Approvals & Quotas

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title: "Approvals & Quotas" tier: "3" status: "verified" version: "1.2.0" last-verified: "2026-06-17" commit: "b1c347b1" network-badge: "none" risk-tags:

• "RISK: HIGH"
• "RISK: MEDIUM"

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✅ Approvals & Quotas

All action oversight, budget caps, and system verification checks operate locally under your node boundaries.

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1. Oversight Gate & Approval Queue (Oversight)

1.1 The Approval Queue

The Oversight Queue displays actions that require explicit confirmation before execution:

Action Type	Example	Approval Required?
Read file	read_file reviews.csv	Depends on AUTO_APPROVE_SAFE_SKILLS
Write file	write_file report.md	✅ Always
Execute shell	run_command npm test	✅ Always
Browse web	web_search "market trends"	✅ Always

Interactive Elements:

• [Button] Approve

  • Default state: Waiting.
  • Visible location: Individual tool request cards in the Oversight timeline.
  • Observable side effect: Resolves the backend blocking promise, allowing the tool payload execution (approved).
  • Keyboard shortcut: A (when request card is focused/selected).
  • Missing in build: Always present.

• [Button] Reject

  • Default state: Waiting.
  • Visible location: Individual tool request cards in the Oversight timeline.
  • Observable side effect: Returns a cancellation trace to the agent loop (rejected).
  • Keyboard shortcut: R (when request card is focused/selected).
  • Missing in build: Always present.

1.2 Auto-Approve Safe Skills

• AUTO_APPROVE_SAFE_SKILLS [RISK: HIGH] — default true.

• When active, automatically permits standard read/search actions, queueing only write or shell tool calls.

• [Toggle] Auto-Approve Safe Skills

  • Default state: true (Enabled).
  • Visible location: Security settings panel on the Oversight page.
  • Observable side effect: When active, read-only operations bypass the queue.
  • Keyboard shortcut: None.
  • Missing in build: Always present.

1.3 Oversight Timeline Controls

• [Card] Tool Request Card

  • Default state: Unselected/Pending.
  • Visible location: Oversight timeline scroll area on the Oversight page.
  • Observable side effect: Displays tool invocation details, arguments, and status; enables Approve/Reject buttons.
  • Keyboard shortcut: None.
  • Missing in build: Always present.

• [Metric] Pending Count

  • Default state: 0.
  • Visible location: Tab or section title count badge in the Oversight dashboard.
  • Observable side effect: Dynamically increments when an agent requests a tool execution, and decrements upon approval/rejection.
  • Keyboard shortcut: None.
  • Missing in build: Always present.

• [Button] Approve All

  • Default state: None.
  • Visible location: Oversight timeline toolbar.
  • Observable side effect: Approves all queued operations concurrently.
  • Keyboard shortcut: None.
  • Missing in build: Yes (planned control, missing in current build).

• [Selector] Filter by Agent

  • Default state: "" (Empty filter).
  • Visible location: Top toolbar of Action Ledger panel on the Oversight page.
  • Observable side effect: Filters historical decision ledger items to display only those involving the specified Agent ID.
  • Keyboard shortcut: None.
  • Missing in build: Always present.

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2. Budget Quotas

The dashboard tracks hardware safety and cloud costs in real-time:

• [Gauge] Budget Quotas
  • Default state: 0.0 USD used.
  • Visible location: Upper metrics grid of the Oversight dashboard.
  • Observable side effect: Dynamically reflects real-time cumulative LLM API expenses against configured caps.
  • Keyboard shortcut: None.
  • Missing in build: Always present.

2.1 Budget Settings

Setting	Default	Description
DEFAULT_AGENT_BUDGET_USD [RISK: MEDIUM]	1.0	Per-agent spending cap in USD
Budget enforcement engine	SecurityHub::budget_guard (sec.rs:L31)	Persistent budget governance and metering

When an agent exceeds its budget, a BudgetExhausted error (Glossary#runnererror) is raised and the mission transitions to Failed status.

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3. Swarm Health Monitoring

• [Metric] Swarm Health

  • Default state: Perfect health indicator.
  • Visible location: Center-right of the metrics grid.
  • Observable side effect: Evaluates execution failures and warns of service namespace breakers tripping.
  • Keyboard shortcut: None.
  • Missing in build: Always present.

• [Alert] RAM/VRAM Pressure

  • Default state: Inactive.
  • Visible location: Bottom panel of Oversight dashboard.
  • Observable side effect: Emits amber/red warning banners when system RAM or GPU memory utilization approaches VRAM limits.
  • Keyboard shortcut: None.
  • Missing in build: Always present.

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4. Safe Execution Mode

The Safe Execution toggle in Chat-&-Voice provides an additional layer of control:

• When enabled (is_safe_mode = true), all tool executions require explicit approval, regardless of the AUTO_APPROVE_SAFE_SKILLS setting.
• Useful for high-stakes operations like financial document processing or contract editing.

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5. Local-First Pledge

Important

100% Local-First / Zero Data Leaks.

• All approval decisions, quota settings, and system health metrics are stored and processed entirely on your local machine.
• No local network configuration or administrative telemetry is ever sent to external endpoints.

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→ See Kill-Switches for emergency controls when oversight is insufficient. → See Cost-Monitoring for detailed token cost tracking. → See Configuration for engine limit settings.

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Complete Lexicon: For the authoritative technical breakdown, see the main repository GLOSSARY.md. Every [[Glossary#term|term]] link on this page resolves to an entry there.