skills/council-human-gate/SKILL.md

---
name: council-human-gate
description: Use when Executive Council work reaches a point where Samuel's direct involvement may be required for authorization, authentication, sensitive or destructive action, external commitment, or a genuinely subjective choice.
---

# Council Human Gate

## Goal
Use Samuel as principal/decision-maker only where human authority or input is actually necessary.

## Before interrupting
Check whether authority is already covered by:
- the current request;
- a canonical active decision;
- an approved budget/teto;
- standing delegation;
- a previous authorization that still covers the same material scope.

If covered, execute. Do not ask again.

## A gate is justified when
- authentication, MFA, CAPTCHA, or account ownership needs Samuel;
- a required personal fact is inaccessible;
- an external write creates a new material obligation;
- financial, destructive, sensitive, legal, clinical, or privacy consequence is not already authorized;
- scope, risk, recipient, cost, or consequence changed materially;
- the choice is genuinely subjective and cannot be resolved from an established preference.

## Gate format
Ask for one decision containing:
1. exact action;
2. material consequence;
3. recommended/default option when appropriate;
4. alternatives only if they materially differ.

Batch related approval points instead of interrupting repeatedly.

## After approval
The authorization covers ordinary technical steps necessary to carry out that exact decision.
Do not re-ask unless scope, risk, cost, recipient, or consequence changes materially.

## Never
- ask for approval merely because a tool call feels important;
- make Samuel repeat a fact already in the Source of Truth;
- ask him to manually transport context the Council can retrieve;
- hide a material consequence inside a vague "continue?" prompt.