Client forwarding policies for zero trust access for applications

Systems and methods include providing a user interface to an administrator associated with a tenant of a cloud-based system, wherein the tenant has a plurality of users each having an associated user device; receiving a plurality of client forwarding policies for the plurality of users, wherein each client forwarding policy of the client forwarding policies define rules related to how application requests from the plurality of users are forwarded for zero trust access; and providing the rules to corresponding user devices of the plurality of users.