Can't stop
The agent keeps calling tools while the human is still discovering the problem.
The control standard for autonomous software
Autonomy needs a brake.
Stop an AI agent mid-action. Inspect what it knows, preserve what it touched, and resume without making the damage worse.
Pause button
Pause / inspect / approve / resume
Human authority is a runtime feature.
01 The hidden failure mode
The risk isn't just hallucination. It's momentum.
Can't inspect
No clean snapshot exists of intent, context, permissions, and completed side effects.
Can't resume
Restarting duplicates actions, loses state, or turns recovery into a second incident.
02 Pause readiness
Can your agent stop cleanly?
Check the controls you already have. The score turns a vague governance promise into an obvious engineering gap.
Agentic Pause / quick audit
5 controls / 60 seconds
Pause readiness score
0/100
Unsafe to scale
Section breakdown
Missing controls
Pause Readiness Report
Autonomy without pause is latency with consequences.
Join the open draft, list a pause-ready product, or bring the standard into your agent stack.
Open standard draft. Sharp control signals, no noise.
03 Open draft 0.1
Four verbs. One control contract.
Declare
Name the pause points, prohibited interruptions, and accountable human owner.
Freeze
Snapshot intent, context, permissions, progress, and every completed side effect.
Inspect
Expose a human-readable state with the controls needed to approve, edit, or abort.
Resume
Continue from the checkpoint without repeating side effects or expanding authority.
The trustmark for agents that know when to stop.
Pause readyAP / draft 0.1
Latest / weekday signal desk
Ideas built to travel.
Draft protocol / 2026-09-01
The Four-Verb Protocol That Could Stop the Next Agent Incident
Pause. Inspect. Decide. Resume. Four ordinary verbs can become an extraordinary control surface for systems that act on the world.Control primitive / 2026-09-01
Every AI Agent Needs a Pause Button Before a Bigger Brain
More intelligence increases capability. A real pause control limits consequence—and gives humans a usable way back into the system.Autonomy without pause is latency with consequences.
Join the open draft, list a pause-ready product, or bring the standard into your agent stack.
Open standard draft. Sharp control signals, no noise.
