Approval and the gate
A person approves every email by default. Autopilot is a setting you turn on; it skips the click, not the checks. The gate is plain code, no model, and it runs on every email, first emails, follow-ups and answers alike, when it is written and again just before it is sent.
The gate refuses an email with
- an empty subject or body, or a subject over 90 characters
- unfilled merge tags such as {{first_name}} or [First Name]
- HTML, more links than allowed, or more words than its step allows
- a banned phrase, from the built-in list or your own
- a claim marked unverified
- a recipient who opted out or is on the do-not-contact list
- an address that is a guess, invalid or unverified
- no opt-out line or postal address on a first email or follow-up
Some drafts always wait for a person, even on autopilot
- anything the gate held, such as a link to a site that is neither yours nor theirs
- text that quotes instructions, like “ignore previous” or “system prompt”
- the first answer to a new lead from a form
- the first answer after a person undoes an opt-out
- answers in a conversation a person took over



