Emergency override authority for agents

Emergency override is a separate, narrower authorization path with explicit activation evidence. An agent should not be able to self-declare unlimited break-glass authority.

01 / The operating case

What changes in a real workflow?

A security agent detects a suspected breach and proposes disabling a tenant-wide integration. Normal policy requires human approval, but the incident may be urgent.

Trace the authority boundary
  1. 01Authority origin
  2. 02Task and grant
  3. 03Current decision
  4. 04Observed outcome

02 / Decision contract

What the executor must check

Define qualifying triggers, who may activate the override, exact target and action, maximum duration, independent logging and post-use review. Keep the executor’s safety and tenant boundaries intact.

InputPrincipal · task · action · target
DecisionGrant ancestry · policy · current state
ResultEnforce · record · verify outcome

03 / Failure and evidence

What goes wrong, and what can be proven?

Failure mode

The agent flags its own request as an emergency and bypasses all policy indefinitely, or an override credential remains active after incident closure.

Evidence to retain

Record trigger source, initiator, incident, grant scope, activation and expiry, each decision, resulting state and reviewer disposition.

04 / Canonical scope

Why this reference stands alone

High-impact approval covers planned actions; this page owns exceptional authority issuance and termination under emergency conditions.

Implementation review

Break-glass lifecycle

Incident I-9 validated → authorized operator activates override O-3 for tenant T, action disable_integration, 15-minute expiry → executor records each use → expiry or closure revokes O-3 → reviewer reconciles state.

Adversarial check

Have the agent set its own emergency flag or use O-3 against another tenant after expiry. Both should be denied without relying on a prompt instruction.

Primary references

Read the underlying material

Architecture discussion

Choose one consequential action and make its boundary explicit.

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