agent-guardrailslisted

# Agent Guardrails The guardrail layer is not overhead on the useful part. In production it decides whether the thing survives contact with a real user. ## When to use - Before any agent reaches somebody other than its author - After an incident - Before granting write access to a system of record - Before granting access to a spending key ## Inputs - Reads: `workspace/agents/<name>/brief.md`, `workspace/agents/context/guardrails.md` - Needs from user: what a bad output would cost, who else has access, and which systems the agent can write to ## Workflow ### 1. Write the refusal set What the agent will not do, stated positively as refusals rather than left to inference. ``` This agent will NOT: - Contact any account with an open opportunity - Reference a named customer without a clearance marker - Send anything. It drafts, a human sends - Exceed <n> rows or <n> searches per run - Write to <object> in the CRM - Invent a statistic. Unknown values are marked [unverified] ``` **"Never invent a number" belongs in every refusal set.** A fabricated metric in a customer-facing email is the highest-cost failure mode in GTM agents, and it is the most likely one. ### 2. Install the mandatory pre-checks Things that run before the work, not after. | Pre-check | Why | Cost of skipping | |---|---|---| | CRM conflict check | The account may be in an active deal | A rep's deal disrupted by an automated touch | | Suppression list check | Customers, competitors, do-not-contact | Pros