Engineering Human Approval Router

Why This Skill Exists

We need this skill because delivery speed must increase without sacrificing correctness. This specific skill directs high-risk decisions to the right humans quickly.

Step-by-Step Implementation Guide

1. Define the scope and success metrics for

   Engineering Human Approval Router

   , including at least three measurable KPIs tied to regressions and brittle release pipelines.
2. Design and version the input/output contract for code changes, tests, incidents, and rollout data, then add schema validation and failure-mode handling.
3. Implement the core capability using reviewer routing policies, and produce priority approval queues with deterministic scoring.
4. Integrate the skill into swarm orchestration: task routing, approval gates, retry strategy, and rollback controls.
5. Add unit, integration, and simulation tests that explicitly cover regressions and brittle release pipelines, then run regression baselines.
6. Deploy behind a feature flag, monitor telemetry/alerts for two release cycles, and iterate thresholds based on observed outcomes.

Metadata

• Skill ID:

  532

• Skill Name:

  u0532-engineering-human-approval-router

• Domain:

  Software Engineering Automation

• Domain Slug:

  software-engineering-automation

• Archetype:

  planning-router

• Core Method:

  reviewer routing policies

• Primary Artifact:

  priority approval queues

• Routing Tag:

  software-engineering-automation:planning-router

• Feature Flag:

  skill_0532_engineering-human-approval-route

• Release Cycles:

  2

Allowed Tools

• read

  ,

  write

  ,

  edit

  for contract maintenance, runbook updates, and handoff documentation.

• exec

  ,

  process

  for deterministic execution, validation suites, and regression checks.

• web_search

  ,

  web_fetch

  only when fresh external evidence is required for claims/evidence inputs.
• Use messaging or publishing tools only after policy approval gates are satisfied.

Inputs (formatted)

name	type	required	source
code changes	signal	true	upstream
tests	signal	true	upstream
incidents	signal	true	upstream
rollout data	signal	true	upstream
claims	signal	true	upstream
evidence	signal	true	upstream
confidence traces	signal	true	upstream

Outputs (formatted)

name	type	guaranteed	consumer
priority_approval_queues_report	structured-report	true	orchestrator
priority_approval_queues_scorecard	scorecard	true	operator

Guidelines

1. Validate required inputs before execution and reject non-conforming payloads early.
2. Run

   reviewer routing policies

   with deterministic settings and trace capture enabled.
3. Produce

   priority approval queues

   outputs in machine-readable form for orchestrator/operator use.
4. Keep routing aligned with

   software-engineering-automation:planning-router

   and include approval context.
5. Tune thresholds incrementally based on observed KPI drift and incident learnings.

Musts

• Enforce approval gates:

  policy-constraint-check

  ,

  human-approval-router

  .
• Apply retry policy: maxAttempts=

  3

  , baseDelayMs=

  900

  , backoff=

  exponential

  .
• Run validation suites before release:

  unit

  ,

  integration

  ,

  simulation

  ,

  regression-baseline

  .
• Fail closed when validation gates fail and execute rollback strategy

  rollback-to-last-stable-baseline

  .
• Preserve reproducible evidence artifacts for audits and downstream handoff.

Targets (day/week/month operating cadence)

• Day: Validate new upstream signals, execute deterministic run, and hand off outputs for active decisions.
• Week: Review KPI focus (

  regressions

  ,

  brittle release pipelines

  ,

  decision drift

  ), failure trends, and approval/retry performance.
• Month: Re-baseline deterministic expectations, confirm policy alignment, and refresh feature-flag/rollout posture.

Common Actions

1. Intake Check: Confirm all required signals are present and schema-valid.
2. Core Execution: Run the capability pipeline and generate report + scorecard artifacts.
3. Gate Review: Evaluate validation and approval gates before publish-level handoff.
4. Recovery: Retry transient failures, then rollback to stable baseline on persistent errors.
5. Handoff: Send artifacts with risk/confidence metadata and downstream routing hints.

External Tool Calls Needed

• None required by default.
• If external systems are introduced for a run, record the dependency, timeout budget, and retry behavior in execution notes.

Validation & Handoff

Validation Gates

• schema-contract-check

  : All required input signals present and schema-valid (on fail:

  quarantine

  )

• determinism-check

  : Repeated run on same inputs yields stable scoring and artifacts (on fail:

  escalate

  )

• policy-approval-check

  : Approval gates satisfied before publish-level outputs (on fail:

  retry

  )

Validation Suites

• unit

• integration

• simulation

• regression-baseline

Failure Handling

• E_INPUT_SCHEMA

  : Missing or malformed required signals → Reject payload, emit validation error, request corrected payload

• E_NON_DETERMINISM

  : Determinism delta exceeds allowed threshold → Freeze output, escalate to human approval router

• E_DEPENDENCY_TIMEOUT

  : Downstream or external dependency timeout → Apply retry policy then rollback to last stable baseline

Handoff Contract

• Produces:

  Engineering Human Approval Router normalized artifacts

  ,

  execution scorecard

  ,

  risk posture

• Consumes:

  code changes

  ,

  tests

  ,

  incidents

  ,

  rollout data

  ,

  claims

  ,

  evidence

  ,

  confidence traces

• Downstream Hint: Route next to software-engineering-automation:planning-router consumers with approval-gate context