An agentic system needs a goal, current state, tools and criteria for completion or escalation. “Improve sales” is too open; “identify overdue commitments and prepare evidenced actions” can be evaluated.
Observe, decide, act and verify is a useful operational cycle. Verification checks actual state. Proposed actions are not executed actions. Report failures and open work rather than declaring success when a plan runs out of steps.
Permissions by operation
For each operation, specify execute within limits, propose for approval or escalate without acting. Reading an authorized list and sending commercial terms have different consequences within one task.
Consider reversibility, amount, recipient, sensitivity and novelty. Routine external messages may be automated in a validated process; exceptional prices need different controls. Business policy governs approvals rather than a universal ban on external actions.
Concrete approval
Show object, recipient, content and consequences. A vague request to proceed hides the action. Changes to approved content or recipient identity require revalidation according to the procedure.
Enforce actual permission in services. A prompt is not a substitute for access controls, amount limits or identity validation. Approval for one action must not become indefinite authorization for unrelated operations.
Stop and recover
Limit time, steps, cost and scope. Stop for unresolved contradictions, unverifiable tool outcomes or unauthorized actions. Define the escalation owner and information needed to resume.
Record outcomes and changes. Recovery may use supported reversal or authorized correction; sent emails cannot simply be undone. Test failures before expanding permissions and retain a manual fallback.
Worked case
Andina Equipos can read authorized sources and organize cases. Its first pilot prepares follow-up drafts for salesperson approval. It cannot change prices or promise delivery.
Two customer email addresses require identity and validity checks. An ambiguous send response requires checking the send record before retrying to prevent duplicates.
Practice instructions
Goal: prepare follow-up for overdue commitments.
Allowed: authorized reading, date comparison and proposals.
Approval required: exact content sent to a verified recipient.
Excluded: price changes and delivery promises.
Stop for uncertain identity or ambiguous send results.
Report verified execution, outstanding work and stopping reasons.
Your turn
Create a permissions matrix for reading, prioritizing, sending and changing a discount. Define approval information and two stopping conditions.
Show the commented solution
Authorized reads may run; priorities are evidenced proposals; sending requires content, recipient and policy checks; discounts require specific commercial authority. Show the exact action to the approver. Uncertain identity and missing execution evidence justify stopping. Tools enforce permissions.