# PRD — Permission Relay · Workstream P

> **Status:** DRAFT for ratification · **Goals:** P1–P3
> **Debate pass 2026-07-09:** panel findings folded — see `DEBATE-FINDINGS.md`. The relay was the panel's densest target; the deltas below are normative.
> **Design origin (historical):** `docs/3-architecture/guard-rails-capability-permissions.md` — the "prepare freely, execute with approval" snapshot. **Not present on `origin/main`** (survives only in the stale `/src/mosaic-stack` clone), so its essential model is folded into this PRD below; **this document is the authoritative, self-contained spec for P.**
> **Replaces:** Hermes `permissions_list_open` / `permissions_respond` relay (Hermes exit prerequisite, NS-13)

## Mission

A human-in-the-loop approval mechanism for agent actions: any capability listed as `requires_approval` is prepared by the agent, queued, and executed only after an explicit human approve — from the Matrix room or the webUI. Today this exists only as a bare `applyGuardRails()` method; Hermes currently fills the gap and must be replaced before decommission.

## Design model (folded in — the authoritative spec, since the origin snapshot is off-main)

**Doctrine — "prepare freely, execute with approval":** an agent may plan, draft, and stage any action without friction; only the _committing_ step of a `requires_approval` capability blocks on a human decision.

**Permission levels (least→most):** `read` → `organize` → `draft` → `execute` → `admin`. A capability grant names a level; `requires_approval` gates the transition into `execute`/`admin` for the capabilities a workspace marks sensitive.

**Grant shape:** `resource:action` (e.g. `email:send`, `git:push_main`, `dns:update`), scoped per workspace and per agent-persona, stored as configuration (profile field) so a user tightens/loosens without a code change.

## Requirements

### Guard-rails engine (P1)

| ID   | Requirement                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| ---- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| P-R1 | Capabilities are `resource:action` grants (e.g. `email:send`, `git:push_main`, `dns:update`) with permission levels (read / organize / draft / execute / admin) per the existing design doc. |
| P-R2 | Each integration declares its `requires_approval` list; grants are workspace-scoped and per-agent-persona.                                                                                   |
| P-R3 | Enforcement sits in the gateway/API dispatch path — an agent cannot bypass it by construction; bypass attempts are audited and denied.                                                       |
| P-R4 | Policy is configuration (profile field), honoring the configurability pillar: a user can tighten/loosen per capability without code change.                                                  |

### Approval queue + chat approvals (P2)

| ID   | Requirement                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| ---- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| P-R5 | A pending approval is a durable queue record: requesting agent, capability, human-readable intent summary, prepared payload reference, TTL.                                                                                                  |
| P-R6 | Approve/deny from the Matrix room (message action or reply verb); the requesting agent is notified of the outcome and proceeds/aborts.                                                                                                       |
| P-R7 | Timeout = deny (fail-closed), with **per-capability TTLs** and distinct terminal states: `denied` / `expired_seen` / `expired_unseen` — agents must not reason about an expiry as a human "no". Deny and timeout leave the system unchanged. |
| P-R8 | Full audit trail: who approved what, when, from which surface (AC-NS-10).                                                                                                                                                                    |
| P-R9 | The main agent (Jarvis) surfaces pending approvals conversationally (J-R13) but approval authority is the human's — Jarvis never auto-approves.                                                                                              |

### webUI surface (P3)

| ID    | Requirement                                                                                                                         |
| ----- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| P-R10 | Pending-approval queue view in `apps/web` with one-click approve/deny, filterable per workspace/agent (depends W3 dashboard shell). |

## Debate-accepted deltas (2026-07-09) — normative

### State machine & delivery (extends P-R5–P-R7)

| ID    | Requirement                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| ----- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| P-R11 | Approval lifecycle is a **CAS state machine on one durable row**: `pending → approved \| denied \| expired_seen \| expired_unseen`, all terminal. Concurrent surfaces (Matrix, webUI, CLI, TTL reaper) contend via compare-and-swap; exactly one wins.                                                                                                            |
| P-R12 | The **prepared payload is persisted in the record at request time** — never a reference to requesting-agent process state (the agent may be dead when approval lands). Outcome delivery is **poll/ack**, not push-only; `approved_unexecuted > N min` raises an alarm.                                                                                            |
| P-R13 | A **consumed-event dedupe table** (shared substrate with bridged-message and wake-turn dedupe — built once, three consumers) makes approval consumption idempotent under Matrix at-least-once replay. Dedupe retention is **checkpoint-coupled**: events older than the durable sync token are dropped before lookup, so pruning never reopens the replay window. |
| P-R14 | Each capability declares `retry: safe \| at-most-once`; a prepare→execute **staleness bound** rejects execution of stale payloads. Re-surfacing an expired item **re-prepares** (new linked record with a rendered machine diff against the original) — never re-queues a stale payload.                                                                          |
| P-R15 | **CLI approval surface** (`mosaic approvals list\|approve\|deny`) ships **with P2** as must-have — the newest infra (Matrix) is never the only approval path. Per-request delivered/seen tracking; TTL/2 escalation via a second path.                                                                                                                            |

### Identity & policy (closes Codex #2/#7)

| ID    | Requirement                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |
| ----- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| P-R16 | **Principal resolution:** every inbound approve/deny maps to a product principal via immutable Matrix user ID + bridge provenance + workspace membership. Unlinked identities and bridged puppets without an account link converse read-only and **cannot approve, butt-in, or trigger external writes**. Fixtures: bridged puppet, renamed user, invited non-admin, removed-member-with-lagging-room-membership — all deny + audit with reason. |
| P-R17 | **Policy snapshot:** every prepared action and card stores an immutable snapshot (profile id/version, grants evaluated). Execution **revalidates against current policy** or fails with explicit `policy_changed`. Profile changes are audited with schema validation + dry-run impact report. Delegated work (subagent, Jarvis-authored card) executes under the **intersection** of originator and executor grants.                            |

### Credential boundary (makes P-R3 true)

| ID    | Requirement                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| ----- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| P-R18 | Raw provider credentials are held **exclusively by the gateway**; agents receive scoped capability tokens; the gateway injects secrets server-side. If the agent runtime can read the provider secret, P-R3 is decoration.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| P-R19 | P1 delivers a **fleet-host credential inventory**: every host-resident credential (SSH keys, kubeconfigs, tool tokens) classified `moved-behind-gateway` or `explicitly-exempt(reason, owner, expiry)`. Enforced by a **continuous scheduled scan** of agent-readable paths (alert on unclassified), registered in the health floor. The clean-host install AC passes with an **empty exemption list**. Break-glass is one standing exempt row (owner: operator; audited post-hoc). |

### Gating defaults & load (closes default-open + human-overdraw)

| ID    | Requirement                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| ----- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| P-R20 | **Default-closed inversion:** `execute`/`admin` capabilities on external integrations require approval **unless** workspace-allowlisted. Third state `unclassified`: a capability with no classification **rejects** at the gate. Classification happens at integration-version activation, scoped to the **capability, not the version** — a security patch bundling one new capability ships same-day; only the new capability rejects until classified. Manifest-less capabilities reject + integrity alert. |
| P-R21 | Rate limits + `max_pending_per_agent_per_capability`; queue depth and human decision latency are exported metrics with thresholds (rubber-stamping guard). Capabilities carry a `deferrable` flag; a declared **away state** pauses deferrable TTLs, batches pings, and **suppresses preparation** of non-deferrable requests (suppressed list swept, priority-ordered and paginated, on return).                                                                                                               |
| P-R22 | Approval summaries render **machine-extracted payload facts unconditionally** (recipient, amount, target host — no tunable similarity threshold); agent prose is secondary. **Canary approvals** are gateway-generated, short-circuited at the gateway (never executable), immediately disclosed after decision, timing seeded outside agent-readable stores; the gated criterion is machine-flag correctness — human catch rate is reported with binomial CI, non-blocking.                                    |
| P-R23 | Every durable table introduced by P declares a **retention class**, linted in CI; pruning jobs are health-floor registered. Minimal mandatory audit envelope: `ts, workspace, actor, correlation_id, stack_version, schema_version` — payloads are typed free-form with pinned, checked-in queries (debate §3.2 disposition).                                                                                                                                                                                   |

## Acceptance criteria

1. AC-NS-10 end-to-end: a `requires_approval` action executes only post-approve; deny/timeout paths verified unchanged + audited.
2. Approval round-trip from a phone Matrix client (Element) in under 3 taps — **and** the same round-trip via `mosaic approvals` CLI with the homeserver stopped.
3. With Hermes stopped, permission flow fully served by Mosaic (feeds AC-NS-11).
4. Crash-consistency: kill the gateway at each named barrier (`before_persist`, `after_approve_before_execute`, `after_execute_before_ack`); zero double-executions, zero lost approvals across the suite.
5. All four principal-resolution fixtures (P-R16) deny + audit; policy-change race (P-R17) fails `policy_changed`, never executes under stale grants.

## Non-goals

- Automated quality gates (coordinator/CI approvals) — different system, already exists.
- Fine-grained LLM output moderation — out of scope; this governs _actions_.

## Assumptions

- ASSUMPTION: the durable queue rides the native Postgres storage service (same substrate as the backlog), not a new datastore.
- ASSUMPTION: routine delivery operations already hard-gated as no-confirmation (push/merge per Mosaic contract) are NOT routed through the relay — the relay is for `requires_approval` capabilities only, so it does not reintroduce routine confirmation prompts.