# Approval Gate

> A product control that pauses an AI workflow until a person or policy approves the next action.

- Category: AI-Native Product
- Stage: Rising
- Also called: Confirmation gate, Permission checkpoint
- Canonical: https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/approval-gate

## Plain English

The agent must ask before doing the risky thing.

## Example

Before deleting records, an agent presents the diff and requires explicit confirmation.

## Why it matters

Approval gates are one of the clearest UI patterns for making agentic systems trustworthy.

## Related

- [Human-in-the-Loop](https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/human-in-the-loop)
- [Guardrails](https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/guardrails)
- [Autonomy Level](https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/autonomy-level)

## Sources

- [Anthropic: Building Effective Agents](https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/building-effective-agents)
- [OWASP Agentic AI Top 10](https://genai.owasp.org/2025/12/09/owasp-top-10-for-agentic-applications-the-benchmark-for-agentic-security-in-the-age-of-autonomous-ai/)