Admission decision record
Evidence reviewed, scope considered, correction capacity, affected populations, outcome, and decider.
Admission gate
Treat the decision to deploy at all as an authorization, with evidence and a recorded outcome. Choosing not to deploy is a valid result.
- 1 Evidence acts here
- 2 Authority acts here
- 3 Decision
- 4 Consequence
- 5 Challenge
- 6 Reconsideration
- 7 Correction
Where it acts
At Evidence and Authority, two of the seven stages every consequential decision passes through. Deploying at all is the first permission, and it has to rest on recorded evidence.
Steps
Put the mechanism in motion
3 steps, in order. Check each one off as it is done; the records below show the work was done.
0 of 3 steps complete
Records this mechanism keeps
What a team running this mechanism keeps, and what each record is for.
Non-use record
Reasons a delegation was refused or deferred, with the review condition that can reopen it.
Admission criteria list
What the gate asks, agreed before the first request so the bar cannot move to fit the answer.
Reuse-ready snippets
Copy policy, audit, and incident language
Use these snippets in requirements, audits, and postmortems with the mechanism permalink.
Policy requirement
Policy requirement (MEC-22 Admission gate) - A consequential deployment has a recorded admission decision with evidence, scope, and a named decider, before any authority is granted. - Deliberate non-use is a recorded outcome with reasons and a review condition. Reference: https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/admission-gate
Product requirement
Product requirement (MEC-22) - The admission decision is a prerequisite artifact in the deployment pipeline, not a document written after launch. - The record distinguishes "not yet" from "never", with different reopen conditions.
Audit evidence checklist
Audit evidence checklist (MEC-22) [ ] Every consequential deployment traces to an admission decision with a decider and a date. [ ] Refusals record their basis and a review condition. [ ] Systems running without a recordable admission decision are listed as findings.
Postmortem trigger
Postmortem trigger (MEC-22) Trigger review when a deployment is found to be running with no admission record, or when an admission refusal was reopened by momentum rather than by the review condition.
How it plays out
A fraud-scoring model is proposed for benefits triage. The admission review finds the correction capacity for the denial class is absent and the claimants it would decide about cannot reach a responder inside the clock. The outcome is recorded as non-use with those reasons and a reopen condition: the gate reopens when a funded responder path exists, not when the vendor updates the model.
Anti-patterns
Common failure cases and counterfactuals
Each case passes on paper and fails in operation. The counterfactual shows what would have worked.
Admission by momentum
The system runs because someone built it, and stopping now is more expensive than starting was, so the question is never asked.
Counterfactual: The admission decision exists with a date, a decider, and evidence taken before the grant.
Exception: A small pilot still needs a recorded admission; the record is what makes expansion a decision later.
Gate as rubber stamp
Every review passes because the criteria were written after the first request, fitted to the answer wanted.
Counterfactual: Admission criteria are agreed and published before the first request reaches them.
Exception: A no that cannot be given is not a gate; audit the refusals, not only the approvals.
Diagnostics for this mechanism
Tools that size the risk this mechanism addresses.
Diagnostic
Delegation audit
Walks a team through one workflow against six questions and returns an exposure score, the permissions nobody can justify, and whether its decisions can be undone. Start here when the system keeps no decision records yet; use the record conformance checker once it does.
Cite this page · v1.2.1 · updated Oct 6, 2026 · CC BY-SA 4.0
APA
Ethotechnics Institute. (2026). Admission gate (MEC-22). Ethotechnics Institute. https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/admission-gate
MLA
Ethotechnics Institute. "Admission gate (MEC-22)." Ethotechnics Institute, 2026, https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/admission-gate.
Chicago
Ethotechnics Institute. "Admission gate (MEC-22)." Ethotechnics Institute. Oct 6, 2026. https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/admission-gate.
BibTeX
@misc{mechanism_admission-gate,
title={Admission gate (MEC-22)},
author={Ethotechnics Institute},
year={2026},
howpublished={Ethotechnics Institute},
url={https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/admission-gate},
version={v1.2.1}
}
RIS
TY - WEB TI - Admission gate (MEC-22) AU - Ethotechnics Institute PY - 2026 UR - https://ethotechnics.org/mechanisms/patterns/admission-gate ER -