Agent governance: how to set limits and approvals for AI agents

Agents are useful when they know your context and dangerous when nobody defines their limits. Governance is what makes the first possible without the second.

Start with a role

Describe what the agent is for, in plain English. A narrow role is easier to review than a broad one. See Constella AI agents.

Give it the right knowledge

An agent is only as good as what it knows. Ground it in your company memory so its work draws on sources people can inspect.

Set limits

• What it can read
• What it can draft versus send or change
• Which projects it covers

Require approval for what matters

Let low-risk work move quickly and route consequential actions to a person. Humans set direction and stay accountable.

Review outcomes

Check what agents did and adjust roles and limits. The guide on AI agents with human review shows this for small teams.

For larger organizations

Permissions, auditability, and scale are covered in Constella for enterprise and enterprise agents with governance. Controls are detailed under trust and controls.