Why Policy Comes First
Before automations, connectives, or fancy demos, policy answers: What can the agent see? What can it do? When must it ask? Aligning these three questions helps you avoid slowdowns later.
“Policy is your product truth. If it isn’t explicit and testable, it isn’t real.”
— Margo Lin, Acting CISO (fictional)
The Policy Essentials (Checklist)
- Scope of Access: Data sources, table/field rules, retention windows
- Action Permissions: Read-only vs. write, which tools, and how often
- Identity & Audit: SSO/SAML, per-agent keys, immutable logs
- Human-in-the-Loop: When approvals trigger, who approves, and SLAs
- Safety Nets: Rate limits, tripwires for sensitive terms, rollback plans
A Five-Step Policy Playbook (Numbered)
- Inventory data & tools (who owns what; map risk levels).
- Draft minimal viable policy (MVP) for one workflow.
- Codify tests (policy unit tests; pre-deploy gates).
- Pilot with approvals (collect trace evidence; measure edit distance).
- Graduate safely (auto-approve low-risk paths; keep rate limits).
Common Anti-Patterns
- “Policy as slideware” (unverifiable statements).
- “Approve everything forever” (creates drag; never builds trust).
