{"found":true,"collection":"patterns","library_url":"https://www.grokbotdb.com/library/pat.three-gates","generated":"2026-09-06T05:32:11Z","citation":["Quote the record id and its source_url (or provenance if there is no URL).","Include last_verified or observed_at when present. Do not present an old date as current.","If tier is community and confidence is low, say so. Do not launder it into a fact.","If the database does not hold the answer, say that. Do not invent Grok Bot product claims.","Contradictions are data: when conflicts_with is present, report both records rather than picking a favourite.","Deprecated and removed records stay visible. They are history, not current guidance."],"record":{"id":"pat.three-gates","name":"Source gate, evidence gate, action gate","category":"safety","problem":"Most approval designs gate only the final irreversible action, so a Bot can spend an entire run building on a bad source and a human sees the mistake at the last step, when the work is already wasted.","technique":"Put three gates on a serious workflow rather than one. The source gate asks whether the inputs are the ones agreed. The evidence gate asks whether each conclusion is actually supported by what was gathered. The action gate is the familiar approval before anything irreversible. The first two can be checks the Bot performs and reports; only the third needs a human.","why_it_works":"It moves detection earlier. A wrong source caught at gate one costs one step; caught at gate three it costs the run, and it trains you to approve tired work rather than reject it.","when_to_use":"Any workflow long enough that a bad input is expensive to discover late: research, outreach, reporting, anything that ends in a send.","when_not_to":"A short reversible task, where three gates is more ceremony than the work.","evidence":"reported","attributed_to":"AdiiX","source_url":"https://x.com/adiix_official/status/2095112166579839383","related":["pat.pick-and-publish"],"confidence":"medium","first_seen":"2026-09-03","last_verified":"2026-09-05"}}