Built-in rules

Iron Octopus follows a set of rules from the moment you sign up. They’re the practices good software teams rely on: agree the plan before work starts, define done before building, review every change with more care the riskier it is, check the result against what was agreed, and keep a record of every decision. You don’t set anything up. An admin can change any rule for one project or the whole workspace. See change a rule. Rules are grouped into runbooks. A runbook is the whole process for one kind of thing. A gate is a point where the process pauses until conditions are met. A policy is what a runbook applies at a gate.

Runbook	Governs	Where admins change it
Feature runbook	How a feature moves from Planning to Released.	Workspace settings › Runbooks › Feature runbooks
Work-item runbook	What happens when a work item’s implementation finishes: review, rework and approval.	Workspace settings › Runbooks › Work-item runbooks

Feature rules

Gates

Gate	Default requirements	Completes
Planning → Building	The feature has acceptance criteria and work items, and every feature it depends on is released.	When you click Start building.
Building → Acceptance	100% of the work items that aren’t cancelled are done, and no defect found by an assessment is still open.	Automatically.
Acceptance → Released	Every required acceptance criterion is met.	When you click Release feature.

A gate either completes automatically as soon as its requirements pass, or waits for a human decision, where a person sees the evaluated requirements and decides.

Other feature rules

Rule	Default	What it means
Dependencies must be	Released	A feature can’t start building until the features it depends on are released. The other option is Acceptance cleared: the prerequisite reached Acceptance and its required criteria pass. Neither option alone means the prerequisite’s code is merged.
Acceptance assurance	Static review	Criteria are checked by reviewing code and what the work produced. Tests and running-app checks are disclosed as gaps, not passed. See requirements.
Merge on release	On	Release feature merges the feature’s branch into the project’s main branch, and the feature stays in Acceptance until the merge succeeds.
Open assessment defects block Acceptance	On	A defect found by a configured assessment must be resolved before the feature moves to Acceptance.
Assessment repair rounds	3	If configured assessments keep finding defects, automatic repair pauses after 3 rounds for an admin to decide.
Audited waivers	Off	When on, Owners and Admins can waive an assessment requirement or defect, with a recorded reason.
Feature types	All	A runbook can apply to all features, or only to Build, Maintenance or Bug fix features.

Work-item rules

Rule	Default	What it means
Code review	Autonomous AI Worker review	Every work item’s change is reviewed before it’s done. The alternative, No code review, lets committed work go straight to Done.
Applies to	All work-item types	A policy can apply to Coding, Bug-fix, DevOps or Planning items only.
Highest risk Iron Octopus may approve on its own	High	Critical changes always go to a person.
Minimum confidence to approve	Low 95% · Standard 97% · High 99%	Below this, a person decides. Thresholds can’t decrease as risk increases.
Rework rounds before a person decides	Low 2 · Standard 3 · High 4 · Critical 4	Stops work looping in review.
Required criterion is unverifiable	Require human review	A person decides, rather than review approving.
Required verification is blocked	Require human review	As above.
Required criterion is not applicable	Require human review	A criterion can’t be quietly dropped.
A required criterion fails	Always rework	This can’t be changed. A confirmed failure always sends work back.

How risk levels are classified is set out in review and rework.

Rules that always apply

These aren’t configurable:

Automatic retries. A work item that stops before it finishes is retried automatically up to 2 times, then comes to you.
Risk classification. Every change is classified by the same rules, and an override needs a recorded reason.
Revalidation before release. Iron Octopus checks that the feature, its inputs and the rules in force haven’t changed since you approved, before it merges.
A record of every decision. Every gate decision, approval and rule change is recorded with who made it and why.
Released means final. A released feature never changes. Fixes are new work.

What you can change on your plan

On Pioneer, admins can change rules for the workspace and for individual projects, and make workspace rules mandatory for every project.

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Feature rules

Gates

Other feature rules

Work-item rules

Rules that always apply

What you can change on your plan

​Feature rules

​Gates

​Other feature rules

​Work-item rules

​Rules that always apply

​What you can change on your plan

Feature rules

Gates

Other feature rules

Work-item rules

Rules that always apply

What you can change on your plan