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Michael Rishi Forrester

Agentic Covenants

Agentic Interventions Matrix

How do I stop the bleeding now?

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All 15In-agent (empty)Client-side cutoffsServer-side cutoffsIdentityAuthorizationBlast radiusApproval gatingSupply chain

Layers, by what they can actually enforce

  • In-agent (empty) — none

    An agent acting badly cannot be reliably told to stop. Empty for response. Listed for completeness.

  • Client-side cutoffs — fast

    Operator-machine actions. Milliseconds to seconds. Effective if the agent is contained to one host.

  • Server-side cutoffs — authoritative

    Target-system actions. Seconds to minutes. Catches agents and operator hosts that have been compromised.

Showing 5 of 15.

  • Identity at Server-side cutoffs

    Revoke OIDC token at IdP, disable ServiceAccount, rotate IAM keys, attach deny-all IAM policy, invalidate all active sessions.

  • Authorization at Server-side cutoffs

    Apply emergency Kyverno deny-all, replace agent Role with empty rules, attach IAM deny-all, Git pre-receive reject.

  • Blast radius at Server-side cutoffs

    Apply emergency NetworkPolicy default-deny, scale Deployment to zero, force-delete pods, optionally cordon node, block egress at cloud firewall.

  • Approval gating at Server-side cutoffs

    Lock branch protection (revoke bypass perms, raise required reviewers), pause CI/CD, engage deployment freeze, lock GitHub environments.

  • Supply chain at Server-side cutoffs

    Remove poisoned image from registry, deploy emergency Kyverno deny rule on signature, block compromised registry/MCP domain at network/DNS, force redeploy with last-known-good image SHA pinned.