Approval gate
A hold that pauses a high-risk action until a designated human approves it.
category ▸ Governance
Approval gate, in plain language.
An approval gate is the human-in-the-loop control: when a proposed action crosses a risk threshold, the runtime suspends it in a pending state and routes it to a person with the authority to approve or deny. Execution only resumes on an explicit, recorded decision.
Approval gates are how regulated workflows keep a human accountable for consequential outcomes — a payout, a client communication, a filed return — without abandoning automation everywhere else. The gate is selective: low-risk work flows, high-risk work waits.
How Cortex implements it.
This term isn't abstract here — it maps to a real capability in the runtime. Here is exactly how Cortex enforces or relates to it.
In Cortex, an action that is high-risk or marked requires-approval lands pending_approval and surfaces in an approval inbox. Approve executes it; deny records the decision and it never executes. The hold returns a 409 verdict with the approver's receipt recorded.
Oversight modes decide which actions reach the gate, and the action's own risk policy sets a floor the gate always honors — so the approval requirement cannot be configured away.
Keep building the vocabulary.
These terms sit next to this one in the governed-AI model — follow the thread to see how the controls connect.
Oversight modes
Per-agent autonomy levels that decide whether an action executes now or waits for a human.
Break-glass
An audited override that lets an authorized human force a held action through, with a recorded reason.
Action Fabric
A lifecycle that makes every agent action a governed object: dry-run, propose, approve, execute, compensate.
Governance gate
A single decision point that allows, holds, or blocks a proposed agent action.
See Approval gate enforced, not just defined.
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