Approvals and safety

Portward never widens access on its own. Changes proposed in chat wait for a person, changes that give more access wait for a fresh sign-in, and setup can reach only the database hosts you allow.

Review cards

When you ask the admin connector for a change in plain words, the AI can’t apply it. It shows a review card in the setup widget instead:

Tool	What the card shows	Button
propose_access	One checkbox per change to exposure or column rules. Changes that give the AI or people more access carry a More access label and start unchecked.	Approve
confirm_definition	The proposed definition of one column, next to the current one	Confirm definition
confirm_link	Two columns that match across sources	Confirm
draft_context	A dataset’s context, checked against the data, for you to edit	Save context

Nothing changes until a person selects the button. Tick or untick the changes on a propose_access card before you approve it. Unknown table or column names are refused with the closest real names, so the AI can’t invent a rule.

Let the AI change some rules itself

In the setup widget’s Access rules, each dataset and column has a setting for what the AI may change when someone asks it in chat:

Setting	What the AI may do
Ask first (the default)	Show a review card for you to approve
Restrict only	Apply changes that make the data more private without asking, such as making a column a token or hiding a dataset. Anything else gets a review card.
Anything	Apply any change either way

There is a matching setting for each dataset’s context: with Anything, the AI saves a context draft that has no errors without asking. Changes the AI applies itself are listed in the widget with Undo these, and the setup log notes them. The AI can never change the token type of a live column on its own. Only an admin changes these settings, in the widget, and raising one asks for a fresh sign-in.

Fresh sign-in

A change that gives more access waits until the admin signs in again at your directory. This covers:

• exposing a dataset
• the AI or people seeing more of a column, or people being allowed to send it to the AI
• changing a live column’s token type
• letting the AI change more on its own
• adding an admin group or a user group
• adding a group to a dataset that is limited to groups, or opening it to every data user
• showing a group more of a column
• adding a database host
• reconnecting a source whose datasets are exposed

What happens:

1. The console lists the changes under “Saving this gives more access than now”. Select Sign in again to confirm. The setup widget lists them under Confirm with your sign-in and opens the sign-in window itself (Claude asks first whether to open the link).
2. The window opens at your directory. If you’re already signed in there, it’s usually one click.
3. Portward’s own page, Confirm more access, lists the changes once more. Select Confirm and save.

The sign-in has to be your own, as an admin, and recent. You have 15 minutes from the request to Confirm and save. If the rules changed in between, nothing is saved and you start again.

Changes that only give less access, such as hiding a dataset or removing a group, are saved at once.

The fresh sign-in is on by default with directory sign-in. It is off when step_up = false is set under [auth] in the config file, and the console’s Overview then warns “Changes that give more access are saved without a fresh sign-in.” Settings, Sign-in shows it as Sign in again for more access.

Allowed database hosts

Setup can connect databases only on hosts you allow. Each connected database receives the key Portward uses to make tokens, so list only hosts you trust.

Hosts come from two places:

• The config file: setup_hosts under [gateway] (on AWS, the stack’s Database hosts parameter). The console shows these as “From the config file” and can’t remove them.
• The console: Settings, Database hosts, Add a host. Type a host such as db.corp.example, or *.corp.example for every host in that domain. Adding one asks for a fresh sign-in. Removing one is saved at once, and connections on it stop at once.

File stores and business apps that you sign in to don’t use this list. Connect a source has the details per cloud.

Expiring secrets

Database passwords, keys and your directory app’s secret often expire. Portward can’t see when, so note the dates in Settings, Expiring secrets:

1. In What expires, name it, such as “Directory app secret” or “sales read-only password”. Never type the secret.
2. In On, pick the date, and select Add.

The Overview’s Expiring secrets lists them with the days left, and Needs attention warns 30 days ahead and once a date has passed. These are reminders only. Nothing expires in Portward on that date, and Portward has no setting that ends a person’s or a group’s access on a date. To end access, remove the group from the dataset or the person from the group.

Other limits

• Every source is read with a read-only login, and every query is one read-only SELECT.
• A new source exposes nothing until you save its rules (Dataset access).
• New columns in a dataset take it offline until an admin sets their rules.
• The console signs you out after 30 minutes without a request, and after 8 hours in any case.

Next

Context and definitions: tell the AI what your data means.