Rules on paper aren't enforced: turning agent policies into checks that can block
jonah_omninode · reddit · 2026-09-11
The author recounts a real failure: an authorization rule existed in the repo, the checklist asked the right question, and the deployment record had a field for approval — yet a change shipped without it because no code on the live path had to read the answer.
The key insight: this gets worse with agents. A person may see a warning and stop; an agent sees a successful tool response and keeps moving.
Their fix: move repeated rules out of prompts and documents into checks that can block the actual transition. To verify a check works, send a deliberately invalid request through the real entry point and confirm it's refused, then send a valid request and confirm it still passes — until both happen, the rule is only documented. He asks others for examples of rules agents were supposed to follow but nothing enforced.
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