Escalation path

The defined route a decision takes when it exceeds the authority, competence, or confidence of the person at a checkpoint, specifying trigger, named destination, timebox, safe default, and logging. The safe default is what the protocol does when an escalation is not resolved within its timebox, almost always declining the irreversible action, so a missed escalation fails toward safety.

A deliberate, recorded mechanism for granting an agent access beyond its scoped default, naming who approved it, what specific task step justified it, and whether the grant is time-bound. Per Section 3H, named directly in the framework's own authorization guidance (MGF pp.23 to 24) as the legitimate counterpart to a least-privilege default, distinct from unrecorded access drift.

The defined chain of fallback approvers and a timeout an authorization request follows when the primary human approver does not respond, ending in a halt rather than an automatic approval if no one responds. Prevents a human-must-authorize gate from becoming a single point of failure or, worse, a pressure to auto-approve.

The defined mechanism a governance framework uses to resolve a disagreement between a Layer 3 operational owner and the Layer 2 governance committee, consisting of a single named escalation owner (matched to the type of disagreement) and a target response time, with the resolution logged for future reference.

The sequence of tools this topic points toward if a concern grows beyond what visibility alone can address: power of attorney review (Topic 8.3), guardianship review (Topic 8.4), or a report to Adult Protective Services (Topic 8.6). (see Topic 8.3) (see Topic 8.4) (see Topic 8.6)