Interactive guide
Add the Right Safety Checks
A workflow team faces two tempting shortcuts: ship after a successful demo without naming failure modes, or require approval for every action. The first leaves risks unspecified; the second can add delay without targeting the consequences that matter. This guide builds controls around concrete risks.
In this example, a queue full of routine approvals can consume attention without explaining which risks a person should inspect. Both outcomes come from the same mistake: treating safety as one dial that goes from off to on. You will build a Workflow Control Plan: a set of distinct controls, each attached to a specific thing that would otherwise go wrong. The lab saves your progress in your browser.
Preview the consequences before acting with Samir.
Inspect proposed changes, permission boundaries, and spending limits. Build a safety plan that makes clear when automation may act, when it must wait, and how work can recover.
Start with a broken answer
Choose the Level of Automation
Chapter 1 of 8 · 14 min
The learning path
Seven controls, and they are not interchangeable. Two of them decide what the workflow may do without asking anyone. Three decide what stops it before it starts. The last two exist for the moment it is already running and somebody needs it to stop.
The controls
- 01Choose the Level of AutomationSet autonomy per action against how bad it is if the action is wrong, not against how sure anything is that it is right.~14 min · exercise
- 02Respect Permissions, Consent, and OwnershipEvaluate five gates separately, and get the asymmetry between adding and removing right.~16 min · exercise
- 03Preview Before Changing Important DataDefine what a preview has to show to be worth anything. A count is not a preview.~16 min · exercise
- 04Decide Where People ApproveApprove the few things worth approving, and use forbidden states for everything else.~14 min · exercise
- 05Add Volume, Spend, and Time LimitsMeter through one gate, defer rather than drop, and publish what the control does not cover.~16 min · exercise
When it is already going wrong
- 06Plan for Stop, Undo, and RecoveryBuild a kill switch people will pull, route failures by category, and show four states instead of a spinner.~16 min · exercise
- 07Test Unsafe RequestsTest controlled requests and inspect whether each expected control response is visible.~16 min · exercise
- 08Capstone: Approve a Safe Automation PlanReview four prepared control examples, run twelve checks against the saved plan, and approve only its current version.~20 min · exercise