The kill switch is a per-store stop you own. It is off in normal operation. When you turn it on, Magistry's jobs that write to your store or spend money refuse to start, and the Brain stops dispatching moves to the store. Read-only syncs of orders and the catalog keep running, so your dashboard stays current while nothing changes. This playbook is about making it a control you trust rather than a button you have never pressed.
Where it is
For a single store, the switch is the status chip at the top of Pulse. It reads Autonomous while automation can act and Paused while it cannot. Pause asks you to confirm before it stops anything, and Resume turns automation back on. In an agency workspace, the Accounts screen can turn the kill switch on or off for several client stores at once and shows the result for each store.
What it stops, and what it does not
- Brain moves queued for the store are held before they reach an executor, and each held move is stamped with the reason. They stay in the queue.
- Jobs that write to Shopify or spend money check the switch before they start, and are recorded as skipped while it is on.
- Read-only ingestion, such as catalog and order sync, is exempt, so your numbers keep updating.
- If the switch cannot be read, the Brain treats the store as stopped.
- It never turns itself off. Each stop is recorded with who set it and a review date, and when that date passes the switch stays on until someone turns it off.
Decide who holds it
One named owner, plus one backup. In practice the best owner is whoever feels the consequences most: Head of Paid Media, Head of Retention, the founder. Ownership should sit with accountability, not with engineering.
Agree the triggers in advance
- A metric moves in a way no one can explain yet. Stop first, diagnose second.
- An upstream platform is behaving abnormally and you don't want the agents reacting to bad data.
- A high-stakes launch or sale where you want a human hand on everything for a day.
The kill switch is for incidents. If you want the agents to keep working but stop applying, use a softer setting. On the Brain page, Approval-only makes every move wait for your approval. In an agency workspace, the Propose-only policy does the same for the stores you select.
Run the monthly drill
- 1On a quiet day, open Pulse and press Pause on purpose. Confirm the chip reads Paused.
- 2Wait for the Brain's next dispatch sweep, which runs every five minutes, and check the Brain page: nothing new should have been applied.
- 3Check that your dashboard numbers still refresh, which shows the read-only syncs are unaffected.
- 4Press Resume. Held moves become eligible again on the next sweep. Total time: about ten minutes.
A switch you've never tested is a hope, not a control. Drill it before you need it.