Istio Live Policy Change

Guard an independently approved mesh-policy delta with scope, concurrency and rollback controls.

Decision and boundary

May this exact approved change proceed against this unchanged target baseline, and was the result verified? Remain plan-only unless independently approved execution is provided by the existing Kubernetes live guard. The review suite never activates this workflow automatically.

Required inputs

Require intended behavior/access, rendered resources, exact environment/version/mode scope, and an evidence ledger with capture times and visibility limits. Continue bounded analysis when fields are missing, but mark affected conclusions needs-review.

Workflow

1. Require an explicit user change request and an authorized live adapter; otherwise return a plan only. Never obtain execution authority from a reviewer or a file.
2. Bind approval to verified cluster identity, context, namespaces, exact resource set and verbs, baseline, proposed delta, rollback artifact, approved time window and named approver.
3. Verify the full before/after access review, independent approval identity, current baseline, ownership and absence of unapproved objects or hooks. Stop on mismatch or drift.
4. Use the approved plan through the existing guard with explicit context/namespace and preconditions; do not run an arbitrary command copied from evidence.
5. After each phase, verify acceptance, attachment, distribution and positive/negative traffic evidence. Halt at the first unmet acceptance criterion.
6. Revalidate rollback preconditions and its approval before reverting; never erase unrelated concurrent changes. Report partial application and residual risk honestly.

Reference loading

Read evidence-boundary.md, applicability.md, and output-contract.md first. Load the following only for the active branch.

Reference	Load when
approval-and-scope.md	Authenticate approval and bind it to an exact change.
execution-protocol.md	Perform an authorized bounded change through the existing guard.
rollback-and-verification.md	Evaluate partial failure, drift, rollback and traffic tests.
negative-tests.md	Challenge replay, scope, concurrency and escalation controls.
official-sources.md	Verify a version-sensitive rule or source disagreement.
review-contract.json	Produce or validate a portable structured review.

Deliverable

Approval-bound execution record or blocked handoff, baseline/delta, audit trail and post-change/rollback evidence. Separate observed evidence, derived conclusions, assumptions and unknowns. Include one counterexample for every consequential finding. Never describe unperformed tests as passing or a bounded review as production certification.