diff --git a/policies/rancher/admin.yaml b/policies/rancher/admin.yaml
index 3b2c01a..07b6bca 100644
--- a/policies/rancher/admin.yaml
+++ b/policies/rancher/admin.yaml
@@ -1,21 +1,11 @@
-# Allow the vault deployer to import the rancher plugin and manage its engine
-# (config, seeded service accounts, and roles).
+# Allow the vault deployer to manage the rancher secrets engine: its connection
+# config, seeded (auto-rotated) service-account tokens, and token-minting roles.
 #
-# terraform-vault registers the plugin itself (vault_plugin -> sys/plugins/catalog,
-# a sudo-protected path) and manages the engine via the ranchervaultsecret
-# provider, so the deployer needs catalog access on top of the mount access it
-# already has (sys/mounts/*). Without this, apply 403s on the plugin
-# registration and on rancher/{config,service-accounts,roles} writes.
+# Scoped to rancher/* only. The plugin-catalog grant needed to import the plugin
+# lives under policies/sys/plugins/catalog/ so a code owner of this policy path
+# cannot grant themselves access outside the rancher mount.
 ---
 rules:
-  # Import / register (and deregister) the rancher plugin in the catalog.
-  - path: "sys/plugins/catalog/secret/vault-plugin-secrets-rancher"
-    capabilities:
-      - create
-      - read
-      - update
-      - delete
-      - sudo
   # Engine connection config.
   - path: "rancher/config"
     capabilities:
diff --git a/policies/sys/plugins/catalog/rancher.yaml b/policies/sys/plugins/catalog/rancher.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..139a0b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/policies/sys/plugins/catalog/rancher.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# Allow the vault deployer to import (register/deregister) the rancher secrets
+# plugin in the catalog. sys/plugins/catalog is sudo-protected, so this lives
+# under policies/sys/ where only a sys code owner can grant it — keeping the
+# rancher engine policy (policies/rancher/) scoped to rancher/* paths.
+---
+rules:
+  - path: "sys/plugins/catalog/secret/vault-plugin-secrets-rancher"
+    capabilities:
+      - create
+      - read
+      - update
+      - delete
+      - sudo
+
+auth:
+  approle:
+    - tf_vault
+  k8s/au/syd1:
+    - woodpecker_terraform_vault