Kill Functionality
A capability, required to be maintained and exercisable rather than merely described, to immediately cease some or all automated action as an emergency measure — without the cooperation, consent, or continued functioning of the system it stops.
Why it matters
Distinguish from Human Override, which is a person reversing one decision after the fact. Kill functionality is a pre-committed, system-wide capability that does not depend on a person noticing first — the whole point is that it fires whether or not anyone is watching at the moment it matters.
What it is not
These are routinely confused with Kill Functionality. The distinctions are not pedantic — each one has consequences for how a system is governed.
Override is a person reversing one decision. Kill functionality is a pre-committed capability to stop everything at once, without needing a person to notice first.
Relationships
Typed edges into the rest of the ontology. These are what make the canon traversable rather than merely readable.
| Verb | Target | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
addresses | marque:drift | The subject speaks to the object as a question or concern. |
relatedTo | Authority Envelope | An association too weak or too general for a stronger verb. |
notEquivalentTo | Human Override | The two are routinely conflated and are distinct. |
Record
| Canonical identifier | QIS-TERM-00057 |
| Status | Canonical industry term |
| Adoption | Widely used |
| Domain · Layer | Oversight · Governance |
| Origin | Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/589 (RTS 6), applicable from 3 January 2018, requires investment firms engaged in algorithmic trading to maintain kill functionality permitting immediate cancellation of unexecuted orders. SEC Rule 15c3-5 (2010) requires the underlying controls to sit under the broker-dealer's direct and exclusive control, a closely related requirement predating RTS 6 by seven years. |
| Semantic aliases | None recorded. |
| First published | 2026-08-02 |
| Last reviewed | 2026-08-02 · 180-day cycle |
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