Automatic Findings Validation

How Cato auto-triage selects findings by source and severity, why empty selections cannot be enabled, and when validation pauses.

Automatic Findings Validation

Automatic Findings Validation is Cato: Guard's automated triage agent. When on, Cato evaluates new findings that match the sources and severities you select. It does not re-run the backlog.

This card is on Settings → AI. It is the only editor for the cato_auto_triage setting.

What you configure

Expand the card (or use the edit-cato deep link).

Sources — which finding producers Cato may touch. The list is the live capabilities registry plus Hannibal and Romulus. Default, if nothing has been saved, is nuclei.

Severities — which finding statuses are eligible:

Label

Stored code

Critical

TC

High

TH

Medium

TM

Low

TL

Info

TI

Default is Critical only.

Cato matches these codes exactly against the finding's status. A severity that is not selected is left for manual triage.

Enable rules

You cannot turn the switch on with zero sources or zero severities. The editor expands and tells you to pick at least one of each. Removing the last source or last severity while the feature is already on is also refused — the previous selection is kept.

Config edits autosave. The enable/disable flip is the change that toasts, and the toast states the scope that was actually saved (severity labels and source count).

Changes apply to findings that arrive after the save. Queued findings are not retroactively re-evaluated.

Budget

Cato spend is the Cato slice of Category Allocation, not Marcus (interactive chat) and not Hannibal. A 0% Cato allocation pauses automatic validation the same way a $0 Hannibal slice pauses scheduled hunts. The switch is not flipped off.

If the budget service shows Cato max_limit === 0, the card shows paused.

Who can edit

Manage settings (Admin).

Cato as an agent (promote / reject with evidence) is also described under AI Enablement. This article is only the Settings → AI controls that decide which new findings Cato is allowed to pick up.