An engineer reviewing a deployment authorization screen showing Approve & Merge to Production and Reject Deployment options, awaiting human review

Human approval: the merge button still matters

This is part 2 of the Agent production system series. Previous: Eval gates are not optional theater. Constellation node: Human approval. People hear “agent fleet” and picture a fully lights-out factory. That is not what I run — and not what I want. I run a system where agents move the bulk of the work and a human still owns irreversible decisions. The merge button (and its cousins: force-push, secrets, prod infra, public claims) is not a relic. It is a designed control. ...

July 31, 2026 Â· Dave Voyles