diff --git a/app/_data/kuma_to_mesh/config.yaml b/app/_data/kuma_to_mesh/config.yaml
index a140e6a9f9..cc8489b20c 100644
--- a/app/_data/kuma_to_mesh/config.yaml
+++ b/app/_data/kuma_to_mesh/config.yaml
@@ -73,16 +73,6 @@ pages:
         url: /mesh/concepts/
       - text: Service discovery
         url: /mesh/service-discovery/
-  -
-    path: app/_src/policies/introduction.md
-    title: 'Policies'
-    description: 'Learn how policies in Kong Mesh configure Data Plane proxies by defining rules for traffic behavior, proxy targeting, and merging strategies. This reference covers `targetRef`, directional policies, producer/consumer scopes, and shadow mode simulation.'
-    url: '/mesh/policies-introduction/'
-    related_resources:
-      - text: Policy hub
-        url: '/mesh/policies/'
-      - text: Service meshes
-        url: /mesh/service-mesh/
   -
     path: app/_src/production/deployment/multi-zone.md
     title: 'Multi-zone deployment'
diff --git a/app/mesh/policies-introduction.md b/app/mesh/policies-introduction.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5193b260eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/mesh/policies-introduction.md
@@ -0,0 +1,382 @@
+---
+title: "Policies"
+description: 'Learn how to write and configure policies in {{ site.mesh_product_name }}, including policy roles, targetRef, and merging strategies.'
+content_type: reference
+layout: reference
+products:
+  - mesh
+breadcrumbs:
+  - /mesh/
+
+tags:
+  - policy
+  - service-mesh
+
+related_resources:
+  - text: Policy hub
+    url: '/mesh/policies/'
+  - text: Service meshes
+    url: /mesh/service-mesh/
+
+min_version:
+  mesh: '2.13'
+---
+
+Policies in {{ site.mesh_product_name }} let you **declare how traffic and workloads should behave**,
+instead of configuring each [data plane proxy](/mesh/data-plane-proxy/) by hand.
+They're the main way to enable features like mTLS, traffic permissions, retries, rate limits, access logging, and more.
+
+Every policy follows the same pattern:
+
+* **Target** – which workloads the policy applies to (`targetRef`)
+* **Direction** – whether it controls outbounds (`to`) or inbounds (`rules`)
+* **Behaviour** – the actual configuration (`default`) applied to the traffic
+
+For example, a policy that configures timeouts:
+
+```yaml
+type: MeshTimeout
+name: my-app-timeout
+mesh: default
+spec:
+  targetRef: # Target. Policy applies only to workloads with label `app: my-app`
+    kind: Dataplane
+    labels:
+      app: my-app
+  to: # Direction. Policy applies to outbound listener for `database` MeshService
+    - targetRef:
+        kind: MeshService
+        name: database
+        namespace: database-ns
+        sectionName: "443"
+      default: # Behaviour. Policy sets connection and idle timeouts
+        connectionTimeout: 10s
+        idleTimeout: 30m
+```
+
+## Policy roles
+
+Depending on where a policy is created (in an application namespace, the system namespace, or on the global control plane)
+and how its schema is structured, {{ site.mesh_product_name }} assigns it a **policy role**.
+A policy's role determines how it is synchronized in multi-zone deployments and how it is prioritized when multiple policies overlap.
+
+The table below introduces the policy roles and how to recognize them.
+
+<!-- vale off -->
+{% table %}
+columns:
+  - title: "Policy Role"
+    key: role
+  - title: "Controls"
+    key: controls
+  - title: "Type by Schema"
+    key: schema
+  - title: "Multi-zone Sync"
+    key: sync
+rows:
+  - role: "Producer"
+    controls: "Outbound behaviour of callers to my service (my clients' egress toward me)."
+    schema: "Has `spec.to`. Every `to[].targetRef.namespace`, if set, must equal `metadata.namespace`."
+    sync: "Defined in the app's namespace on a Zone CP. Synced to Global, then propagated to other zones."
+  - role: "Consumer"
+    controls: "Outbound behaviour of my service when calling others (my egress)."
+    schema: "Has `spec.to`. At least one `to[].targetRef.namespace` is different from `metadata.namespace`."
+    sync: "Defined in the app's namespace on a Zone CP. Synced to Global."
+  - role: "Workload Owner"
+    controls: "Configuration of my own proxy—inbound traffic handling and sidecar features (for example metrics, traces)."
+    schema: "Either has `spec.rules`, or has neither `spec.rules` nor `spec.to` (only `spec.targetRef` + proxy/sidecar settings)."
+    sync: "Defined in the app's namespace on a Zone CP. Synced to Global."
+  - role: "System"
+    controls: "Mesh-wide behaviour—can govern both inbound and outbound across services (operator-managed)."
+    schema: "Resource is created in the system namespace (for example `{{ site.mesh_namespace }}`)."
+    sync: "Created in the system namespace, either on a Zone CP or on the Global CP."
+{% endtable %}
+<!-- vale on -->
+
+In summary:
+
+* **Producer** policies let you configure how clients call you
+* **Consumer** policies let you configure how you call others
+* **Workload-owner** policies let you configure your own proxy's inbound and sidecar features
+* **System** policies let operators set mesh-wide defaults
+
+### Producer policies
+
+Producer policies **allow service owners to define recommended client-side behavior for calls to their service**,
+by creating the policy in their service's own namespace.
+{{ site.mesh_product_name }} then applies it automatically to the outbounds of client workloads.
+This lets backend owners publish sensible defaults (timeouts, retries, limits) for consumers,
+while individual clients can still refine those settings with their own [consumer](#consumer-policies) policies.
+
+The following policy tells {{ site.mesh_product_name }} to apply **3 retries** with a back off of `15s` to `1m`
+on **5xx errors** to any client calling `backend`:
+
+```yaml
+apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
+kind: MeshRetry
+metadata:
+  namespace: backend-ns # created in the backend's namespace
+  name: backend-producer-timeouts
+spec:
+  targetRef:
+    kind: Mesh # any caller
+  to:
+    - targetRef:
+        kind: MeshService
+        name: backend
+        namespace: backend-ns # same namespace as the policy (producer rule)
+      default:
+        numRetries: 3
+        backOff:
+          baseInterval: 15s
+          maxInterval: 1m
+        retryOn:
+          - 5xx
+```
+
+### Consumer policies
+
+Consumer policies let **service owners adjust how their workloads call other services**.
+They are created in the client's namespace and applied to that client's outbounds.
+This way, the service owner can fine-tune retries, timeouts, or other settings for the calls their workloads make.
+
+```yaml
+apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
+kind: MeshRetry
+metadata:
+  namespace: frontend-ns # created in the namespace of a client
+  name: backend-consumer-timeouts
+spec:
+  targetRef:
+    kind: Mesh # any caller, but only in 'frontend-ns' since consumer policies are always scoped to the namespace of origin
+  to:
+    - targetRef:
+        kind: MeshService
+        name: backend
+        namespace: backend-ns # different namespace from the policy (consumer rule)
+      default:
+        numRetries: 0
+```
+
+### Workload-owner policies
+
+Workload-owner policies let **service owners configure their own workload's proxies**.
+They are created in the workload's namespace and control how proxies handle inbound traffic,
+while also enabling various proxy-level features such as `MeshMetric`, `MeshProxyPatch`, and others.
+
+Workload-owner policies either have `spec.rules` for inbound traffic configuration:
+
+```yaml
+apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
+kind: MeshTrafficPermission
+metadata:
+  namespace: backend-ns # created in the namespace of a server
+  name: backend-permissions
+spec:
+  targetRef:
+    kind: Dataplane
+    labels:
+      app: backend
+  rules:
+    - default:
+        deny:
+          - spiffeID:
+              type: Exact
+              value: spiffe://trust-domain.mesh/ns/default/sa/legacy
+        allow:
+          - spiffeID:
+              type: Prefix
+              value: spiffe://trust-domain.mesh/
+```
+
+Or only `spec.default` for proxy-level features like metrics and tracing:
+
+```yaml
+apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
+kind: MeshMetric
+metadata:
+  name: otel-metrics-delegated
+  namespace: backend-ns
+spec:
+  default:
+    sidecar:
+      profiles:
+        appendProfiles:
+          - name: All
+    backends:
+      - type: OpenTelemetry
+        openTelemetry:
+          endpoint: opentelemetry-collector.mesh-observability.svc:4317
+          refreshInterval: 30s
+```
+
+### System policies
+
+System policies provide **mesh-wide defaults managed by platform operators**.
+Any policy can be a system policy as long as it's created in the system namespace (`{{ site.mesh_namespace }}` by default) on either a Zone Control Plane or the Global Control Plane.
+
+## Referencing Dataplanes, Services, and Routes inside policies
+
+{{ site.mesh_product_name }} provides an API for cross-referencing policies and other resources called `targetRef`:
+
+```yaml
+targetRef:
+  kind: Dataplane
+  labels:
+    app: my-app
+```
+
+`targetRef` appears in all policy definitions wherever configuration needs to be associated with resources such as `MeshService`, `MeshExternalService`, `Dataplane`, and others.
+
+The `targetRef` API follows the same principles regardless of policy type:
+
+1. `targetRef.kind` must always refer to a resource that exists in the cluster.
+2. A resource can be referenced either by `name` and `namespace` or by `labels`.
+3. Using `name` and `namespace` creates an unambiguous reference to a single resource, while using `labels` can match multiple resources.
+4. `targetRef.namespace` is optional and defaults to the namespace of the policy.
+5. System policies must always use `targetRef.labels`.
+6. When supported by the target resource, `sectionName` may reference a specific section rather than the entire resource (for example, `MeshService`, `MeshMultiZoneService`, `Dataplane`).
+7. `sectionName` is resolved by first matching a section name, and if no match is found, by interpreting it as a numeric port value (provided the port name is unset).
+
+The set of valid `targetRef.kind` values is the same across all policies:
+
+<!-- vale off -->
+{% table %}
+columns:
+  - title: "Field"
+    key: field
+  - title: "Available Kinds"
+    key: kinds
+rows:
+  - field: "`spec.targetRef`"
+    kinds: "* `Mesh`<br>* `Dataplane`"
+  - field: "`spec.to[].targetRef`"
+    kinds: "* `MeshService`<br>* `MeshMultiZoneService`<br>* `MeshExternalService`<br>* `MeshHTTPRoute` (if the policy supports per-route configuration)"
+{% endtable %}
+<!-- vale on -->
+
+## How policies are combined
+
+When multiple policies target the same proxy, {{ site.mesh_product_name }} merges them using a priority-based strategy.
+
+Policy priority is determined by a total ordering of attributes. The table below defines the sorting order, applied sequentially with ties broken by the next attribute in the list.
+
+<!-- vale off -->
+{% table %}
+columns:
+  - title: ""
+    key: num
+  - title: "Attribute"
+    key: attribute
+  - title: "Order"
+    key: order
+rows:
+  - num: "1"
+    attribute: "`spec.targetRef`"
+    order: "* `Mesh` (less priority)<br>* `MeshGateway`<br>* `Dataplane`<br>* `Dataplane` with `labels`<br>* `Dataplane` with `labels/sectionName`<br>* `Dataplane` with `name/namespace`<br>* `Dataplane` with `name/namespace/sectionName`"
+  - num: "2"
+    attribute: "Origin<br>Label `kuma.io/origin`"
+    order: "* `global` (less priority)<br>* `zone`"
+  - num: "3"
+    attribute: "Policy Role<br>Label `kuma.io/policy-role`"
+    order: "* `system` (less priority)<br>* `producer`<br>* `consumer`<br>* `workload-owner`"
+  - num: "4"
+    attribute: "Display Name<br>Label `kuma.io/display-name`"
+    order: "Inverted lexicographical order, that is:<br>* `zzzzz` (less priority)<br>* `aaaaa1`<br>* `aaaaa`<br>* `aaa`"
+{% endtable %}
+<!-- vale on -->
+
+For policies with `to` or `rules`, matching policy arrays are concatenated.
+For `to` policies, the concatenated arrays are sorted again based on the `spec.to[].targetRef` field:
+
+<!-- vale off -->
+{% table %}
+columns:
+  - title: ""
+    key: num
+  - title: "Attribute"
+    key: attribute
+  - title: "Order"
+    key: order
+rows:
+  - num: "1"
+    attribute: "`spec.to[].targetRef`"
+    order: "* `Mesh` (less priority)<br>* `MeshService`<br>* `MeshService` with `sectionName`<br>* `MeshExternalService`<br>* `MeshMultiZoneService`"
+{% endtable %}
+<!-- vale on -->
+
+Configuration is then built by merging each level using [JSON patch merge](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7386).
+
+For example, if you have two `default` configurations ordered this way:
+
+```yaml
+default:
+  conf: 1
+  sub:
+    array: [ 1, 2, 3 ]
+    other: 50
+    other-array: [ 3, 4, 5 ]
+---
+default:
+  sub:
+    array: [ ]
+    other-array: [ 5, 6 ]
+    extra: 2
+```
+
+The merge result is:
+
+```yaml
+default:
+  conf: 1
+  sub:
+    array: [ ]
+    other: 50
+    other-array: [ 5, 6 ]
+    extra: 2
+```
+
+## Metadata
+
+Metadata identifies a policy by its `name`, `type`, and the `mesh` it belongs to:
+
+{% navtabs "environment" %}
+{% navtab "Kubernetes" %}
+
+In Kubernetes, all {{ site.mesh_product_name }} policies are implemented as [custom resource definitions (CRD)](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/extend-kubernetes/api-extension/custom-resources/) in the group `kuma.io/v1alpha1`.
+
+```yaml
+apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
+kind: ExamplePolicy
+metadata:
+  name: my-policy-name
+  namespace: {{ site.mesh_namespace }}
+spec: ... # spec data specific to the policy kind
+```
+
+By default, the policy is created in the `default` [mesh](/mesh/concepts#mesh).
+You can specify the mesh by using the `kuma.io/mesh` label:
+
+```yaml
+apiVersion: kuma.io/v1alpha1
+kind: ExamplePolicy
+metadata:
+  name: my-policy-name
+  namespace: {{ site.mesh_namespace }}
+  labels:
+    kuma.io/mesh: "my-mesh"
+spec: ... # spec data specific to the policy kind
+```
+
+{% endnavtab %}
+{% navtab "Universal" %}
+
+```yaml
+type: ExamplePolicy
+name: my-policy-name
+mesh: default
+spec: ... # spec data specific to the policy kind
+```
+
+{% endnavtab %}
+{% endnavtabs %}