A water utility wants an agent that drafts shutoff notices but must not send them without a supervisor. Which agent pattern should they use?

A water utility agent that drafts shutoff notices but must not send them without a supervisor should use a semiautonomous draft pattern with mandatory supervisor approval before send. Semiautonomous civic agents prepare consequential documents while human approval gates irreversible resident impact—exactly the control shutoff communications require. Drafting accelerates staff work; the approval flow preserves accountability and auditability. A semiautonomous send agent with mandatory supervisor approval before send still leaves the send action with the agent, so the agent itself executes delivery instead of drafting only for a supervisor to send. A semiautonomous draft agent with advisory supervisor review before send only offers non-binding input without blocking delivery, so the mandatory approval gate is missing. A semiautonomous draft agent with mandatory supervisor notification before send only alerts a supervisor without requiring sign-off, so individual shutoff notices can still go out without per-notice supervisor approval. On the exam, consequential notices use draft-plus-approval (semiautonomous) rather than agent send; distractors are send-agent execution with approval, advisory review without per-send approval, and notification-only that does not gate each send. Caveat: approval queues need SLA and backup approvers—drafts stuck without supervisors can delay legitimate notices or encourage unsafe workarounds. Operational check: generate a shutoff-notice draft end-to-end, verify send is blocked until supervisor sign-off, confirm logging of draft and approval, and ensure the approved notice actually reaches affected account holders.