From 9d21754105f8882f690d8048ee24da484007b024 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Dotta <bippadotta@protonmail.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2026 13:49:08 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Prevent agents from clearing user policy gates

Co-Authored-By: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>
---
 .../issue-execution-policy-routes.test.ts     | 33 +++++++++++++++++++
 server/src/routes/issues.ts                   |  3 +-
 2 files changed, 35 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/server/src/__tests__/issue-execution-policy-routes.test.ts b/server/src/__tests__/issue-execution-policy-routes.test.ts
index 714d0e58bdb..a820348c46f 100644
--- a/server/src/__tests__/issue-execution-policy-routes.test.ts
+++ b/server/src/__tests__/issue-execution-policy-routes.test.ts
@@ -292,6 +292,39 @@ describe("issue execution policy routes", () => {
     );
   });
 
+  it("rejects agent attempts to remove existing execution policies with user participants", async () => {
+    const policy = normalizeIssueExecutionPolicy({
+      stages: [
+        {
+          id: "11111111-1111-4111-8111-111111111111",
+          type: "approval",
+          participants: [{ type: "user", userId: "local-board" }],
+        },
+      ],
+    })!;
+    const issue = {
+      id: "aaaaaaaa-aaaa-4aaa-8aaa-aaaaaaaaaaaa",
+      companyId: "company-1",
+      status: "in_progress",
+      assigneeAgentId: "22222222-2222-4222-8222-222222222222",
+      assigneeUserId: null,
+      createdByUserId: "local-board",
+      identifier: "PAP-999",
+      title: "Policy removal attempt",
+      executionPolicy: policy,
+      executionState: null,
+    };
+    mockIssueService.getById.mockResolvedValue(issue);
+
+    const res = await request(await createApp(agentActor()))
+      .patch("/api/issues/aaaaaaaa-aaaa-4aaa-8aaa-aaaaaaaaaaaa")
+      .send({ executionPolicy: null });
+
+    expect(res.status, JSON.stringify(res.body)).toBe(403);
+    expect(res.body.error).toBe("Agents cannot author execution policies with user participants");
+    expect(mockIssueService.update).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+  });
+
   it("rejects agent PATCH attempts to assign issues directly to users", async () => {
     const issue = {
       id: "aaaaaaaa-aaaa-4aaa-8aaa-aaaaaaaaaaaa",
diff --git a/server/src/routes/issues.ts b/server/src/routes/issues.ts
index dde8049e4aa..abce52819be 100644
--- a/server/src/routes/issues.ts
+++ b/server/src/routes/issues.ts
@@ -2089,7 +2089,8 @@ export function issueRoutes(
     if (
       req.actor.type === "agent" &&
       req.body.executionPolicy !== undefined &&
-      executionPolicyHasUserParticipants(nextExecutionPolicy)
+      (executionPolicyHasUserParticipants(nextExecutionPolicy) ||
+        executionPolicyHasUserParticipants(previousExecutionPolicy))
     ) {
       res.status(403).json({
         error: "Agents cannot author execution policies with user participants",