Preview, Validate & Gate
The Preview/Validate Gate is a mandatory inspection step that runs before every consequential operation — run, export, import, and publish. It shows you exactly what an automation will do and requires your acknowledgment before proceeding.
What the Gate Shows You
The Gate produces 7 required outputs. All 7 must be present for the Gate to be considered complete. If any output is absent, the Gate fails.
1. Dependencies
A list of every resolved package and component the automation depends on, including exact version numbers. Dependencies are verified to ensure nothing is missing or incompatible.
2. Inputs and Outputs
What the automation reads (inputs) and what it produces (outputs). If the automation takes no inputs or produces no outputs, the list is empty — but it is always present.
3. CAD Environment Requirements
What your CAD application needs to provide — for example, the active model, project path, or host version. This can be empty if the automation does not require specific host context.
4. What Will Change
If this is an update to a previously published version, the Gate shows what changed at the dependency level — added, removed, or version-changed packages. This helps you understand what is different before committing to a new version.
5. Data Leaving Your Machine
This section shows three categories of external communication:
- Network activity — Whether the operation will contact any external server, and which URLs
- Host environment data — Whether your CAD environment information (model info, file paths, machine state) will be sent externally
- Usage telemetry — Whether usage data will be collected and where it is stored
All three default to disabled. If any category is enabled for an operation, the Gate requires explicit acknowledgment before proceeding. Acknowledgments are per-operation — they do not persist across operations.
6. Execution Status
Indicates whether execution is cleared or hard-blocked. When blocked, you cannot proceed until the blocking condition is resolved. There is no user override.
Common reasons for execution being blocked:
- Insufficient license seat for the requested operation
- Dependency resolution failure (missing or incompatible packages)
- Required CAD environment context is unavailable
- Data-leaving-your-machine disclosure has not been acknowledged
7. Suggested Fixes
When the Gate identifies an issue, it provides an ordered list of suggested steps to resolve it. Each step is a plain-language description of what to do, optionally with a deep link to the relevant setting or action. The list may be empty if there are no issues.
When Does the Gate Run?
The Gate runs before every consequential operation:
- Run
- Before executing an automation locally
- Export
- Before packaging an automation for sharing
- Import
- Before accepting an external automation package
- Publish
- Before promoting an automation to the shared registry
- Validate
- An explicit re-check of an automation — read-only, never executes
Validate: Read-Only Inspection
validate is a distinct operation. It runs the full Gate inspection — producing all 7 outputs — but it never executes the automation. Validate is purely informational.
Validate is available to any authenticated user, regardless of seat type. It works even with an expired or missing activation token (though the Gate may display a warning). This makes validate useful for reviewing automations you received from others without needing a paid seat.
Fail-Closed Behavior
The Gate is fail-closed. If it encounters an unexpected condition — missing data, resolution errors, or internal failures — it blocks rather than allowing the operation to proceed. This is by design: safety takes precedence over convenience.