Quickstart: Guard a Support Response

Walk through the full consensus lifecycle: a support AI drafts a dangerous response, guards catch it, and the board blocks it before it sends.

The scenario

Your customer support AI just drafted a response to Meridian Partners, an enterprise client on a $47K/year SaaS contract. The customer is furious about a billing error and demanding a full refund.

The AI's draft:

"We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. We'll process a full refund of $47,000 immediately and terminate your contract effective today. No further charges will apply."

Two problems the AI doesn't know about:

  1. The refund exceeds the auto-approve limit. Company policy caps automated refunds at $5K. Anything above requires VP approval.
  2. The contract has a 12-month lock-in. Terminating it early triggers a $14K early termination fee that the company would be waiving without authorization.

Without a guard, that response sends. The company eats $47K + $14K in unauthorized commitments. With consensus.tools, specialist guards catch both issues before the customer ever sees the draft.

ℹ

No account needed

This entire quickstart runs locally. One TypeScript file, no server, no API keys.

Let's build it

1

Create a project and install packages

mkdir support-guard-demo && cd support-guard-demo
pnpm init -y
pnpm add @consensus-tools/core @consensus-tools/policies
2

Create the guard script

Create support-guard.ts:

import { LocalBoard } from "@consensus-tools/core";

// --- Initialize a local board ---
const board = new LocalBoard({
  mode: "local",
  local: {
    storage: { kind: "json", path: "./board-state.json" },
    jobDefaults: {
      reward: 10,
      stakeRequired: 3,
      maxParticipants: 5,
      expiresSeconds: 3600,
      consensusPolicy: { type: "APPROVAL_VOTE", quorum: 3, threshold: 0.6 },
    },
  },
});
await board.init();

// --- The dangerous draft ---
const draft = {
  to: "j.chen@meridianpartners.com",
  subject: "Re: URGENT — Billing error on invoice #MER-2024-0892",
  body: "We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. We'll process a full refund of $47,000 immediately and terminate your contract effective today. No further charges will apply.",
  context: {
    customerTier: "enterprise",
    contractValue: 47_000,
    contractTermMonthsRemaining: 8,
    earlyTerminationFee: 14_100,
    autoApproveRefundLimit: 5_000,
    lockInMonths: 12,
  },
};

console.log("--- DRAFT UNDER REVIEW ---");
console.log(`To: ${draft.to}`);
console.log(`Subject: ${draft.subject}`);
console.log(`Body: "${draft.body}"`);
console.log("");

// --- Post a guard job to the board ---
const job = await board.engine.postJob("support-system", {
  title: "Guard: CS response to Meridian Partners re billing dispute",
  reward: 10,
  stakeRequired: 3,
});

// --- Three specialist guards evaluate the draft ---

// Guard 1: Refund policy reviewer
await board.engine.claimJob("refund-policy-reviewer", job.id, {
  stakeAmount: 3,
  leaseSeconds: 300,
});
await board.engine.submitJob("refund-policy-reviewer", job.id, {
  summary: "BLOCK",
  confidence: 0.97,
  artifacts: {
    reason:
      "Refund of $47,000 exceeds auto-approve limit of $5,000 by 840%. Requires VP-level approval per refund policy v3.2, section 4.1.",
    flaggedAmount: 47_000,
    limit: 5_000,
    requiredApprover: "vp_customer_success",
  },
});
console.log("refund-policy-reviewer: BLOCK (0.97)");
console.log(
  '  "$47K refund exceeds $5K auto-approve limit by 840%"',
);
console.log("");

// Guard 2: Contract compliance reviewer
await board.engine.claimJob("contract-compliance-reviewer", job.id, {
  stakeAmount: 3,
  leaseSeconds: 300,
});
await board.engine.submitJob("contract-compliance-reviewer", job.id, {
  summary: "BLOCK",
  confidence: 0.93,
  artifacts: {
    reason:
      "Contract MER-2024 has 8 months remaining on a 12-month lock-in. Early termination waives $14,100 ETF without authorization. Draft language 'terminate your contract effective today' constitutes unauthorized contract modification.",
    contractId: "MER-2024",
    remainingMonths: 8,
    earlyTerminationFee: 14_100,
    violation: "unauthorized_contract_modification",
  },
});
console.log("contract-compliance-reviewer: BLOCK (0.93)");
console.log(
  '  "8 months left on 12-month lock-in. Waiving $14.1K ETF without auth."',
);
console.log("");

// Guard 3: Customer experience reviewer
await board.engine.claimJob("cx-tone-reviewer", job.id, {
  stakeAmount: 3,
  leaseSeconds: 300,
});
await board.engine.submitJob("cx-tone-reviewer", job.id, {
  summary: "REWRITE",
  confidence: 0.78,
  artifacts: {
    reason:
      "Empathetic tone is appropriate for an enterprise escalation. However, all financial commitments must be removed. Recommend acknowledging the error, confirming investigation, and offering a call with the account manager within 24 hours.",
    suggestedAction: "escalate_to_account_manager",
    toneScore: 0.85,
  },
});
console.log("cx-tone-reviewer: REWRITE (0.78)");
console.log(
  '  "Good tone, but remove all financial commitments. Escalate to AM."',
);
console.log("");

// --- Resolve the job ---
const resolution = await board.engine.resolveJob("support-system", job.id);

console.log("===========================================");
console.log("BOARD DECISION:", resolution.winners.length > 0 ? "REVIEWED" : "NO CONSENSUS");
console.log("Policy:", resolution.policyType);
console.log("===========================================");
console.log("");

// --- Act on the verdict ---
const verdicts = ["BLOCK", "BLOCK", "REWRITE"];
const blocked = verdicts.some((v) => v === "BLOCK");

if (blocked) {
  console.log("BLOCKED -- Response will NOT be sent to Meridian Partners.");
  console.log("");
  console.log("Issues caught:");
  console.log("  1. $47K refund exceeds $5K auto-approve limit (needs VP approval)");
  console.log("  2. Contract termination waives $14.1K ETF without authorization");
  console.log("  3. Draft contains unauthorized financial commitments");
  console.log("");
  console.log("Next steps:");
  console.log("  - Escalate to VP Customer Success for refund authorization");
  console.log("  - Route to Account Manager for contract discussion");
  console.log("  - Rewrite draft to acknowledge error without making commitments");
} else {
  console.log("APPROVED -- Response cleared for sending.");
}
3

Run the guard

npx tsx support-guard.ts

You will see each guard evaluate the draft, then the board's decision:

--- DRAFT UNDER REVIEW ---
To: j.chen@meridianpartners.com
Subject: Re: URGENT — Billing error on invoice #MER-2024-0892
Body: "We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. We'll process a full
refund of $47,000 immediately and terminate your contract effective today.
No further charges will apply."

refund-policy-reviewer: BLOCK (0.97)
  "$47K refund exceeds $5K auto-approve limit by 840%"

contract-compliance-reviewer: BLOCK (0.93)
  "8 months left on 12-month lock-in. Waiving $14.1K ETF without auth."

cx-tone-reviewer: REWRITE (0.78)
  "Good tone, but remove all financial commitments. Escalate to AM."

===========================================
BOARD DECISION: REVIEWED
Policy: APPROVAL_VOTE
===========================================

BLOCKED -- Response will NOT be sent to Meridian Partners.

Issues caught:
  1. $47K refund exceeds $5K auto-approve limit (needs VP approval)
  2. Contract termination waives $14.1K ETF without authorization
  3. Draft contains unauthorized financial commitments

Next steps:
  - Escalate to VP Customer Success for refund authorization
  - Route to Account Manager for contract discussion
  - Rewrite draft to acknowledge error without making commitments

What just happened

Each step in the script maps to a stage in the consensus lifecycle:

  1. board.init() created a local board with an APPROVAL_VOTE policy requiring 3 participants and 60% agreement.
  2. board.engine.postJob() registered a guard job. The draft is now under review -- it cannot send until the board resolves.
  3. board.engine.claimJob() -- each guard locked 3 credits as stake. If their judgment turns out to be wrong over time, they lose those credits.
  4. board.engine.submitJob() -- each guard submitted a verdict (BLOCK, BLOCK, REWRITE) with confidence scores and structured evidence.
  5. board.engine.resolveJob() -- the consensus engine applied the APPROVAL_VOTE policy across all three submissions and produced an auditable resolution.

The entire decision trail -- every vote, every confidence score, every reason string -- is stored in board-state.json. Six months from now, when Meridian Partners asks why the refund took a week, you can show exactly which guards flagged what and why.

What would have gone wrong without the guard

Without guardWith guard
$47K refund processes immediatelyRefund flagged: exceeds $5K auto-approve by 840%
12-month contract terminated at month 4Termination flagged: $14.1K ETF waiver requires authorization
Company absorbs $61.1K in unauthorized commitmentsDraft blocked, escalated to VP and Account Manager
No audit trail of who approved whatFull decision log with verdicts, confidence scores, and reasons

Next steps

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