Safe Automation Principles

Safe automation means that a script can fail without damaging customer data, leaking secrets, or hiding operator intent. The current API is well suited for read-side automation. Future write-side integrations should follow the same operating model: validate, log, queue, observe, and recover.

Principles

• Use one token per system, not one shared token for every tool.
• Prefer read-only flows first.
• Record which external system owns a token in the token name.
• Fail closed when the API returns 401, 403, or invalid JSON.
• Back off on 429 instead of retrying aggressively.
• Treat API data as operational state, not as the only billing source of truth.

Recommended Flow

flowchart TD
    A[External Job Starts] --> B[Read Needed State]
    B --> C{State Matches Expected?}
    C -- No --> D[Stop and Alert Operator]
    C -- Yes --> E[Continue Automation]
    E --> F[Record External Job Result]
    F --> G[Review API Request Logs]

Rollback Mindset

For planned write workflows, design rollback before sending the first production request. A billing platform that creates an account must also know what to do if the job fails halfway. Until live write endpoints exist, use API reads to verify work performed through PCAdmin or PCCLI.