Safety Gate Pattern

A Safety Gate Pattern is a design pattern that prevents unsafe actions by requiring safety checks before execution.

• AKA: Safety Check Pattern, Safety Valve Pattern, Guard Pattern, Safety Checkpoint Pattern.
• Context:
  • It can typically validate Safety Conditions before operation execution.
  • It can typically implement Fail-Safe Defaults when safety checks fail.
  • It can typically provide Emergency Stop capabilities for hazard mitigation.
  • It can often log Safety Events for incident analysis.
  • It can often support Override Mechanisms with proper authorization.
  • It can often integrate with Monitoring Systems for real-time assessment.
  • It can often enforce Safety Invariants throughout system operation.
  • It can range from being a Simple Safety Gate Pattern to being a Complex Safety Gate Pattern, depending on its system integration complexity.
  • It can range from being a Hardware Safety Gate Pattern to being a Software Safety Gate Pattern, depending on its implementation layer.
  • It can range from being a Static Safety Gate Pattern to being a Dynamic Safety Gate Pattern, depending on its adaptation capability.
  • It can range from being a Single-Point Safety Gate Pattern to being a Multi-Point Safety Gate Pattern, depending on its checkpoint distribution.
  • ...
• Examples:
  • AI Safety Gate Patterns, such as:
    • LLM Safety Gate Pattern for language model output control.
    • Autonomous Vehicle Safety Gate Pattern for driving decision validation.
  • Governance Safety Gate Patterns, such as:
    • Financial Transaction Safety Gate Pattern for payment authorization.
    • Medical Decision Safety Gate Pattern for treatment approval.
  • Industrial Safety Gate Patterns, such as:
    • Manufacturing Safety Gate Pattern for production line control.
    • Nuclear Safety Gate Pattern for reactor operation control.
  • ...
• Counter-Examples:
  • Ungated Process, which lacks safety checkpoints.
  • Risk Pattern, which identifies rather than gates hazards.
  • Monitoring Pattern, which observes without active intervention.
• See: Design Pattern, Safety System, Authorization Control System, Gatekeeping Mechanism, Action Boundary Enforcement, Explicit Permission Protocol, Fail-Safe Design, Safety-Critical System, Emergency Shutdown.

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