ruvnet/ruflo · error · Error

approval issuance requires an authenticated human identity a

Error message

approval issuance requires an authenticated human identity adapter; the local TTY is not an identity credential

What it means

The `policy approve` operation ALWAYS throws this — it is intentionally unimplemented. Per ADR-324, approval issuance requires a genuine authenticated human identity (an identity adapter), and a local TTY does not constitute an identity credential. The CLI deliberately refuses to mint approvals from a terminal to prevent privilege escalation via whoever happens to be at the keyboard.

Source

Thrown at v3/@claude-flow/cli/src/commands/policy.ts:89

        });
      }
      if (operation === 'evaluate') {
        return print(await evaluatePolicyRequest(argJson<PolicyRequest>(args[1], 'evaluate'), root));
      }
      if (operation === 'rule' && args[1] === 'add') {
        requireInteractiveAdministrator();
        const rule = argJson<PolicyRule>(args[2], 'rule add');
        await upsertPolicyRule(rule, root);
        return print({ success: true, ruleId: rule.id });
      }
      if (operation === 'budget' && args[1] === 'set') {
        requireInteractiveAdministrator();
        const budget = argJson<BudgetLimit>(args[2], 'budget set');
        await setPolicyBudget(budget, root);
        return print({ success: true, budgetId: budget.id });
      }
      if (operation === 'approve') {
        throw new Error(
          'approval issuance requires an authenticated human identity adapter; '
          + 'the local TTY is not an identity credential',
        );
      }
      if (operation === 'revoke') {
        requireInteractiveAdministrator();
        if (!args[1]) throw new Error('revoke requires an approval id');
        return print({ success: await revokePolicyApproval(args[1], root), approvalId: args[1] });
      }
      if (operation === 'audit') {
        const state = loadPolicyState(root);
        return print({ receipts: state.receipts });
      }
      if (operation === 'verify') return print(await verifyPolicyLedger(root));
      throw new Error(`unknown policy operation: ${operation}`);
    } catch (error) {
      const message = error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error);
      output.printError(message);

View on GitHub (pinned to 6b01dc5a68)

Solutions

1. Do not call `policy approve` from the CLI — it is unsupported by design.
2. Obtain approvals through the authenticated identity adapter path referenced in ADR-324 (e.g. an external identity provider / policy service), not the local terminal.
3. If you only need to remove an existing approval, use `policy revoke <id>` from an interactive terminal instead.

Example fix

// before
ruflo policy approve action-123
// after — approvals are issued via the identity adapter, not the CLI
# revoke (the supported interactive inverse) works:
ruflo policy revoke approval-abc

// The approve operation is intentionally unsupported. Block it in your dispatcher.
const UNSUPPORTED_POLICY_OPS = new Set(['approve']);
function dispatchPolicy(op: string): void {
  if (UNSUPPORTED_POLICY_OPS.has(op)) {
    throw new Error(`policy '${op}' is unsupported from the CLI; use the identity adapter (ADR-324)`);
  }
}

const isCliSupportedPolicyOp = (op: string): boolean =>
  !['approve'].includes(op) &&
  ['init','migrate','status','rule','budget','revoke','audit','verify'].includes(op);

// No retry — this branch throws unconditionally. Treat as a programming error.
if (op === 'approve') {
  throw new Error('do not call policy approve from the CLI; route through the identity adapter');
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `ruflo policy approve <anything>` from any context. The branch is unconditional; it throws before any argument parsing for the approve subcommand.

Common situations: Operators expecting a manual override command, scripts trying to pre-approve an action, or assuming approval is symmetric with revoke (which IS supported interactively).

Understand the failure class

• Authentication and authorization failures — expired tokens, bad credentials, and missing scopes.

Related errors

• policy administration requires an interactive local terminal
• policy-${decision.enforcedOutcome}:${decision.reason}; recei
• --token-stdin: no input received on stdin
• ${label} requires a JSON argument
• ${label} must be valid JSON

AI-assisted analysis of ruvnet/ruflo@6b01dc5a68 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/038ae0bcad96a5f4. Report an issue: GitHub.