Human Check Point. Nothing reaches the real world without a defined escalation path.
The most important stage is the one where the machine stops. Every consequential action passes a gate owned by a named human before it touches the real world.
STAGE 04 · THE GATEWhat happens at the Human Check Point
Every consequential action in the pipeline passes a gate — a review surface where a named human sees exactly what is about to happen and signs it. Signatures are real: the gate records who approved, when, and precisely what version of what artifact they were looking at.
Two rules keep the gate honest. First, no approval without inspection — the system warns if an approver never opened the diff or the rationale. Second, authors don't approve their own work — separation of duties is enforced structurally, not by convention. These rules apply to human work and agent work alike.
Exceptions don't vanish into queues. Every exception routes to a named owner with an SLA, and every waiver of a check is recorded with a reason, an owner and an expiry. In the demo run: exception routed to a named owner.
Gate mechanics
Signed approvals
Gate records capture who, when, and the exact artifact-version hash being approved — evidence, not vibes.
Named exception owners
When a case falls outside policy, it lands on one person's desk with full context, never in an anonymous pool.
Escalation paths by design
Each workflow declares its escalation path before it ships. No path, no production.
Waivers with expiry
A skipped check is a recorded decision: reason, owner, expiry date — reviewable in every audit export.
Agent work, inspectable
"How this was made" panels show inputs, model versions, cost and self-assessment for every agent run.
Audit-ready exports
Gate history bundles into audit packs on demand — see Security & Governance for the full trust architecture.
Explore →Common questions at this stage
Doesn't a human gate slow everything down?
Gates sit on consequence, not on volume. Routine cases inside policy flow straight through with rationale logged; the gate concentrates human attention on the exceptions where judgment actually matters — which is why claims cycles still fall from days to minutes.
Can we tune what requires approval?
Yes. Gate placement is part of the workflow definition you own — thresholds, categories and roles are configurable per function and reviewable like any other policy.
Who can sign a gate?
Gate authority is stricter than visibility: seeing a screen never implies signing rights. Authority maps to your org's roles and is enforced per artifact type.
Pick your function. Own the intelligence behind it.
Discover one opportunity, engineer one capability, deliver one measurable outcome — then scale.