Approval failures

These errors come from the approval endpoints. Approval is fail-closed: errors are never approval.

Common errors (exact messages)

Endpoint	HTTP	error	Cause	Fix
GET /api/decisions/<decision_id>/approval	401	Unauthorized	The request is missing a valid approval token or API key.	Send X-Approval-Token: <approval_token> (or Authorization: Bearer <approval_token>), or poll with Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY>.
GET /api/decisions/<decision_id>/approval	403	API key paused for audit	The API key used for polling is temporarily paused.	Wait for the pause to end or rotate credentials.
GET /api/decisions/<decision_id>/approval	429	Rate limit exceeded	Too many approval polling requests.	Back off and retry with exponential backoff.
POST /api/decisions/<id>/approve	401	Unauthorized	The reviewer is not authenticated.	Sign in to the dashboard and retry.
POST /api/decisions/<id>/approve	403	WARN approval is disabled	Global WARN approvals are disabled.	Re-enable WARN approvals, or treat WARN as not approved and do not execute.
POST /api/decisions/<id>/approve	403	WARN approval is not allowed	The account plan does not permit WARN approvals.	Upgrade the account plan or treat WARN as not approved and do not execute.
POST /api/decisions/<id>/approve	404	Not found	The decision_id does not exist (or is not accessible for this account).	Use the decision_id returned by /api/validate and ensure you are in the correct account.
POST /api/decisions/<id>/approve	400	Only WARN decisions may be approved	You attempted to approve a non-WARN decision.	Only approve decisions that were returned as WARN.
POST /api/decisions/<id>/approve	409	Already approved	The decision has already been approved.	Treat approval as idempotent; proceed using your normal execution safeguards.
POST /api/decisions/<id>/approve	400	Invalid payload	The request body does not match the expected shape.	Send JSON with an optional { comment: string } field (max 2000 chars).
POST /api/decisions/<id>/block	400	Only WARN decisions may be reviewed	You attempted to deny a non-WARN decision.	Only deny decisions that were returned as WARN.

What to do when approval fails

Do not execute the underlying action.
Persist the failure for audit/debugging.
Retry with backoff if the error is transient (429).
If approval cannot be completed, re-run validation later (new decision_id) and repeat the flow.

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