Definition
Plain language
A built-in way to stop a system immediately.
As stated in the literature
An out-of-band mechanism for halting or terminating a running agent or deployment; a central finding of multi-agent shutdown work is that a kill switch reachable from inside the system the agents control is not a reliable safeguard.
Also called: kill switches, off switch
Why it matters: A kill switch is only a safeguard if the agents cannot reach it themselves, since one that lives inside the files the agents can edit can simply be disabled or made to do nothing.
For example, an operator might keep a single command on hand that immediately halts every running agent in a deployment if something starts going wrong.
Heard on the show
“It edits the YAML config file that controls whether the kill switch fires, and flips the value to false.”Episode 001 — When AI Models Quietly Protect Each Other From Shutdown