Start with read and prepare
The proposed initial workflow allows an agent to read approved sources and prepare a change. Publication is a separate action that requires explicit permission.
This page describes the intended model. It does not claim that the controls are already implemented in a running agent platform.
Four practical levels
| Level | Intended capability | Typical output |
|---|---|---|
| Observe | Read approved site and performance sources | Evidence summary |
| Prepare | Draft a change within an allowed workspace | Brief, draft, or branch |
| Review | Evaluate a specific proposed revision | Approval or requested changes |
| Publish | Release an approved revision | Deployment record |
Permissions should be assigned to the task and enforced by the software around the model. A text instruction on its own is not the control system.
Define allowed paths and prohibited actions
A content task can allow one directory while leaving the rest of the repository unavailable for edits.
The default exclusions should cover secrets, authentication, billing, pricing, legal pages, DNS, and unrelated infrastructure. Changes to dependencies and shared components should also need explicit authorization when they exceed the brief.
The agent should stop when it cannot complete the task inside the boundary, rather than finding a way around it.
Approval belongs to a revision
An approval should identify the actual diff or revision that was reviewed. A changed draft needs another review when the change is material.
The workflow should preserve the evidence, validation output, reviewer decision, and eventual deployment reference together. That makes it possible to reconstruct what was authorized.
Budget and failure controls
The proposed task configuration should include a maximum number of tool calls, model spending limits, a time limit, and a bounded retry policy.
Repeated build failures, missing sources, ambiguous instructions, or exhausted budgets should pause the workflow and produce a useful explanation for a person.
Broader autonomy is optional
Some low-risk changes may eventually qualify for automatic publication after the surrounding controls are proven. That is a separate design decision, not a prerequisite for using an agent.
An agent that reliably prepares good changes for review can already be useful. Removing the approval step is not the only measure of progress.
Try the sample approval step or read audit history and rollback.