Oversight System

Flightdeck's oversight system controls how much autonomy agents have during a session. It replaces the older Intent Rules feature with a simpler, more intuitive three-tier model.

Oversight Tiers

Tier	Autonomy	Best For
Supervised	Low — agents ask before most actions	Learning the system, critical codebases, high-risk changes
Balanced	Medium — routine work flows, structural changes need approval	Day-to-day development, most teams
Autonomous	High — agents work independently, you monitor results	Trusted workflows, experienced users, batch operations

What Each Tier Controls

Each tier injects behavioral instructions into agent system prompts at spawn time. These instructions tell agents how to behave — not just which actions are gated:

Supervised:

• Agents explain their reasoning before acting
• File modifications require explicit confirmation
• Architecture decisions are surfaced for review
• Agents prefer asking over assuming

Balanced (default):

• Routine code changes proceed automatically
• New file creation and dependency changes trigger confirmation
• Architecture and security decisions require review
• Agents use good judgment on when to check in

Autonomous:

• Agents work independently with minimal interruption
• Only critical errors and security issues trigger alerts
• Agents make and execute their own plans
• Results are reviewed after completion, not during

Custom Instructions

In addition to the tier presets, you can provide natural language custom instructions that are appended to every agent's system prompt. Use this for project-specific guidance:

Always run tests before committing.
Use conventional commits (feat:, fix:, docs:).
Never modify the database schema without discussing first.
Prefer TypeScript strict mode patterns.

Custom instructions work alongside the oversight tier — they add to the tier's behavioral instructions, not replace them.

Scope

Oversight settings are per-project with a global default:

• Global default — Set in Settings → Oversight. Applies to new projects.
• Per-project override — Each project can override the global default. Set when creating the project or in project settings.

When a session starts, Flightdeck reads the project's oversight tier (or the global default), generates the behavioral instructions, and injects them into each agent's system prompt.

Configuration

Via the UI

Open Settings → Oversight to:

• Select the global default tier (Supervised / Balanced / Autonomous)
• Add custom instructions
• Preview the instructions that will be injected

Per-project overrides are set in the project creation dialog or project settings panel.

Via Config File

oversight:
  level: balanced  # supervised | balanced | autonomous
  customInstructions: |
    Always run tests before committing.
    Use conventional commits.

Notification Interaction

Oversight level affects in-app notifications only. External channel routing (Telegram, Slack) uses separate routing preferences and fires regardless of oversight setting.

The three layers of the notification system:

1. Events — Generated by agent actions, system alerts, etc.
2. Notification Routing — Delivers to external channels per user preferences and quiet hours
3. Oversight Level — Client-side gating of in-app toasts by severity

This means: even in Autonomous mode, critical alerts still reach your Telegram/Slack. The oversight tier only controls how much the in-app UI interrupts you.

Migration from Intent Rules

The Intent Rules system (per-category allow/alert/review rules) has been removed. The oversight tiers provide equivalent control with less configuration overhead:

Old Intent Rules	New Oversight Equivalent
Conservative preset	Supervised tier
Moderate preset	Balanced tier
Autonomous preset	Autonomous tier
Per-category rules	Custom instructions (natural language)

If you had custom intent rules, translate them into natural language custom instructions. For example, if you had "Architecture → Require Review", add the custom instruction: "Always ask before making architecture changes."