Set policies and runtime controls
Governance works best when policy reflects real business impact. Start with a small number of understandable rules, test them with representative actions, and expand only after reviewers can explain the outcomes.
Start with a default posture
Use this as a starting point, then adapt it to your systems and obligations:
| Action pattern | Suggested outcome |
|---|---|
| Known caller performing exact, bounded work covered by the verified request | Allow with recording if policy permits |
| Reversible update with a clear target and recovery path | Allow or review based on policy |
| Sensitive or production action not clearly covered by the verified request | Require review |
| Unknown identity, out-of-scope delegation, prohibited data, or unsafe target | Block |
| Missing context needed to evaluate the requested action | Review or block; do not silently allow |
Give policy useful context
Consistent decisions depend on consistent inputs. Integrations should send stable values for:
- agent and caller identity;
- operation class and intent;
- risk level and data sensitivity;
- systems and resources touched;
- environment;
- delegation scope; and
- relevant ownership or policy metadata.
Do not put secrets or unnecessary payload contents into policy metadata.
Design human review
Do not require review only because an action is a write or carries a high risk label. Require a reviewer when the proposed action goes beyond the verified human request, its target or impact is unclear, or organization policy explicitly requires a person. A useful approval request lets the reviewer see the actor, action, target, risk, reason, expiry, and recovery plan.
Set an explicit timeout. Your integration should stop safely when a request expires, is rejected, or cannot reach the approval service.
Protect data
Use data controls to block, mask, or review supported sensitive entities. Test with sanitized examples that represent the shape of production requests.
The test result is only as good as the context your integrations send. Confirm that each production path supplies the fields the policy expects.
Contain loops and spend
Rate limits, spend policies, and circuit breakers reduce the impact of retry storms, runaway agents, and unexpected usage. Set thresholds below the point where cost or downstream load becomes damaging.
Plan how the team will distinguish a legitimate traffic spike from a broken loop, and define who may restore service after a breaker opens.
Use layered controls
Roll out a policy safely
- Define the intended allow, review, and block cases in plain language.
- Test sanitized examples for each case.
- Start with one low-risk integration and named reviewers.
- Confirm reason details are understandable to operators.
- Exercise rejection, expiry, authentication failure, and service-unavailable paths.
- Monitor the Command Center after rollout.
- Expand by operation class or system, not by an unrestricted global exception.
Next step
Use the Command Center to operate the policy, and connect Flight Recorder when your team needs deeper runtime investigation.