Governance and security
Governance means that everything Roubot does can be seen, explained, audited and stopped.
Why
At the end of the day, every organisation knows what was done, when, how, where, why and who authorised it.
The opposite —agents doing things with no one knowing when, how, where or why— is exactly what Roubot exists to prevent.
The eight rules, and where each one stands today
The rules are fixed and apply to any flow, automation or agent. Under each one, what the code already does and what is missing.
Nothing runs without being recorded.
- Every step of a flow is recorded in a log on your computer: what it did and to what, by which route, how long it took, how it ended, the cause if it failed, the retries and who authorised it.Today
- Today there are still actions the chat performs directly without going through the flow log. Leaving none outside is rule number one, and it is on the way.On the way
Every action belongs to a known flow, with its version and its owner.
- Every recorded step carries its flow and the flow version, and inside a "for each", the iteration: so you know which of the invoices failed.Today
- Storing with each run the exact request or trigger that started it (the email that arrived, the scheduled time) and who owns each flow.On the way
Every action says why it was done: which request or trigger started it.
- Storing with each run the exact request or trigger that started it (the email that arrived, the scheduled time) and who owns each flow.On the way
The outcome is decided by the check, not the action: "it happened", "it did not happen" or "no way to tell".
- The outcome is decided by a check, not by what the action reports: a sent email is looked up in Sent; a file or a sheet is opened again. If the check says it did not happen, the step fails.Today
- A check has three possible answers: it happened, it did not happen, or there is no way to tell. "No way to tell" never counts as done.Today
Anything that leaves the machine or cannot be undone goes through the approval rule that applies to it.
- A flow can stop and wait for a person's approval. They see what is about to happen, with anything doubtful highlighted, and can correct the data before approving.Today
- Today the approval step is added when the request asks for it ("have someone review it before uploading").Today
- Approval by type of action: anything that leaves the machine or cannot be undone will always ask until the automation is autonomous; payments and deleting other people's data, always.On the way
Standardise: the same task is always done with the same action types and accredited templates. Deviating is allowed, but it is recorded.
- Every Roubot action has its type in a shared catalogue —read a document, append rows to a sheet, send an email…— and each type states whether it leaves the machine, whether it can be undone and how it is checked.Today
- Accredited templates: only from flows the log has checked, so the same task is always done the same way.On the way
The organisation sees its own log in plain words: what happened today, what failed and what is waiting for a person.
- The "What happened today" screen shows, in plain words, what is waiting for a person and what failed; below that, each run of the day with its steps, and the scorecard of each automation.Today
- Every state has a short code stored in the log, and a decoder translates it into plain words, in Spanish and in English.Today
Data stays on the machine by default. It goes to the cloud where the customer allows and asks for it.
- Your data is stored in a PostgreSQL database on your computer. If you do not have one, Roubot starts its own, with the data in your user folder.Today
- Only the definition of your automations goes to the Roubot cloud, and only when you sync. Run history, conversations, files and settings are not uploaded.Today
- Uploading the log to the cloud and running there whatever does not need your computer, only where the organisation allows and asks for it, with tiered permission that can be withdrawn.On the way
States and codes
Every state has a short code stored in the log, and a decoder translates it into plain words, in Spanish and in English.
A short code means the same in the log, on a screen and in a task. This is how they read:
The automation
| Code | What it means |
|---|---|
| A0 | Draft Draft: just created, or a new version nobody has reviewed yet. |
| A1 | Reviewed Reviewed: it has its data, actions and steps (level A), but it has not been rehearsed. |
| A2 | Rehearsed Rehearsed: it ran with whatever it writes or sends simulated (level B). |
| A3 | Tested Tested: it passed the real test in the test environment (level C). |
| A4 | Approved Approved: a person signed off a sample (level D). |
| A5 | Supervised Supervised: it does real work, and whatever its action type requires gets a person's sign-off. |
| A6 | Autonomous Autonomous: it works on its own because it completed its streak of checked runs in a row. |
| AE | With an error With an error: it failed at some test level or while doing real work. |
| AR | Being fixed Being fixed: it is being repaired, with 3 attempts at most. |
| AP | Waiting for the person Waiting for the person: something is missing that only they know (a value, a permission or «like this?»). |
| AX | Retired Retired: switched off by the system or by the person. |
Each step
| Code | What it means |
|---|---|
| P0 | Pending Pending: the step has not started yet. |
| P1 | Authorised Authorised: it has its sign-off, or does not need one. |
| P2 | Started Started: the step has begun and not finished. |
| P3 | Done according to whoever ran it; still to be checked Done according to whoever ran it (its receipt), but not checked yet. |
| P4 | Checked: it happened Checked: it was looked at from outside and it happened. |
| PN | Checked: it did not happen Checked: it was looked at from outside and it did NOT happen. |
| PU | No way to tell whether it happened There is no way to tell whether it happened. |
| PF | The step failed The step failed. |
| PS | Skipped Skipped, with the reason. |
| PR | Retrying Retrying the step. |
A log line, translated
A5·E1·P3Supervised · running · done according to whoever ran it; still to be checked
A5·EU·PU·FU·RCSupervised · unknown whether it finished · no way to tell whether it happened · unknown cause · the destination is checked before repeating
AR·EF·PF·FR1·RA(2/3)Being fixed · failed · the step failed · wrong action · second of three fixes by the model
20/1/0 · streak 020 checked, 1 failed, 0 unknown; the streak starts again
The scorecard and the streak
Each version of an automation carries its scorecard —checked, failed and unknown— and its streak. Nothing is erased: if run 21 fails, it stays at 20/1.
To become autonomous, an automation needs 20 checked runs in a row; 60 if any step leaves the machine or cannot be undone.
Twenty out of twenty does not prove it never fails: it shows, with 95% confidence, that it fails at most 1 time in 7. Sixty in a row show at most 1 in 20.
Approval
- A flow can stop and wait for a person's approval. They see what is about to happen, with anything doubtful highlighted, and can correct the data before approving.Today
- Silence is not approval: if nobody answers in time, the answer is no.Today
- Today the approval step is added when the request asks for it ("have someone review it before uploading").Today
- Approval by type of action: anything that leaves the machine or cannot be undone will always ask until the automation is autonomous; payments and deleting other people's data, always.On the way
Security
- If the chat claims to have done something without running any action, Roubot does not let the sentence through: it answers that it is not done.Today
- A flow prepared by the chat is born switched off: it does not run on its own until you switch it on.Today
- A flow can be rehearsed with no side effects: reads happen for real and the steps that would leave the machine are simulated, recording what they would have done.Today
- Every email goes out with its own seal so it can be found later in Sent. If there is no way to tell whether it went out, it is not retried blindly: the person has to be asked, so it is never sent twice.Today
- With several email accounts, if none is named it asks instead of using the first one: sending from the wrong address cannot be undone.Today
- When moving or writing files it never overwrites anything that already exists unless asked to, and after a move it checks the original is gone.Today
- When writing to an Excel file it keeps formulas, column widths, formatting and the other tabs.Today
- Roubot works in the usual folders —Desktop, Documents and Downloads— and in the ones you authorise. An authorisation can be removed.Today
- When it learns how a website talks internally in order to go faster, it uses none of those calls without your permission.Today
- Every action already has a risk level (low, medium, high or critical), but it does not block anything yet: making high and critical actions ask for confirmation is on the way.On the way
- Your data is stored in a PostgreSQL database on your computer. If you do not have one, Roubot starts its own, with the data in your user folder.Today
- Only the definition of your automations goes to the Roubot cloud, and only when you sync. Run history, conversations, files and settings are not uploaded.Today
- To answer you, what you type in the chat is sent to a cloud AI provider (OpenRouter or Groq). Images and what is on screen, when they need to be looked at, are sent too (OpenRouter by default).Today
What is coming
- Today there are still actions the chat performs directly without going through the flow log. Leaving none outside is rule number one, and it is on the way.On the way
- Approval by type of action: anything that leaves the machine or cannot be undone will always ask until the automation is autonomous; payments and deleting other people's data, always.On the way
- A test bench per action type that runs on its own every night, without a model, and leaves a page in the morning with whatever got worse.On the way
- Accredited templates: only from flows the log has checked, so the same task is always done the same way.On the way
- A library of automations by business area: uploaded and downloaded from Roubot, each with a public card, and the content can only be opened by a Roubot installation.On the way
- Uploading the log to the cloud and running there whatever does not need your computer, only where the organisation allows and asks for it, with tiered permission that can be withdrawn.On the way
- Chained log: each row will keep the fingerprint of the previous one, so nobody can delete or alter the log unnoticed.On the way
See it working on your own work
Tell us about a task that repeats in your organisation and we will show you how it would look as a flow, with its log.
hola@roubot.ai