# ACT-03 Pre-execution review (Critical)

Domain: ACT Action & Tool Use Controls · HI-AAF v1.3 · Public review · https://humanintel.net/standard/act/act-03

Actions classified as irreversible or high-impact, including financial transactions, deletions, external communications, permission changes, and public publishing, require pre-execution review.

For irreversible actions (deletions, financial transfers, customer-facing communications above a threshold, permission changes, public publishing), the agent does not act unilaterally. A pre-execution review, either by a human reviewer or by a deterministic policy engine, must clear the action before it executes. Confirmation binding across multi-agent chains is governed by MAS-03.

Critical control: a Critical failure precludes HI-AAF Certification regardless of the maturity level achieved on any other control.

## Maturity

- L1 Ad hoc: Controls exist informally; documentation is incomplete; no consistent review.
- L2 Documented: Controls are written down; ownership is assigned; review cadence is defined.
- L3 Operated: Controls are followed in practice; evidence is collected; deviations are tracked. Published criterion for ACT-03: Pre-execution review is enforced for all action categories classified as irreversible or high-impact; review records exist; the threshold and action classification are documented and reviewed at a documented cadence.
- L4 Measured: Control effectiveness is measured against documented thresholds; trends are reported.
- L5 Continuously Improved: Controls evolve based on incident learning; maturity gains are evidenced over time.

## Evidence an assessor asks for

- Pre-execution review is enforced for all action categories classified as irreversible or high-impact.
- Review records exist.
- The threshold and action classification are documented and reviewed at a documented cadence.

## Framework mappings

- NIST AI RMF: MANAGE 2.3
- ISO/IEC 42001: A.8.5
- OWASP LLM Top 10: LLM08
- SOC 2 (TSC): CC7.1, CC8.1
- EU AI Act: Art. 14(4)
- MITRE ATLAS: Impact
- Singapore: MAIGF Operations Management, AI Verify Human Agency & Oversight

Mappings are directional: meeting this control evidences but does not by itself satisfy the external requirement.

## Related

- Cites MAS-03 Confirmation binding across chains: https://humanintel.net/standard/mas/mas-03
- Cited by MAS-03 Confirmation binding across chains: https://humanintel.net/standard/mas/mas-03
- Glossary: Pre-execution review: https://humanintel.net/standard/glossary#pre-execution-review

## Cite this control

Human Intelligence. HI-AAF v1.3, ACT-03 Pre-execution review. Public review edition, July 2026. https://humanintel.net/standard/act/act-03