is not yet in the excludes filter.
+			ie.namespaceScopedResourceFilter.excludes.Insert(resolvedItem)
+		}
+		
+	}
+.....
+```
+This function will be called in the `kubernetesBackupper.BackupWithResolvers` function, to make sure the combined `ScopeIncludesExcludes` 
+filter will be assigned to the `ResourceIncludesExcludes` filter of the Backup request.
+
+2. Extra validation code will be added to the function `prepareBackupRequest` of `BackupReconciler` to check if there are "old"
+Resource filters in the BackupSpec when the Backup references a resource policy configmap which has `includeExcludePolicy`.
+
+## Alternatives Considered
+We may put `includeExcludePolicy` in a separate configmap, but it will require adding extra field to BackupSpec to reference the configmap,
+which is not necessary.