Approvals

Approvals are checkpoints where designated stakeholders review evidence and sign off before a bundle can advance. They ensure that models, apps, and other assets meet organizational standards before progressing through the governance lifecycle. You need the GovernanceAdmin role to define approvals in policies. Roles and security has details on role assignment.

Each approval includes:

  • A name

  • A list of approvers (users or organizations)

  • Optional evidence requirements which must be satisfied before approval can be granted

Define approvals in a policy

Governance administrators define approvals within a stage using YAML.

Example: Define an approval with evidence

In this example, the stage includes an approval named Stage 4: validation sign off, which includes a checklist prompt for the approver:

- name: 'Stage 4: validation sign off'
  approvers:
    - model-gov-org
  evidence:
    id: Local.validation-approval-body
    name: Sign-off
    description: The checklist for approvals
    definition:
      - artifactType: input
        details:
          label: "Have you read the model validation reports?"
          type: radio
          options:
            - Yes
            - No

Conditional approval

Conditional approval lets practitioners proceed to the next stage while they track and address outstanding findings.

A reviewer can approve a stage conditionally by attaching findings to the approval. These findings form a remediation plan and create a formal feedback loop from the reviewer to the modeler.

If you resolve all findings by their due dates, the approval remains valid. If you don’t resolve the findings on time, Domino automatically revokes the approval.

Periodic Revalidation

Approvals can be configured to expire and renew on a recurring absolute schedule, which is anchored to a fixed date, not relative to when an individual approval was granted. This aligns with how organizations run validation programs: on a company-wide cadence rather than a per-model timeline.

Revalidation introduces two new approval states:

  • Pending Expiration: The renewal window is open. The approver is notified and the bundle remains compliant.

  • Expired: The window closed without a renewal decision. The bundle is non-compliant.

Governance Admins configure the schedule in YAML within an approval. See Policy components for the full YAML reference.

Bundle contributors and approvers can override the schedule at the bundle level without modifying the policy. When an approval is revoked, the schedule resets to none if set by a contributor, or to the policy default if set by a Governance Admin. Approvers receive a Domino notification and email when the window opens, and again when the approval expires. Renewal uses the existing approval workflow.

Next steps