Observe Mode
Every Agent has an Enforcement mode: Observe or Enforce.
New Agents default to Observe Mode.
| Mode | What Aethis does |
|---|---|
| Observe | Evaluates policy, records the decision and creates an Action Record. It does not block, hold or modify execution. |
| Enforce | Evaluates policy, then enforces the decision: Allow forwards the call, Require Approval holds it, Block stops it. |
New Agents default to Observe. Observe Mode lets you see what your agents actually do, and what your policy would do about it, before the policy has any consequences.
What Observe Mode does
Section titled “What Observe Mode does”- Evaluates each governed action against the Agent’s Policies.
- Records the decision the policy returned and writes a full Action Record.
- Lets the call continue to the upstream server unchanged, whatever the decision.
What it doesn’t do
Section titled “What it doesn’t do”- It doesn’t block, hold or modify any call. An observed Block decision is not evidence that the call was stopped; the record’s outcome shows what actually happened.
- It doesn’t observe calls that bypass Aethis. Only calls that go through the Agent’s Aethis MCP endpoint are evaluated.
The adoption path
Section titled “The adoption path”- Observe. Route a new Agent through Aethis. It starts in Observe.
- Understand what would be blocked. In Activity, look at the actions the policy would have blocked or held, and the risky actions it missed.
- Fix your policies. Tighten or loosen rules until the would-have-blocked list stops surprising you. Use Evaluate policy to check specific cases.
- Confirm readiness for Enforce. In Enforce mode, Block and Require Approval take effect. Confirm the mode before relying on either decision to prevent execution.
Prepare for Enforce
Section titled “Prepare for Enforce”Treat an Observe-to-Enforce change as an operational change: calls that policy blocks will stop, and calls that require approval will wait for a reviewer. Check the would-have-blocked traffic, reviewer coverage, upstream retry behavior and rollback owner first. See Choose Observe or Enforce.
Counting
Section titled “Counting”An observed action is a governed action. Aethis evaluated it and wrote its record, so it counts as one, the same as an enforced action. See Governed actions.