Operating pattern

Policy check before action

Check policy immediately before action, then require a permitted next step when the proposed action is changed or stopped.

Use when

A recommendation may be analytically sound yet impermissible when authority is exercised.

Operating contract

Authority, evidence, and stopping conditions.

Job to control: A reasonable recommendation can still violate policy when it is put into action.
Division of work: The pack proposes an action. A policy check returns allow, modify, flag, or block. The pack continues, changes course, or hands off.
Control point: Run the applicable policy at the consequential action and make every intervention return an executable next state.
Evidence retained: Proposed action, policy and version, allow/modify/flag/block result, effect on the action, and exception owner.
Human ownership: Own policy, approve exceptions, and review interventions that materially change the outcome.
Trade-off: A late gate can create rework; an early-only gate can miss changed context. Place it where authority could actually be exercised.

Case sequence

Failure watch

Control intent

Controls that arrive after the fact and packs that continue after an action has been stopped.

Failure modes

Applied in Cadre

Each pack narrows the pattern to a specific financial-services decision and names the seam that remains under human review.

Lending · Spark

Returns approve, decline, counteroffer, or refer within the illustrated credit policy.

Referrals, overrides, and policy exceptions

Financial Crime · Cerberus

Returns clear, block, or escalate after comparing the match and its identifiers.

Unresolved or policy-sensitive matches

Financial Crime · Conductor

Routes a case through triage, investigation, and filing specialists only as evidence warrants.

Failed handoffs, unresolved cases, and filing accountability