> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.flokitai.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Set safe guardrails before automation

> Configure spend caps, approval rules, exclusions, confidence thresholds, and rollback triggers before enabling execution.

Guardrails are the operating rules that keep FloKit recommendations and automation aligned with your business constraints. They should be configured before write access is enabled and reviewed regularly as campaigns, budgets, and strategy change.

Use this guide before approving recommendations at scale or allowing FloKit to execute changes in connected ad platforms.

## Guardrail principles

* Start restrictive, then expand scope as trust increases.
* Put hard limits around spend, excluded campaigns, markets, and action types.
* Require human approval for material budget, pricing, offer, or paywall changes.
* Define rollback triggers before an action runs.
* Treat guardrails as operational policy, not one-time setup.

## Core guardrails

| Guardrail               | Purpose                                     | Example                                                |
| ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| Daily spend cap         | Prevents budget overrun                     | Do not exceed \$12k/day across selected campaigns      |
| Weekly spend cap        | Controls scaling pace                       | Increase spend no more than 15% week over week         |
| Campaign exclusions     | Protects sensitive campaigns                | Exclude brand, launch, creator, or holdout campaigns   |
| Action type permissions | Limits what FloKit can recommend or execute | Allow budget shifts, block offer changes               |
| Confidence threshold    | Avoids weak-signal actions                  | Require high confidence for budget changes             |
| Approval policy         | Defines human review requirements           | Require growth lead approval for all write actions     |
| Rollback trigger        | Protects against regression                 | Roll back if CAC increases more than 20% over 72 hours |

## Setup process

<Steps>
  <Step title="Define ownership">
    Assign a growth owner for approval decisions and a data owner for metric and source-of-truth questions.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set spend limits">
    Configure daily and weekly budget caps. Use conservative limits until payback reports and recommendations have been validated.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Exclude sensitive campaigns">
    Exclude brand campaigns, launch campaigns, experiments, creator campaigns, contractual campaigns, and any holdout groups.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose allowed action types">
    Start with low-risk recommendations such as creative review and budget reallocation. Keep pricing, offer, and paywall changes under manual product approval.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set confidence thresholds">
    Require stronger confidence for higher-impact actions. Low-confidence recommendations can remain visible but should require manual review.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Define rollback triggers">
    Choose metrics, thresholds, and time windows for rollback. CAC, spend, trial conversion, refund rate, and payback are common triggers.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Test the approval workflow">
    Review a recommendation end to end before enabling write execution. Confirm owners receive the right context and know how to reject or defer.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Recommended starting policy

| Setting              | Conservative default                              |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| Execution mode       | Read-only recommendations                         |
| Budget changes       | Human approval required                           |
| Creative pauses      | Human approval required                           |
| Audience exclusions  | Human approval required                           |
| Pricing changes      | Blocked                                           |
| Offer changes        | Blocked unless product owner approves             |
| Paywall changes      | Blocked unless product owner approves             |
| Daily spend increase | Max 10-15% for selected campaigns                 |
| Rollback             | Enabled for CAC, conversion, and spend regression |

## Rollback design

A rollback rule should include:

* The metric to monitor.
* The baseline period.
* The allowed change threshold.
* The observation window.
* The action to reverse.
* The owner to notify.

Example:

| Field     | Value                              |
| --------- | ---------------------------------- |
| Metric    | CAC                                |
| Baseline  | Previous 7 days                    |
| Threshold | Increase greater than 20%          |
| Window    | 72 hours after action              |
| Action    | Restore previous budget allocation |
| Notify    | Growth lead and data owner         |

## Review cadence

| Cadence              | What to review                                                  |
| -------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Daily during rollout | New recommendations, held actions, rollback alerts              |
| Weekly               | Spend caps, excluded campaigns, confidence thresholds           |
| Monthly              | Action outcomes, automation scope, markets, reporting tolerance |
| After major launch   | All guardrails that touch the affected campaigns or offers      |

## Signs guardrails are too loose

* Recommendations repeatedly touch campaigns that should be excluded.
* Spend grows faster than leadership expects.
* Rollbacks happen often.
* Product or finance learns about changes after they happen.
* Recommendations optimize conversion while hurting payback.

## Signs guardrails are too restrictive

* Most useful recommendations are held.
* Campaigns cannot scale despite validated payback.
* Approval queues become operational bottlenecks.
* Growth owners manually execute the same safe actions every week.

## Related pages

* [Guardrails](/product/guardrails)
* [Review your first action queue recommendation](/guides/review-action-recommendation)
* [Run your first campaign with FloKit](/guides/run-first-campaign)