Building Approval Gates AI Agents Can't Route Around

agent-architecture human-in-the-loop mastra tool-use ai-agents

Tell an agent “always ask before sending” in the system prompt and the model treats it as a suggestion, not a constraint. Framework-level enforcement is the version that actually holds.

I walk through adding requireApproval: true to a Mastra meeting-assistant agent, then demo the full pause-and-approve flow in Mastra Studio. You’ll see exactly where the enforcement lives and why prompt-based “always ask first” breaks in practice.

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