The Blocker Protocol: How We Surface Critical Issues First

The Problem With Traditional Audits

We ran a 13-agent audit on a mobile app. The result: a comprehensive report with 47 findings across UX, security, performance, compliance, growth, and code quality.

Buried on page 3, paragraph 2 of the compliance section: “The app is missing a Restore Purchases button.” Buried on page 5: “CFBundleDisplayName doesn't match the App Store listing.” Buried on page 7: “API keys are exposed in the client bundle.”

These 3 findings were App Store rejection guarantees. They were also hidden among 44 other findings of varying severity. The development team started working on the UX recommendations (page 1) and didn't discover the blockers until week 2.

That was the last time we let that happen.

Introducing the Blocker Protocol

Now, every agent in every squad follows a standardized protocol:

Every blocker is tagged with one of four categories:

• APP_STORE — Will cause App Store / Play Store rejection
• LEGAL — Legal compliance requirement (GDPR, COPPA, etc.)
• BUILD — App won't compile or has critical runtime crashes
• SECURITY — Data privacy, credential exposure, auth vulnerability

How It Works

The protocol is embedded in every agent's operating instructions. When any agent — whether it's the UX analyst, the security auditor, or the growth strategist — finds something that meets blocker criteria, it flags it immediately.

The Squad Commander then consolidates all blockers at the top of the final report, before any scores, findings, or recommendations. The first thing you see when you open a SquadOps report is:

The Result

Since implementing the Blocker Protocol:

• Zero clients have submitted to App Store with a known blocker
• Average time to find critical issues: seconds (open report, read top section)
• Development teams start on what matters instead of what comes first alphabetically

Simple systems beat complex ones. Put the important stuff first.