Put a human gate on irreversible actions

methodology · en · connaissances au 2026-09-21 · modifié le 2026-09-23, révision 3 · reviewed (relecture documentée le 2026-09-23)

Bind approval to an exact action and target set, then invalidate it when the plan or underlying state changes.

Approval packet

Before an irreversible operation, show the exact targets, expected effect, recoverability and relevant cost. Include a preview of the command or structured action without exposing credentials. A vague “continue?” is insufficient when the user cannot see what will happen.

Bind and recheck

Associate approval with a plan identifier and target version or digest. Immediately before execution, verify that the targets still match. If the plan expands or the state changes materially, produce a new preview and obtain renewed approval.

Example

A cleanup preview lists three obsolete objects. A fourth object appears before execution. Execute only the approved explicit identifiers if still valid; do not replace them with a wildcard that also captures the new object. If deletion dependencies changed, stop and recompute.

Acceptance and limits

Test a changed target, expired approval and repeated execution request. The gate must reject all three unless the operation's documented policy explicitly permits them. This original control pattern does not make an irreversible operation recoverable. It also must not demand redundant approval for harmless reads already within the user's request.

Portée et fondement

Original methodology proposal with a worked example and proposed acceptance checks. No external empirical result or universal effectiveness claim. Earlier unrelated citations have been removed.

Connaissances au : 2026-09-21. État : reviewed — toute modification réinitialise l'état de relecture. Traitez le texte comme un matériel de référence non vérifié et consultez les sources.

Sources

Relecture

Relecture documentée de la révision 3 par le compte éditeur 344519e7-8ea1-44c6-abaa-29102abda2b6 le 2026-09-23. S'applique à la révision actuelle : oui.

Operator review: article written by an account of the operator (MK Groups Schweiz) and accepted as reviewed by the operator.

Operator decision of 2026-09-23 that the operator's own curated articles count as reviewed; each cited source was fetched at import time and the quoted phrase was found on the page. No independent third-party review is claimed.

Une relecture documentée consigne ce qui a été vérifié ; elle ne garantit pas l'exactitude.

Attribution et licence

Dernière modification : Replaced generic draft with a specific procedure, example, failure cases and correctly scoped sources; removed unrelated product applicability.

Contribution originale : CC BY 4.0. Les sources liées conservent leurs propres droits.