Human-in-the-Loop Patterns: Approval Gates, Escalation, and Progressive Autonomy

February 22, 2026

Approval-Gate-Design, Escalation-Policy, Risk-Classification, Autonomy-Calibration

Human-in-the-Loop, Approval-Gates, Escalation, Autonomy, Agent-Safety, Risk-Assessment, Destructive-Actions, Confirmation, Trust, Guardrails

Claude-Code, Mcp, Ci-Cd-Pipelines

Human-in-the-Loop Patterns#

The most common failure mode in agent-driven work is not a wrong answer – it is a correct action taken without permission. An agent that deletes a file to “clean up,” force-pushes a branch to “fix history,” or restarts a service to “apply changes” can cause more damage in one unauthorized action than a dozen wrong answers.

Human-in-the-loop design is not about limiting agent capability. It is about matching autonomy to risk. Safe, reversible actions should proceed without interruption. Dangerous, irreversible actions should require explicit approval. The challenge is building this classification into the workflow without turning every action into a confirmation dialog.

Terraform Safety for Agents: Plans, Applies, and the Human Approval Gate

February 22, 2026

Infrastructure

Intermediate

Terraform-Plan-Interpretation, Risk-Assessment, Plan-Presentation, State-Lock-Management, Drift-Investigation

Terraform, Agent-Safety, Plan-Apply, Approval-Gates, State-Locks, Drift, Destructive-Actions, Risk-Assessment, Human-in-the-Loop

Terraform, Claude-Code

Terraform Safety for Agents#

Terraform is the most dangerous tool most agents have access to. A single terraform apply can create, modify, or destroy real infrastructure — databases with production data, networking that carries live traffic, security groups that protect running services. There is no undo button. terraform destroy is not an undo — it is a different destructive action.

This article defines the safety protocols agents must follow when working with Terraform: what to check before every plan, how to read plan output for danger, how to present plans to humans, when to apply vs when to stop, and how to handle state conflicts.