How it works

A gate between every step that acts

A workflow in Decionis Auto looks like one you know: a trigger, conditions and steps. The difference is the gate. Before any step changes something outside Decionis Auto, the Decionis Protocol decides it: ALLOW, ESCALATE or BLOCK.

Decionis Auto Planned

The workflow

Five parts, one rule

Trigger: What starts the workflow: a webhook, a schedule, an event or an MCP call. Exactly one, always first.
Condition and branch: Plain rules that route the run, such as “refund is over $500.00” or “card or store credit”.
Approval: A named role decides, with a passkey. It says who is asked and what happens if nobody answers.
Step: An action in another system: a refund, a payout, a deploy. Its footer names the guardrail it runs under.
The gate: Drawn across the connector into every step that acts, labelled with the policy it checks. You see the guardrail before the step ever runs.

Trigger
Refund requested in Shopify
1
Any order
Condition
Refund is over $500.00
2
and the customer has fewer than 2 orders
Approval
Ask a Finance lead
3
Approve with a passkey · expires in 24 h, then decline
The gate checks Gate · refunds.v3
Step
Refund in Stripe
4
Amount from step 1 · runs once
Runs under refunds.v3Shadow

Illustration of a planned workflow. The step is in shadow, so it records what it would do.

Decisions

Three verdicts, and each one is a word

The verdict is never only a colour. In shadow, the same verdicts read “would”, on a dashed stamp.

What each verdict does to a step, enforced and in shadow
Enforced	What happens	In shadow
Allow	The step runs once, exactly as decided.	Would allow
Escalate	The run waits for a named person, who sees the reason and the evidence.	Would escalate
Block	The step stops. Nothing reaches the other system, and you are told why.	Would block

Approvals

An ESCALATE is a person and a reason

When your policy asks for a person, the approver gets the amount, why it stopped, the evidence and two clear choices, and confirms with a passkey through Presence.

Waiting on you · expires in 23 hEscalate

Approve the $640.00 refund for order #10482?

Why it stopped: Over the $500.00 limit in refunds.v3, and this is the customer’s first order.
Evidence: Ticket 88213 · 2 photos
If you approve: $640.00 goes back to the card ending 4242 through Stripe, once.

You confirm with your passkey.

The run, step by step

09:02:11
Refund requested
Shopify · order #10482 · $640.00
09:02:11
Gate · refunds.v3
Over $500.00 and a first-time customer. Sent to a Finance lead.
Escalate
09:14:40
Approved by a Finance lead
Confirmed with a passkey · 12 min after the request
09:14:41
Gate · refunds.v3
Approval on record. The refund may run once.
Allow
09:14:43
Refunded in Stripe
$640.00 to the card ending 4242
09:14:43
Signed record ready
Every step, verdict and approval

Illustration. The names, amounts and times are examples.

Credentials

Steps run on your gateway, with your credentials

Each step that acts runs on your own Decionis gateway, which holds the credential for the system it calls. The workflow names the credential; it never sees or stores its value.

Security and evidence covers signed records, credentials and shadow runs in more detail.

Automations you can answer for.

Tell us which automation you have to answer for. In the private beta you route its steps through your own gateway from the tool you use today, and move to Decionis Auto when it opens.

Join the private beta

Decionis Auto PlannedYour existing tool Private beta