Environment Protection

Environment protection adds a safety layer on top of cluster permissions. While cluster permissions control who can deploy, environment protection controls how deployments are reviewed and approved.

Protection Levels

Each environment can be set to one of three protection levels:

Level	Behavior
None	Anyone with deploy permission can deploy freely
Restricted	Deployments require approval from a designated reviewer
Locked	Only Admins and Owners can deploy; all others are blocked

Setting Protection Rules

Open environment settings

Navigate to Projects > [Your Project] > Environments > [Environment] > Protection.

Choose a level

Select None, Restricted, or Locked.

Configure reviewers (Restricted only)

If you chose Restricted, add one or more reviewers who can approve deployments.

Save

The rule applies immediately to all future deployments in this environment.

Approval Workflow

When an environment is set to Restricted, deployments follow an approval workflow:

Developer triggers deploy
    ↓
Deployment enters "pending" state
    ↓
Reviewers are notified (email + dashboard)
    ↓
Reviewer approves or rejects
    ↓
If approved → deployment proceeds
If rejected → deployment is cancelled

Triggering a Deploy

Developers trigger deploys normally (git push, CLI, or dashboard). The deployment is created but held in a pending state until approved.

# Deploy as usual -- it will be held for approval
hanzo deploy --env production
# Output: Deployment dep_abc123 created (pending approval)

Approving or Rejecting

Reviewers see pending deployments in Deployments > Pending. Each pending deployment shows:

Who triggered it

What changed (commit diff)

When it was triggered

Click Approve to proceed or Reject to cancel. An optional comment can be added.

Auto-Approval

Deployments triggered by Owners and Admins bypass the approval workflow, even in Restricted environments. This ensures that authorized personnel are never blocked.

Locked Environments

In Locked mode, only Admins and Owners can deploy. All other users -- including those with deploy cluster permissions -- are blocked with a clear error:

Error: Environment "production" is locked. Only Admins and Owners can deploy.

This is useful during incidents, maintenance windows, or compliance freezes.

Locked mode can be toggled quickly from the environment settings. Use it as a temporary freeze during incidents.

Recommended Configuration

Environment	Protection	Rationale
Development	None	Fast iteration, no gates
Staging	None or Restricted	Optional review before promoting
Production	Restricted	Approval required for all deploys
Production (during incident)	Locked	Freeze all changes

API

# Set environment protection
curl -X PATCH https://app.platform.hanzo.ai/api/environment.update \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "environmentId": "env_abc123",
    "protection": "restricted",
    "reviewers": ["user_def456", "user_ghi789"]
  }'

# Approve a pending deployment
curl -X POST https://app.platform.hanzo.ai/api/environment.approveDeployment \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "deploymentId": "dep_abc123",
    "comment": "Reviewed, looks good"
  }'

Environment Protection

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