Where to put
the gates.
A gate is a cost
A is a place where the agent waits for your go-ahead. Each one catches mistakes, and each one costs you a few minutes of reading and deciding. Put them everywhere and the agent is no faster than doing it yourself.
Developers solved this long ago with code review and change control: small changes go through lightly, risky ones get more eyes. The same idea works for an agent. The of the change decides the gates, not habit.
Place the gates
Predict first: approving every step, or letting the agent run and reviewing afterwards. Which catches more mistakes per hour of your time?
Try each change. A card reformat needs one look. Renaming a measure that seven pages use needs every gate, because one missed reference shows up as a blank tile somewhere you weren't looking.
Auto mode still has a gate
Many people run the agent in for routine work: it builds without stopping, and they review the result. That's a fine choice for low-risk changes, as long as one gate stays. Read the before the , so nothing is saved you haven't seen.
Check: the agent's plan says it will delete a table. Where must your gate be?
The rule, in one breath
Match the gates to what the change can break. One look for small changes, a stop at the plan for anything you can't easily undo.
Write the gates into your instructions, so the agent knows where to stop. "Propose, then wait" is a gate. So is "list the files you changed".
Next: checks pass, so is it right?