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INFORMATIVEACTIVEDocumentation Governance
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Risk Confirmation Flow

1. Overview​

Related Golden Flow: flow-05-single-agent-confirm-required

In autonomous agent systems, certain actions (e.g., financial transactions, data deletion, external API calls) carry high risk. MPLP uses the Confirm Module to gate these actions, requiring explicit approval from a designated role (human or authorized agent) before execution proceeds.

Workflow Steps:​

  1. Identification: The runtime identifies a high-risk step in the current Plan.
  2. Request: The runtime creates a Confirm object with status pending.
  3. Wait: Execution of the high-risk step is blocked.
  4. Decision: An authorized role submits a Decision (approved/rejected).
  5. Resume/Abort: The runtime resumes execution or aborts the plan based on the decision.

2. Normative Example​

2.1 The Confirm Object (JSON)​

When an agent reaches a step requiring approval (e.g., "Execute Wire Transfer"), the following Confirm object is emitted:

{
  "meta": {
    "protocolVersion": "1.0.0",
    "source": "runtime-01"
  },
  "confirm_id": "conf-8829-x1",
  "target_type": "plan",
  "target_id": "plan-550-abc",
  "status": "pending",
  "requested_by_role": "executor-agent",
  "requested_at": "2025-12-22T10:00:00Z",
  "reason": "Step 3 requires financial authorization for amount > $1000.",
  "trace": {
    "trace_id": "trace-990-def",
    "span_id": "span-step-3"
  }
}

2.2 The Decision Record​

Once the user approves the request via a governance shell or dashboard, a Decision is appended:

{
  "decisions": [
    {
      "decision_id": "dec-441-z9",
      "status": "approved",
      "decided_by_role": "finance-admin-human",
      "decided_at": "2025-12-22T10:05:00Z",
      "reason": "Verified transaction details with vendor."
    }
  ],
  "status": "approved"
}

3. State Transition Logic​

StatusRuntime ActionTrace Event
pendingBLOCK execution of target_id.confirm.requested
approvedRESUME execution of target_id.confirm.approved
rejectedABORT plan or trigger recovery.confirm.rejected
cancelledCLEANUP and exit.confirm.cancelled

4. Implementation Details​

4.1 Blocking Mechanism​

A conformant MPLP runtime must implement a "Gatekeeper" duty that checks for active pending Confirm objects associated with the current plan_id and step_id before invoking any tool or action.

4.2 Evidence Chain​

The Confirm object is cryptographically linked to the Trace via the trace_id. This ensures that every high-risk action in the audit log is accompanied by a valid approval record.