Oversight in motion
Action guard
An action guard is an approval gate placed on a specific type of action according to its risk and reversibility, with the person setting how often approval is required.
Control sits with the person
When to use it
Deleting, sending, publishing, spending, or any write to a system where the previous state cannot be restored.
What it prevents
Consequential actions taken without authorization, and equally the approval fatigue that comes from gating everything.
Approval requiredirreversible
Delete 1,204 records from Customers
ReversibleNo
PolicyAlways ask
Reading a recordNever asks
Where it is used
- Microsoft Magentic-UI: action guards
- Enterprise agent control planes: allow, deny and require-approval policy applied at a gateway, so the agent cannot route around it
Sources
Related patterns: Intent preview · Action audit and time-limited undo