---
title: "Escalations"
description: "An escalation in BRAIAN by AETERION is a structured handover from an agent to a named human role. It carries the process run, the step, the blocked action, the policy or threshold that triggered it, and the evidence gathered so far. The run pauses until the role approves, rejects or amends the action."
url: "https://aeterion.tech/en/docs/core-concepts/escalations"
locale: "en"
publisher: "AETERION SA"
---
# Escalations

> An escalation in BRAIAN by ÆTERION is a structured handover from an agent to a named human role. It carries the process run, the step, the blocked action, the policy or threshold that triggered it, and the evidence gathered so far. The run pauses until the role approves, rejects or amends the action.

Source: https://aeterion.tech/en/docs/core-concepts/escalations
Last updated: 2026-09-20

## What triggers an escalation?

- A policy returns escalate instead of allow or deny.
- An agent reaches its step budget or exhausts its retries.
- Evaluation scores the step below the confidence threshold declared for the process.
- A connected system returns an inconsistency the process is not allowed to resolve alone.

## Routing and decisions

Escalations are routed to roles, not to individuals, so operations continue when a person is unavailable. The decision is recorded with the identity of the approver, the timestamp and any amendment made to the proposed action.

```yaml
escalation:
  route_to: role:finance-controller
  channels: [braian-console, email, slack]
  timeout_minutes: 240
  on_timeout: reject
```

## Escalations as a signal

A rising escalation rate on one step usually means a definition is wrong, a policy is too narrow or an upstream system changed. Treat the rate as an operational metric, not as noise.

> **Timeouts are decisions too** — An escalation that expires records an explicit outcome. It never resolves itself by allowing the blocked action.