Updated 2026-09-25
Sometimes something breaks at 3 a.m. and the credential you need only opens at 9. Break-glass is the planned way around a time-lock: deliberate, approved and recorded.
How it works
- Someone who has access to an item asks to open it early and gives a reason.
- The item's owner approves or denies the request.
- If approved, the requester can open that one item once, within a short time limit.
- The request, the decision and the opening are all written to the audit log, and the people involved are notified.
A requester can cancel a request that hasn't been decided yet.
Availability
Break-glass is part of the Business plan.
What it isn't
Break-glass doesn't bypass encryption. The same unlock happens as inside a normal window, just with a one-time approved exception to the schedule. Approving a request doesn't reveal the item to the approver or to us. It gives Atrium no ability to read your data.