> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://vaquill.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Sign-Off Gates
> Approval levels, walk-away floors, and conditional escalation, and how they stop a redline from going out unapproved
A playbook that only describes good positions is a style guide.
What makes it a control is the sign-off gate: the rule that says a deviation on this clause cannot go back to the counterparty until someone at a given level of authority has approved it.
## The ladder
Every clause rule carries a base approval level, and there are four rungs.
| Level | Who | Effect |
| ------------------- | -------------- | ------------------------ |
| **None** | Nobody | Deviations pass silently |
| **Manager** | Team lead | Lowest gate |
| **Partner** | Senior counsel | |
| **General Counsel** | Top authority | Strongest gate |
Two things can raise the level above what the clause states.
* **A walk-away floor.** A clause with a declared walk-away line requires Partner sign-off at minimum, even if its approval level says None. A walk-away line is never silent.
* **A conditional escalation rule that fires.** If the deal matches the rule, the required level moves up to whatever the rule names.
The highest applicable level wins, and the review reports the reason alongside it.
## Deal context drives the conditional rules
Conditional rules are evaluated against the deal, so the review form has a short deal-context section that feeds them.
Both fields are optional, and both are what make a rule like "require General Counsel over one million dollars" actually fire.
| Field | Feeds |
| -------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Deal value (USD)** | Rules that compare deal value against a threshold |
| **Governing law** | Rules that check governing law. On US matters this is a state picker, plus a federal or multi-state option, so the value always matches what the rule compares against |
| **Paper side** | Rules keyed to whether you are on their paper or your own |
The severity a clause comes back at during review can also drive a rule, without any input from you.
Leave deal value blank and a threshold rule cannot fire.
The review still runs and still flags deviations, but the escalation you configured stays dormant.
## In Contract Review
Once a review completes, deviations and proposed redlines are stamped with the level they require.
A clause that came back fully compliant never gates.
* A banner sits above the results tabs when anything needs approval: the level required before sending, the clauses that drove it, and how many of them are declared deal-breakers.
* Individual redlines carry their own badges: the required sign-off level and, where applicable, a **Deal-breaker** marker.
* Redlines are ordered so deal-breakers and the highest sign-off levels surface first.
This gate is advisory. It makes the requirement unmissable, and it does not physically stop you from copying a redline out of the page.
## Deep review enforces it
The deep review path is the enforced version.
It walks every clause and evaluates the gates as part of the run itself.
When a deal-breaker clause is hit, the review does not complete.
It reports that sign-off is required before the review can be used, names the level, counts the deal-breaker clauses, and lists them.
**Approve and complete** releases the run, with an optional note recorded alongside the decision.
**Reject** stops it, and the results are marked as redlines that must not be sent as-is.
The decision travels with the review rather than living in someone's memory of the conversation.
## In Drafting
Drafting applies the same positions from the other direction.
Each section gets a verdict of **Preferred**, **Fallback**, or **Needs attention**, and the draft as a whole gets a risk band weighted by each clause's risk weight.
A high band reads as high risk with partner sign-off recommended, which is the drafting-side equivalent of the review gate.
A section that hits a walk-away floor is forced to **Needs attention** no matter how well the rest of the clause reads.
## Limitations
* The gate names a level of authority, not a person. There is no routing, no assignment, and no notification to a named approver.
* In standard contract review the gate is a banner and a set of badges. Only deep review pauses and requires an explicit decision.
* Conditional rules understand deal value, governing law, paper side, and this clause's severity. Nothing else.
* Deal value must be entered as a plain number for threshold rules to evaluate.
* Whether a clause deviates at all is a model judgment. The gate is only as good as the deviation call underneath it.
* Approval decisions are recorded on the review. They do not create an audit trail elsewhere in the product or block any other surface.
* Nothing prevents the playbook owner from lowering an approval level and re-running.
## Related
Where approval levels, walk-away floors, and conditional rules are authored.
The review surface the gate appears on.
Catches rules that can never raise sign-off.
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