# Pattern: Human Approval Gate for Risky Publish Operations

## Symptom
An automation publishes or sends content on behalf of the organization (LinkedIn post, client email, newsletter). A mistake in generated content, targeting, or timing causes embarrassment, compliance risk, or customer impact. Once sent, it cannot be recalled.

## Affected Projects
- LinkedIn content automation
- Cyber Tips Newsletter pipeline
- Email inbox triage agent (if it sends replies)
- Monthly IT newsletter generator

## Root Cause
LLM-generated content is probabilistic and may contain hallucinations, wrong tone, outdated facts, or malformed formatting. Fully automated publishing removes the human sanity check.

## Standard Fix
1. Generate the draft and present it for human review before any publish/send action.
2. Separate "draft" and "publish" stages in the workflow.
3. Require explicit confirmation (button click, message reaction, approval field) for the publish step.
4. Log who approved what and when.
5. Provide an easy cancellation path before the deadline.

## When to Apply
- Any workflow that sends client-facing communications.
- Any workflow that posts to public or branded channels.
- Any workflow where content cannot be retracted after execution.

## Verification
- Draft stage produces reviewable content.
- Publish step does not execute without explicit approval.
- Audit log records approver, timestamp, and content hash/summary.

## Related Patterns
- None yet.
