Changes that reach production because the pipeline said yes.

The rules that usually govern it

• Only inside an approved change window
• Reviewed by someone other than the author
• A signed rollback plan for critical systems
• No change during a declared freeze

Typical rule shapes, not a claim about any one organisation. A pilot starts from yours.

Where rules like these break

1. The approval was for a different change.

   A review approves a diff. If what ships is not bound to the diff that was approved, the approval travels to changes nobody read.

2. The window is checked by the thing it constrains.

   A pipeline that decides whether it is inside the window can be asked to decide differently. The check belongs in front of the action, not inside it.