What is Approval Gate?
Approval Gate is a policy checkpoint that pauses or blocks an AI action until a human reviewer, rule engine, or trusted service approves, rejects, modifies, or escalates it.
How It Works
An Approval Gate is a concrete implementation of control in an agent workflow. It is triggered before an action crosses a risk boundary: sending a message, changing data, spending money, deploying code, deleting content, or exposing sensitive information. A useful approval gate shows the proposed action, evidence, risk category, policy result, and alternatives. It should be designed as part of the workflow, not as a vague manual step after something has already happened.
Key Characteristics
- Pre-action checkpoint: runs before a risky or externally visible action executes
- Policy-backed decision: can use human review, deterministic rules, or trusted approval services
- Context presentation: must show enough evidence for a meaningful decision
- Auditable outcome: records approval, rejection, modification, escalation, and reviewer identity when appropriate
- Workflow continuation: defines what happens after approve, deny, timeout, or escalation
Common Use Cases
- Requiring approval before an agent sends an email or Slack message
- Blocking refunds, purchases, or account changes until policy checks pass
- Reviewing code deployment or infrastructure changes proposed by an AI agent
- Approving export of sensitive reports or customer data
- Escalating ambiguous compliance cases to a domain owner
Example
Loading code...Frequently Asked Questions
How is an Approval Gate different from a guardrail?
A guardrail is a broader safety mechanism. An approval gate is a specific checkpoint that pauses or blocks an action until a decision is made.
Who can approve an Approval Gate?
Depending on risk, approval may come from a human reviewer, a rule engine, a policy service, a domain owner, or a multi-party workflow.
What should happen when approval times out?
Timeout behavior should be explicit. Common options are canceling the action, returning to the agent for a safer alternative, notifying a reviewer, or escalating to another queue.
What makes approval meaningful?
Reviewers need sufficient context: proposed action, evidence, policy checks, expected consequences, risk level, and the ability to reject or modify, not just approve.