Granular Consent
Granular consent is an AI interface design pattern that decomposes agent permissions into per-capability toggles (read email versus send email, view calendar versus book calendar, draft code versus push to main) instead of bundling them into a single all-or-nothing grant. This UX pattern lets users authorize exactly the scope the agent needs for the current task and independently revoke any capability without starting the consent flow over. It replaces coarse role-based permissions, the legacy model where removing one dangerous action required re-authorizing everything, with fine-grained controls that match how people actually think about risk. Granular consent is foundational to least-privilege agent design: it shrinks the blast radius of both accidental misuse and compromised credentials by ensuring the agent can only do what the user deliberately approved.
Use Case
Essential for AI assistants, enterprise agents, and connector ecosystems where least-privilege permissions reduce risk and let users tailor scope to the specific task without losing the rest of the integration.
Examples in Wild
Use this pattern in your project
Copy this prompt to generate a production-ready implementation in Cursor, Claude Code, Lovable, or any AI coding agent.
Generate a production-ready implementation of the "Granular Consent" AI interface design pattern.
Pattern Description:Capabilities for this agent
Pick what this agent can use. Turn off anything you’re not comfortable with.
2 capabilities enabled for this workspace.
Allowed actions
Read inbox
Summarize threads and detect action items.
Send email
Draft and send as you, including external domains.
Modify calendar
Create and move events on your primary calendar.
Related Patterns
Get new patterns by email
Weekly AI interface UX notes and resources on Substack, no spam, unsubscribe anytime.