42 messages went out unapproved: fixing our own approval gate
The Task
The rule was simple: nothing goes out until a human confirms it. The rule existed, the gate existed — and the outreach sender read the wrong folder and never consulted it.
What We Built
We stopped sending entirely, made the gate mandatory in code rather than by agreement, and rewrote the templates. Bypassing it is now technically impossible.
Timeline
The investigation took a day and the fix two. Rewriting the templates took longest.
Tools Used
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What happened
Our outreach automation bypassed its own approval gate and sent 42 messages nobody had signed off. Three days, 42 messages.
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The cause
The rule existed and was written down. The gate existed and worked. But one component was written to read the wrong folder — so it never asked for permission. The check was there; nobody had considered that it could be skipped.
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What changed
Sending stopped while we investigated. The gate became mandatory in code: a component physically cannot send something unconfirmed. The templates were rewritten too — what had been going out was weak copy on top of everything else.
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Why we publish this
Selling AI automation while staying quiet about this would be a poor combination. The lesson cost more than the incident: "we agreed not to do that" is not a safeguard. A safeguard is when it cannot be bypassed.
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What it means for you
If you run automation that sends anything outward, check the code rather than the rule. You know the rule. The code may know something else.
What changed
The approval gate was an agreement a component could simply not consult
The gate is mandatory in code — bypassing it is technically impossible
The failure was noticed three days later, after the messages had gone
Sending halts when confirmation has not been given
Key Results
- sending without human confirmation became technically impossible
- templates were rewritten — what had gone out was weak copy as well
- the review is published: selling automation while staying quiet about this would be a poor combination
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