diff --git a/src/index.ts b/src/index.ts
index 9f59d07d..87c926e3 100644
--- a/src/index.ts
+++ b/src/index.ts
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ export * from './lib/utils'
 export * from './lib/section-categories'
 export { CreditVocabTerm } from './lib/credit-roles'
 export * from './lib/citeproc'
+export * from './lib/access-control'
 export * from './schema'
 export { migrateFor } from './schema/migration/migrate'
 export * from './transformer'
diff --git a/src/lib/access-control.ts b/src/lib/access-control.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3ba36f97
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/access-control.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+/*!
+ * © 2026 Atypon Systems LLC
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+import { NodeType } from 'prosemirror-model'
+
+import { CommentNode, ManuscriptActions, ManuscriptNode } from '../schema'
+
+/**
+ * Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) policies for manuscript nodes.
+ * Used by manuscript-api to evaluate incoming ProseMirror steps against these policies.
+ */
+
+export type AccessContext = {
+  userId: string
+  actions: Record<ManuscriptActions, boolean>
+}
+
+/** Nodes with restricted access */
+type ProtectedResources = {
+  comment: CommentNode
+}
+
+/** A rule that evaluates whether a subject can perform an operation on a specific node */
+type NodeRule<T extends ManuscriptNode> = (
+  node: T,
+  context: AccessContext
+) => boolean
+
+/** Policy for a single node type */
+type NodePolicy<T extends ManuscriptNode> = {
+  /** can subject add this node */
+  insert?: NodeRule<T>
+  /** can subject delete this node */
+  delete?: NodeRule<T>
+  /** can subject modify attributes:
+   *  - As an object per-attribute rules
+   *  - As a function one rule applied to all attribute changes*/
+  attrs?: Partial<Record<keyof T['attrs'], NodeRule<T>>> | NodeRule<T>
+}
+
+type NodesPolicy = {
+  [K in keyof ProtectedResources]?: NodePolicy<ProtectedResources[K]>
+}
+
+/**
+ * Access policy to manuscript content as node-based.
+ * @example add access policy to citation node based on ManuscriptActions which is resolved at manuscript-api by user role
+ * citation: {
+ *   insert: (_, context) => context.actions.editCitationsAndRefs,
+ *   delete: (_, context) => context.actions.editCitationsAndRefs,
+ *   attrs:  (_, context) => context.actions.editCitationsAndRefs,
+ * }
+ */
+const nodesPolicy: NodesPolicy = {
+  comment: {
+    insert: (_, context) => context.actions.createComment,
+    delete: (node, context) => {
+      const isOwn = node.attrs.userID === context.userId
+      return isOwn
+        ? context.actions.handleOwnComments
+        : context.actions.handleOthersComments
+    },
+    attrs: {
+      contents: (node, context) => {
+        const isOwn = node.attrs.userID === context.userId
+        return isOwn
+          ? context.actions.handleOwnComments
+          : context.actions.handleOthersComments
+      },
+      resolved: (node, context) => {
+        const isOwn = node.attrs.userID === context.userId
+        return isOwn
+          ? context.actions.resolveOwnComment
+          : context.actions.resolveOthersComment
+      },
+    },
+  },
+}
+
+export function getNodeAccessPolicy(nodeType: NodeType) {
+  if (nodeType.name in nodesPolicy) {
+    return nodesPolicy[
+      nodeType.name as keyof NodesPolicy
+    ] as NodePolicy<ManuscriptNode>
+  }
+}
diff --git a/src/schema/types.ts b/src/schema/types.ts
index ce075c16..cf2959fc 100644
--- a/src/schema/types.ts
+++ b/src/schema/types.ts
@@ -238,3 +238,7 @@ export function isNodeOfType<T extends ManuscriptNode>(
 ): node is T {
   return node.type === type
 }
+
+export type ExposedSlice<T, F> = T & {
+  insertAt: (pos: number, fragment: F) => T
+}