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Pattern by Knoveya

Per-Action Autonomy

Knoveya

Set permission at the level of an action rather than granting blanket autonomy.

Design intent

Set permission at the level of an action rather than granting blanket autonomy.

When to use

Use this pattern when its control or information directly helps the current task. Start with a real user scenario rather than adding an AI-themed affordance by default.

Example

Permit read-only lookup while gating refunds.

This is an illustrative Knoveya scenario, not a claim about a particular shipped product.

Implementation checklist

  • Define the trigger, visible state, allowed action, and completion condition.
  • A change in action type or scope triggers appropriate review.
  • Cover missing input, unavailable permissions, interrupted work, and partial results where they apply.
  • Keep keyboard focus, labels, and recovery behavior understandable without motion.

Trade-offs

Extra controls or explanations add reading and decision effort. Prefer the smallest presentation that exposes the relevant consequence. Do not display a guarantee, metric, or permission that the underlying system cannot enforce.

Verify

Reproduce the example with synthetic data and deliberately trigger its failure path. A change in action type or scope triggers appropriate review.