Where the gates sit is the org chart

At this stage, there is a decision that seems technical but is the most organizational one in the entire training: where a human needs to approve before the agent proceeds.

Each gate says something about trust and risk. Taken together, the gates draw the company in practice: who decides what, at what moment, and within what timeframe.

You can get it wrong in both directions. A gate on everything turns approval into a rubber stamp: someone approving 400 letters a day is not reading any of them, and the gate becomes expensive theater. No gates at all hands the agent decisions no one authorized.

There is only one criterion: put a gate where the error is irreversible or costly. Sending a letter to the sponsor is irreversible; generating a draft is not. The gate is only possible if the two actions are in different endpoints, and that separation is an architecture decision made much earlier.

Every gate needs a named owner and a deadline. Without a deadline, it becomes a queue.