Governed Action
A governed action is a system operation proposed by AI but executed only under explicit controls — scoped credentials, policy checks, and approval gates. Instead of letting a model act directly, the platform records the proposal, routes it for review when policy requires, and executes it with full attribution, so automation never outruns accountability.
Synonyms: governed execution, approval-gated action, policy-gated action, controlled action
A governed action separates deciding from doing. The AI’s role ends at a structured proposal — create this ticket, update this record, issue this refund — with the evidence that justifies it. What happens next is determined by policy, not by the model: the proposal may pass automatically, wait for a named approver, or be rejected. Execution then runs through connectors with narrowly scoped credentials, and the result is written to the audit trail alongside the original proposal and approval. This pattern is what makes it safe to let AI act in production systems: the blast radius is bounded by credentials, the judgment is bounded by policy, and the history is complete.