Run Modes
Run modes control whether the agent asks for approval before taking actions or acts on its own.
Full reference: sre.azure.com/docs/concepts/run-modes
Two modes
Review mode (default)
The agent investigates autonomously, then proposes an action for your approval.
Agent: "I found that checkout is failing because DEMO_BROKEN_CHECKOUT=true.
Proposed action: Reset DEMO_BROKEN_CHECKOUT to false.
[Approve] [Deny]"
Only SRE Agent Administrators can approve.
Autonomous mode
The agent investigates and executes without waiting.
Agent: "I found checkout was failing due to DEMO_BROKEN_CHECKOUT=true.
Done: I've reset the environment variable. Checkout is now returning 201."
Which to use
| Scenario | Recommended |
|---|---|
| Production incidents | Review — human in the loop |
| Staging / dev | Autonomous — let it fix fast |
| Daily health checks | Autonomous |
| Security alerts | Review |
Observe what the agent recommends for 2–4 weeks. When you find patterns you're always approving, switch those specific triggers to Autonomous.
In this demo
The demo uses Review mode by default so you can narrate the agent's proposal and show the Approve/Deny flow. If you want a faster demo, switch to Autonomous and let the audience see the agent fix it hands-free.
What Review mode gates
Review mode shows Approve/Deny only for Azure infrastructure operations (Azure CLI commands, ARM operations, Kubernetes commands). Other actions — querying data, sending notifications — proceed without approval.
For governance over non-Azure actions, use Hooks.