# Control

> Configuration, ingress, identity, storage, and routing: the ability to change what your AI systems do, and to change it back.

Source: https://brocs.fyi/control/
Part of the surface: C · Control. Keep a hand on the wheel.
Framework: BROCS (Build, Run, Observe, Control, Secure), brocs.fyi. CC BY 4.0, attribute to brocs.fyi.

---

## The Control surface

- Configuration: declarative, versioned, reviewed, reversible
- Ingress: one front door for internal AI apps
- Identity: SSO by default, external access without VPN sprawl
- Storage and backups: retention, lifecycle, restore drills
- Routing: model and provider routing, pinning, failover


**Control** is the part of the surface concerned with adjustment. Whether you can change
what an AI system does, centrally, deliberately, and reversibly, and whether the change is
recorded.

It is the letter most often folded into [Run](/run/), and the distinction is worth
holding: Run answers "is it up". Control answers "can I change it, and can I put it back".
Plenty of organizations have an excellent Run story and no way to move a workload between
model providers without editing application code. That is a real gap and it deserves a
name.

## The claim

Measurement without an actuator is a thermometer. [Observe](/observe/) tells you something
is wrong; Control is what lets you do anything about it other than turning the system off.

In practice the Control surface is five specific abilities:

- Change a prompt, a model, or a policy, and roll it back.
- Put every internal AI application behind one front door with SSO.
- Carry a person's identity all the way to the data.
- Say how long AI data lives, and prove it was deleted.
- Move a workload between models or providers without touching code.

## The tests that matter

1. **Roll back a prompt.** Take a change from last month and time the revert. If it
   involves asking who made it, you do not have rollback.
2. **Change a provider.** Could one application move to a different model provider today,
   without a code change?
3. **Cut something off.** Can you stop one internal AI application reaching users in under
   five minutes without finding its owner?

## The tension

Control pulls against [Build](/build/) constantly: every review gate and every central
decision is a delay for the person shipping. The resolution is the same as everywhere else
on the surface. Controls that are fast and inherited from a template get used. Controls
that are queues get routed around, and the traffic that routes around them is invisible to
you.

Control hands off to [Secure](/secure/), which is where the same mechanisms have to
produce evidence for somebody else.


## Pages under Control

- [Configuration](https://brocs.fyi/control/configuration/): Declarative, versioned, reviewed, rollback-able configuration for apps, prompts, models, and routing.
- [Ingress](https://brocs.fyi/control/ingress/): One front door for internal AI applications, instead of a tunnel, a share link, and a forwarded port per team.
- [Identity](https://brocs.fyi/control/identity/): SSO for every internal AI app by default, and access for partners and contractors that expires.
- [Storage and backups](https://brocs.fyi/control/storage-and-backups/): Retention, lifecycle, and restore drills for AI data, including the stores nobody put in the catalogue.
- [Routing](https://brocs.fyi/control/routing/): Model and provider routing, pinning, and failover: how switching cost is held near zero.