Approvals and external actions

Current status: external consequence execution is planned. Gateway health and control are not an implemented Effect broker.

Exact protected operations

An Effect is a typed, idempotent transaction, such as private repository read, model use, authenticated package access, PR creation/update, document publication, or a cloud/Virtus operation. Its request binds actor, Run, candidate, operation, resource, destination, parameter digest, Connection version, budget, reason, idempotency key, and deadline.

Policy returns allow, deny, or a named approval requirement. Prefer an exact github.propose_change candidate over generic Git push; direct push and merge remain separately denyable operations.

Approval, reconciliation, and receipts

Approval binds approver identity and role, decision, reason, policy/request and candidate digests, Connection version, scope, and expiry. Any material change invalidates stale approval. Disconnect, timeout, retry, or missing acknowledgment requires reconciliation; the same operation must not happen twice.

The receipt records the requester, resolved authority version, approved parameters, provider result, redactions, reconciliation state, and disposition. An approved Capsule does not replace normal code review. Some consequences can be compensated but cannot be undone; that limitation must be explicit.

Example: an approved PR proposal uses the chosen patch once, even if the CLI loses its connection before receiving the response.

See effect contract and Gateway flow.