# Change freezes

Declare org-wide freeze windows that block destructive actions, with audited admin overrides.

A **change freeze** is an org-wide window during which destructive actions are blocked — before a holiday weekend, during a launch, or while an incident is being reviewed. Freezes are enforced server-side, so they apply to every surface: the web app, API keys, the SDKs, and MCP/AI-chat tools.

## What a freeze blocks

While a freeze is in effect, these return `423 Locked` instead of running:

- **Resource deletion** — any delete dispatched to a provider plugin.
- **Destructive plugin actions** — actions a plugin marks as destructive in its detail schema (delete an index, purge a cache, delete a fine-tuned model, …). Non-destructive actions like restart or snapshot keep working.
- **Secret-version destroys** — the irreversible `destroy` operation on secret versions. Enable/disable stay allowed.
- **Deployment rollbacks** — including rollbacks requested through the AI assistant.

Reads, resource creation, and routine operations are unaffected; a freeze stops you from breaking things, not from working.

Each blocked attempt is recorded in the [audit log](./audit-log.md) as `change_freeze.block`, with the freeze and the attempted action in the metadata.

## Declaring a freeze

Freeze windows live in **Settings → Change Freezes**. Anyone with `freezes:write` (Admin and Owner by default) can declare one:

- **Name** and an optional **reason**, shown to everyone who gets blocked.
- **Starts** — defaults to now; set a future time to schedule the freeze.
- **Ends** — optional. Leave it empty for an open-ended freeze that holds until someone ends it.

![Settings → Change Freezes page showing one freeze "In effect" with an amber badge, one "Ended", and the "Declare freeze" form open with name/reason/start/end fields](https://agent-assets.infrawrench.com/docs-screenshots/team-and-billing/change-freeze/declare-form-and-list.png)

While a freeze is in effect, a banner appears across the top of the app for every member, with the freeze name, its end time, and a link to the management page.

![App shell with the amber change-freeze banner visible below the workspace tab strip and above the sidebar, reading "Change freeze: Holiday freeze — Destructive actions are blocked until Jan 2, 9:00 AM"](https://agent-assets.infrawrench.com/docs-screenshots/team-and-billing/change-freeze/app-shell-banner.png)

A freeze can be ended early from the same page (**End now**), which deactivates it immediately and records `change_freeze.end` in the audit log.

## Overriding a freeze

Sometimes the destructive action _is_ the fix. Callers holding `freezes:override` (Admin and Owner by default) can bypass a freeze for a single request by sending the header:

```
x-change-freeze-override: true
```

on the blocked call. The override succeeds only for principals with the permission — for everyone else the request stays blocked — and every successful override is written to the audit log as `change_freeze.override`, naming the freeze and the action taken.

MCP/AI-chat tools have no override affordance by design: an agent that hits a freeze is told to ask a human, who can end the freeze or perform the action deliberately.

## When you get blocked

A blocked call returns `423` with a structured body:

```json
{
  "error": "Change freeze \"Holiday freeze\" is in effect until 2026-01-02T09:00:00.000Z. Destructive actions are blocked. ...",
  "code": "change_freeze_active",
  "freeze": {
    "id": "…",
    "name": "Holiday freeze",
    "reason": "No production changes over the holidays.",
    "startsAt": "2025-12-24T00:00:00.000Z",
    "endsAt": "2026-01-02T09:00:00.000Z"
  }
}
```

The web app surfaces this as a friendly message naming the freeze and its end time.

## Permissions

| Permission         | Grants                                        | Held by default  |
| ------------------ | --------------------------------------------- | ---------------- |
| `freezes:read`     | See freeze windows and the current status     | All system roles |
| `freezes:write`    | Declare, edit, end, and delete freeze windows | Admin, Owner     |
| `freezes:override` | Bypass an active freeze per-request           | Admin, Owner     |

Like every permission, these can be granted to [custom roles](./roles-and-permissions.md) and used as [API key](./api-keys.md) scopes.

[Incident mode](../features/incident-mode.md) can open a freeze for you when an incident is declared, and lifts that same freeze — the one it opened, not whichever freeze happens to be in effect — when the incident resolves. It still needs `freezes:write`: a declaration by someone without it records the freeze as a failed artefact naming the permission rather than escalating, and the incident stands either way.

## API

Freeze windows are managed at `/api/org/{orgId}/change-freezes` (list, create, update, end, delete), and `GET /api/org/{orgId}/change-freezes/status` returns the freeze currently in effect — that's the endpoint the app banner polls. See the [API reference](./openapi.md) for schemas.