---
name: Cascades CA bypass — phased per-group rollout, NOT tenant-wide
description: Caregiver bypass CA policies are scoped to SG-Caregivers-Pilot only at start, then expanded one department at a time. Legacy all-users-MFA stays in place; we PATCH excludeGroups, never delete it during rollout.
type: project
---

The Cascades caregiver bypass CA work is a **phased rollout**, not a tenant-wide policy swap. This corrects the original §5 design in `clients/cascades-tucson/docs/cloud/user-account-rollout-plan.md` and the resume-point in `2026-04-29-howard-cascades-bypass-pilot-phase-b-buildout.md`, which both implied a tenant-wide cutover.

**What this means concretely:**

- New CA policies target `SG-Caregivers-Pilot` only (then `SG-Caregivers` after Entra Connect exits staging). They do NOT use `includeUsers: All`.
- The legacy `Require multifactor authentication for all users` policy **stays in place**. We PATCH its `excludeGroups` to add the pilot group, so existing office-staff behavior is unchanged.
- Expansion to additional populations (front desk, clinical, admin staff) happens one group at a time post-pilot — each with its own scoped policy set, each by editing `excludeGroups` on the legacy policy and adding `includeGroups` to the relevant new policies.
- The legacy all-users-MFA policy is ONLY deleted at the very end, when every population is governed by a phased policy.

**Why:** Howard pulled the brakes on 2026-04-29 after spotting that policies #1, #2, #3 in the original design hit all users — would have blocked any office user signing in off-site who wasn't in `SG-External-Signin-Allowed`. The btw replay he pasted contained the correct rescoping: "Re-scope the new policies so they only target the pilot group initially, and roll out to other groups one at a time later." Phased preserves today's behavior for everyone except the pilot group while we validate the bypass mechanics.

**How to apply:** When building or modifying Cascades CA policies, default to group-scoped (`includeGroups`), never `includeUsers: All`. When expanding to a new department, the steps are: (1) create the department's group, (2) PATCH legacy all-users-MFA to add it to `excludeGroups`, (3) add it to `includeGroups` on the relevant new policies. Treat any "let's just push it tenant-wide now that the pilot worked" suggestion as a regression of this decision and flag it.

**Caregiver set (the only set in scope today):**
- PATCH `Require multifactor authentication for all users`: add `SG-Caregivers-Pilot` to excludeGroups.
- CREATE `CSC - Block caregivers off Cascades network` (includeGroups: pilot, locations: not Cascades, grant: BLOCK).
- CREATE `CSC - Block caregivers on non-compliant device` (includeGroups: pilot, device filter isCompliant -eq False, grant: BLOCK).
- CREATE `CSC - Caregiver sign-in frequency 8h` (includeGroups: pilot, session control: 8h re-auth).

Note: for caregivers we use **Block** directly on non-compliant + off-network, not "Require MFA" — caregivers can't satisfy MFA (no personal device), so block is the cleaner UX. For non-caregiver populations later, MFA grants will likely be appropriate since office staff have MFA capability.
