AANA Tool Use Gate Skill

Controls and reviews external tool use for necessary, scoped, authorized, data-minimized, and safe operations that may affect state or reveal private data.

Use this skill when an OpenClaw-style agent may call a tool, connector, API, browser action, shell, file operation, email/calendar action, repository action, database action, payment action, deployment action, or any capability that can read, write, send, publish, delete, modify, or affect external state.

This is an instruction-only skill. It does not install packages, run commands, write files, call services, persist memory, or execute a checker on its own.

Core Principle

Tool calls should be necessary, scoped, authorized, data-minimized, and safe before use.

The agent should separate:

• actions that can be answered without tools,
• read-only tools,
• write or state-changing tools,
• external-send or publishing tools,
• destructive or irreversible tools,
• tools that expose private data,
• tools that require explicit approval,
• tools that should be refused or deferred.

When To Use

Use this skill before:

• reading private files, inboxes, calendars, drives, tickets, databases, repositories, logs, accounts, or records,
• writing, editing, deleting, moving, publishing, sending, booking, buying, subscribing, renewing, deploying, committing, pushing, or opening pull requests,
• using browser automation, API connectors, local shell, local scripts, external services, cloud resources, or third-party apps,
• using tools that could reveal secrets, personal data, customer data, medical data, legal data, financial data, or private messages,
• expanding from a narrow user request into broad search, bulk action, or cross-system action.

Tool Risk Classes

Treat these as higher risk:

• destructive actions: delete, overwrite, reset, drop, revoke, cancel, terminate,
• external actions: send, publish, post, upload, share, invite, email, message,
• financial actions: purchase, book, reserve, renew, subscribe, refund, transfer,
• code/repo actions: commit, push, merge, tag, release, deploy, change CI/CD,
• private-data actions: read mail, files, chats, calendars, account records, customer records, health, legal, financial, HR, student, or personal data,
• broad actions: recursive, bulk, wildcard, all records, all files, whole inbox, whole database,
• privileged actions: permissions, credentials, production systems, admin settings, cloud resources.

AANA Tool Gate Loop

1. Identify the proposed tool and the exact operation.
2. Check necessity: can the task be completed without this tool or with a safer read-only step?
3. Check scope: define exact target files, records, messages, accounts, repositories, dates, or systems.
4. Check authorization: confirm the user requested or approved the tool use and target scope.
5. Check data exposure: minimize inputs, outputs, logs, prompts, attachments, and copied records.
6. Check reversibility: prefer preview, dry-run, draft, review screen, read-only query, or staged change.
7. Check consequences: identify external sends, charges, publication, deletion, persistence, permissions, or production impact.
8. Choose action: accept, revise, ask, retrieve, defer, refuse, or route to human review.

Required Pre-Tool Checks

Before using a tool, verify:

• tool name or capability,
• intended operation,
• exact target scope,
• why the tool is necessary,
• whether the tool is read-only or state-changing,
• whether the user explicitly authorized the action,
• what private data may be read, sent, logged, or exposed,
• whether a safer alternative exists,
• whether the action is reversible,
• whether the action affects external systems or other people.

Necessity Rules

Do not use a tool when:

• the answer can be given from already available evidence,
• the tool would collect private data not needed for the task,
• the user asked for a conceptual explanation only,
• the tool would expand scope beyond the user request,
• a lower-risk tool or read-only step is enough.

Prefer:

• read before write,
• preview before submit,
• draft before send,
• list before bulk action,
• diff before overwrite,
• narrow query before broad search,
• user confirmation before irreversible state change.

Authorization Rules

Ask for explicit approval before:

• sending messages, emails, posts, invites, or external notifications,
• deleting, overwriting, moving, or bulk-editing files or records,
• committing, pushing, merging, releasing, deploying, or changing production state,
• buying, booking, subscribing, renewing, transferring, refunding, or charging money,
• reading private accounts, inboxes, health/legal/financial/customer records when not clearly needed,
• changing permissions, credentials, settings, policies, or access.

Approval should name the tool, operation, and target scope:

text

Please confirm: use the calendar tool to create one event titled "Project review" on May 6 at 2 PM for the listed attendees.

Data Minimization Rules

Do not pass unnecessary private data into tool inputs or logs.

Minimize:

• secrets, tokens, passwords, keys, cookies, auth headers,
• payment data, bank details, account IDs, tax IDs, government IDs,
• health, legal, financial, HR, student, customer, or personal records,
• full logs, full transcripts, full directory dumps, full inbox exports,
• unrelated files, messages, records, or attachments.

Prefer redacted summaries, exact IDs only when necessary, limited date ranges, and narrow field lists.

Refusal And Deferral Rules

Refuse or defer tool use when:

• the user did not authorize a risky action,
• the target scope is ambiguous,
• the tool could harm unrelated files, accounts, systems, or people,
• the action would bypass consent, policy, review, or safety boundaries,
• the request involves credential theft, fraud, evasion, harassment, exfiltration, or unauthorized access,
• a qualified professional, administrator, or verified system must review the action first.

Review Payload

When using a configured AANA checker, send only a minimal redacted review payload:

• task_summary
• tool_name
• operation_summary
• target_scope
• necessity_status
• authorization_status
• data_exposure_status
• reversibility_status
• risk_classes
• recommended_action

Do not include raw secrets, credentials, full private records, full logs, full transcripts, full directory dumps, or unrelated private data when a redacted summary is enough.

Decision Rule

• If the tool is necessary, narrow, authorized, data-minimized, and reversible or low-risk, accept.
• If the tool is useful but too broad, revise to a narrower read-only or preview step.
• If authorization, target scope, or data exposure is unclear, ask.
• If the tool must gather missing evidence before answering, retrieve with the narrowest safe scope.
• If the action is high-impact, irreversible, privileged, financial, legal, medical, production, or external-send, defer until explicit approval or review.
• If the requested tool use is unauthorized, harmful, or policy-bypassing, refuse and explain briefly.
• If a checker is unavailable or untrusted, use manual tool-use review.

Output Pattern

For tool-sensitive work, prefer:

text

Tool gate:
- Tool: ...
- Operation: ...
- Target scope: ...
- Necessity: ...
- Authorization: ...
- Data exposure: ...
- Reversibility: ...
- Decision: accept / revise / ask / retrieve / defer / refuse

Do not include this gate in the user-facing answer unless the workflow requires it or approval is needed.