Tripwire
Also called Tripwire
A pre-set trigger that fires an alert or a shutdown the instant a defined bad thing happens.
Think of it like
A laser line across the museum floor — cross it and the alarms go off automatically.
Example
An agent’s runtime halts and pages a human the moment it tries to access a resource on a forbidden list.
How it actually works
Tripwires are simple, pre-committed conditions — a forbidden action, a suspicious pattern, a threshold crossed — wired to an automatic response so you do not depend on catching it live. Their value is speed and inevitability, but they only cover harms you thought to define in advance. They pair naturally with honeypots and kill switches.
For product teams
Automatic guardrails that act faster than any human could notice.
For engineers
Pre-committed trigger conditions bound to automated alerting or halting; coverage is limited to anticipated failure modes.
Related
- Honeypot — Often baited with a honeypot.
- Kill switch — May trigger a kill switch.
- Canary — A canary is one lightweight form.
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