Escalation Thresholds
Escalation thresholds is an AI interface design pattern that defines explicit numeric or categorical lines (dollar amount, blast radius, novelty of recipient, regulatory flags) beyond which an agent must stop acting autonomously and surface a human approval step before execution. This UX pattern pairs with autonomy gradients and handoff flows: thresholds are visible in settings, evaluated before each high-impact action, and when crossed they demote the session from execute to confirm rather than silently continuing. It prevents the failure mode where a user leaves an agent in aggressive mode and a single unusual request causes large-scale or expensive changes without review.
Use Case
Essential for agentic commerce, finance, admin automation, and enterprise agents where unattended execution is acceptable only within a bounded envelope of risk.
Examples in Wild
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Pattern Description:Below threshold — this action can run under your current autonomy policy.
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