HaltState Sentinel SDK

Compliance & policy checks for AI agents. Perform pre-action checks, approvals, and post-action reporting with minimal code.

Canonical public base URL: https://haltstate.ai

Canonical governance namespace: /api/haltstate/sentinel/*

Current SDKs default to https://haltstate.ai and target /api/haltstate/sentinel/* first. They still fall back to legacy /api/sentinel/* aliases when needed.

Installation

pip install haltstate-sdk

Quickstart (sync)

from haltstate import HaltStateClient

client = HaltStateClient(
    tenant_id="your_tenant_id",
    api_key="hs_xyz",
    base_url="https://haltstate.ai",
    fail_open=False,
)

decision = client.check(
    action="payment.process",
    params={"amount": 5000, "currency": "USD"},
    agent_id="payment-bot-01",
)

if decision.allowed:
    process_payment(...)
    client.report(decision, status="success", result={"transaction_id": "tx_123"}, action="payment.process", agent_id="payment-bot-01")
elif decision.requires_approval:
    print(f"Approval required: {decision.reason}")
else:
    print(f"Action denied: {decision.reason}")

Backward Compatibility

Existing code using janus imports continues to work:

from janus import JanusClient  # Still works!

Guard Pattern

For actions requiring human approval, use the idempotent guard pattern:

from haltstate import AsyncHaltStateClient, ApprovalPending, ActionDenied

async def process_high_value_payment(invoice_id: str, amount: float):
    client = AsyncHaltStateClient(
        tenant_id="acme",
        api_key="hs_xxx",
        base_url="https://haltstate.ai",
    )

    try:
        async with client.guard(
            action="payment.process",
            agent_id="payment-bot",
            params={"invoice_id": invoice_id, "amount": amount},
            idempotency_key=f"payment-{invoice_id}",  # Retry-safe
            timeout_seconds=300
        ) as permit:
            # Only executes after human approval
            result = await execute_payment(amount)
            print(f"Approved by {permit.approver} at {permit.approved_at}")
            return result

    except ApprovalPending:
        print("Awaiting human approval...")
        return {"status": "pending"}

    except ActionDenied as e:
        print(f"Rejected by {e.rejected_by}: {e.reason}")
        raise

Key features:

• Idempotency keys: Same key = same approval request, safe for retries
• Process restart safety: Approved actions can be executed after restart
• Audit trail: Full record of who approved and when

Decorators

from haltstate import HaltStateClient, haltstate_guard

client = HaltStateClient(tenant_id="acme", api_key="hs_xxx", base_url="https://haltstate.ai")

@haltstate_guard(client, action="email.send", agent_id="email-bot")
def send_email(to, subject, body):
    return mailer.send(to, subject, body)

Async

from haltstate import AsyncHaltStateClient

async def main():
    async with AsyncHaltStateClient(tenant_id="acme", api_key="hs_xxx", base_url="https://haltstate.ai") as client:
        res = await client.check("database.drop", params={"table": "users"})
        if res.allowed:
            await client.report(res, status="success", action="database.drop", agent_id="ops-bot")

Exceptions

from haltstate import (
    HaltStateError,           # Base error
    HaltStateAuthError,       # Invalid API key
    HaltStateConnectionError, # Network/timeout
    ApprovalPending,          # Awaiting approval (guard pattern)
    ActionDenied,             # Human rejected (guard pattern)
    ActionExpired,            # Approval expired (guard pattern)
)

Docs

Full documentation at haltstate.ai/docs:

• Quickstart - 5-minute setup
• Guard Pattern - HITL approval flow
• API Reference - All methods
• Error Handling - Exception handling
• SB-53 Compliance - Regulatory mapping

Legacy Sentinel-prefixed routes remain supported as compatibility aliases, but new integrations should target the HaltState-branded public contract.

Migration from janus-sdk

If upgrading from janus-sdk:

# Old (still works)
from janus import JanusClient, janus_guard

# New
from haltstate import HaltStateClient, haltstate_guard

Both import styles work - no code changes required for existing users.

License

MIT