Upcoming in AgentFlow4J: Governed Agent Execution

[ahmed-sekka]

We're working on the next major direction for AgentFlow4J: controlled and governable AI workflows.

The goal is simple:
AI agents should not execute actions implicitly.

Upcoming features focus on:

• tool-level permissions
• approval gates
• granular state access control
• runtime governance
• auditability

Planned first steps:

ToolPolicy

Allow or deny tools per agent.

java ToolPolicy policy = ToolPolicy.builder() .deny("shell.execute") .allow("web.search") .build();

ApprovalGate

Pause execution and require human approval before sensitive actions.

Built on top of AgentFlow4J checkpoints + resume support.

text Agent ↓ Sensitive action ↓ Workflow paused ↓ Approval required ↓ Resume execution

StatePolicy

Control read/write access to shared workflow state.

java StatePolicy policy = StatePolicy.builder() .allowRead("customer.summary") .allowWrite("draft.response") .denyWrite("billing.status") .build();

The focus is to keep the model:

• simple,
• composable,
• Spring-friendly,
• and production-oriented.

Not a giant policy engine.
Not autonomous-agent magic.
Just governed execution for real-world AI workflows.

Feedback welcome.