How Enact Works

The foreman analogy — policies, workflows, receipts, and rollback explained.

The Foreman Analogy

Think of Enact like a foreman supervising an AI carpenter. The carpenter is capable and fast, but needs oversight. When the carpenter says “I want to tear down this wall”:

1. Permit check — Before any tool is picked up, the foreman checks the plans. Load-bearing? Utilities inside? Approved? If not: work stops, written reason recorded.
2. Blueprint — If approved, the carpenter follows exact step-by-step instructions — not just “tear down the wall” but each specific action in order. No improvising.
3. Work log — A signed record of every nail pulled, every stud removed, exact before-and-after state. Cryptographically sealed so it can’t be altered later.
4. Change order — If the carpenter tore down the WRONG wall, the foreman issues a change order. Enact uses the work log to reverse every step and put it back.

The Four Pieces

Piece	What it is	Analogy
Policy	A Python function that returns pass/fail	The permit check
Workflow	A Python function that does the actual work	The blueprint the carpenter follows
Receipt	A signed JSON record of what happened	The signed work log
Rollback	One call that reverses an entire run	The change order + teardown

How They Fit Together

Agent wants to do something
         |
         v
    +----------+
    | POLICIES |  <-- "Is this approved?" (permit check)
    +----------+
         |
    PASS |  BLOCK --> Receipt (denied + reason)
         v
    +-----------+
    | WORKFLOW  |  <-- "Follow the blueprint, step by step"
    +-----------+
         |
         v
    +----------+
    | RECEIPT  |  <-- "Signed work log — what happened, what changed"
    +----------+
         |
    if needed:
         v
    +----------+
    | ROLLBACK |  <-- "Change order — reverse every step using the work log"
    +----------+

Why This Matters

These weren’t bugs — the agents did exactly what they were told. The problem was no permit check, no work log, no way to undo it:

Incident	What Happened	Source
Replit	Agent deleted a production database containing data for 2,400+ executives	Fortune, Jul 2025
Amazon Kiro	Agent deleted an EC2 environment → 13-hour AWS outage	Awesome Agents, Feb 2026
Claude Code	Agent ran rm -rf ~/ — wiped developer’s entire home directory	ByteIota, Dec 2025

Dive Deeper

Connectors

Wrap external systems. Limit what the agent can call.

Policies

Python functions that decide whether a run should proceed.

Receipts

Signed JSON records of every run — PASS or BLOCK.

Rollback

One call that reverses everything in the correct order.