The Policy & autonomy page describes itself as “Legible by design: this confidence × this blast radius × your learned threshold.” Every decision Hive takes can be explained in those three terms.
The kill switch
The kill switch stops Hive acting, company-wide, immediately.- Engage it from the Policy & autonomy page with Kill switch.
- While it is on, every action is forced into shadow mode (simulated, never sent), approvals are frozen, and active learned behaviours drop back to shadow. A banner across the product reads “Kill switch is on. Every autonomous action and approval is halted company-wide”, and the sidebar shows “Kill switch active · everything halted”.
- Resume with Resume autonomy on the banner, or Actions halted — resume on the Policy page.
The autonomy ladder
Every type of action sits on a rung of the safety ladder (shown as Per-action autonomy · the safety ladder). Actions start low and move up only when you allow it.
Even on the top rungs, a small set of overrides always sends an action to a person:
- anything at B4 (money, legal or irreversible);
- anything Hive classifies as irreversible;
- B3 actions below the high-confidence threshold.
Blast radius
The Blast radius section explains the five tiers Hive assigns to every action, from B0 (invisible or reversible) to B4 (money, legal or irreversible). The tier decides both how much autonomy is allowed and who may approve. See Roles and permissions.Money guardrails
Money guardrails · hard ceilings caps what Hive may spend without a person, whatever the rung.
The per-action cap can never exceed the daily cap. Both are set by Owners and Admins.
Circuit breakers
Behind the ladder, Hive runs circuit breakers that trip on their own:
Automatic execution also requires confidence of at least 0.70, and the action’s tier must be at or below the workspace’s tier threshold (B3 by default).
Approvals by role
When a proposal needs a person, it appears in Signals (or inline in Ask, if you asked for it there). Who can approve depends on the tier:
Approvals are bound to the exact parameters that were reviewed and expire after 7 days. If anything about the action changes, it needs a fresh approval. See Review and approve.
The decision matrix
The Decision matrix on the Policy page shows the general priors Hive starts from — confidence band against blast radius, with outcomes Auto-run, Ask first, Escalate, Suggest only and Block. It is a guide to how Hive reasons; the live decision for each action also applies the rung, caps and breakers above.Everything leaves a receipt
Every action Hive takes — automatic or approved — is written to the Audit log with the signal, plan, decision and result. Reversible actions can be undone from there.A sensible starting setup
1
Leave new action types in Shadow or Suggest
Watch what Hive would do for a few weeks before allowing anything to run on its own.
2
Lower the money caps to match your business
The defaults are generous. Many teams start with a per-action cap in the hundreds of pounds.
3
Give approval rights deliberately
Keep B3 and B4 approvals with leads and Admins.
4
Know where the kill switch is
Make sure at least two people can reach it.
Related
Autonomy and blast radius
How Hive earns autonomy.
Review and approve
The approval panel step by step.
Audit log
Receipts and undo.
Security overview
The controls behind the controls.