A five-minute permission rehearsal before letting an agent act
Scope, review, interrupt, record: a short method to prepare any AI agent that controls a computer.
Before connecting an agent to a computer, describe one task precisely. “Find the latest invoice in Downloads and show me its filename” needs different permissions from “rename and move all invoices.” Check these decisions in order:
- Scope: write down the exact device, directory and files the agent may access. Start with read-only access whenever the task permits it.
- Review: for a proposed write, inspect filenames and the expected result before authorising the operation. A broad clean-up instruction should never silently become a deletion instruction.
- Interrupt: test how to revoke access and stop running commands. Stopping a session does not automatically undo past changes.
- Record: verify that a human-readable activity trail identifies the action, time and affected resources without exposing secrets.
This checklist describes what to ask of any desktop-control agent. It is not proof that a specific SteerLatch build already satisfies every check.