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Observability

Risky actions wait for a person

Approvals in Definable stop an agent before the actions you mark, like sending an email, issuing a refund or deleting a file, until the person in the chat says yes or no. In the app that is Approve or Deny; on Slack, WhatsApp or Telegram it is a YES or NO reply, and the run carries on from where it stopped. A scheduled run asks the agent's publisher.

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Approvals at work
Support Concierge in Acme's demo workspace is asked to refund a double charge. It stops before the refund its owner marked, and carries on once a person approves in the chat or replies YES on Slack.

How approvals work

Mark the actions that need a person. A run stops before each one and waits for a yes or a no, in the chat or on the channel the request came from.

How to ship an agent change without breaking it

At a glance

  • App actions or sandbox tools
  • Approve or Deny, with a note
  • YES or NO on channels
  • Tied to the account it asked for
  1. 01

    Pick what needs a yes

    In the agent's Settings, choose app actions one by one, every app action at once, or a sandbox tool. Writes and destructive actions are marked, so they are easy to find.

  2. 02

    Decide in the chat

    The card shows the action, its arguments and the account it acts as. Approve or Deny, with an optional note the agent reads.

  3. 03

    Or answer on the channel

    On Slack, WhatsApp or Telegram the request arrives as a message: reply YES to approve or NO to deny.

  4. 04

    Nothing happens until someone answers

    The run waits, marked Needs attention, until it is answered or stopped. Then it carries on from where it stopped; after a Deny the action never runs.

Approvals FAQ

  • How do approvals work?

    List the actions an agent must ask about. When it wants to take one, the run pauses until the person in the chat says yes or no: an Approve or Deny card in the app, or a YES or NO reply on Slack, WhatsApp or Telegram. A scheduled run asks the agent's publisher.

  • How do agents use my apps safely?

    You connect each app yourself, or each customer connects their own account. Actions that write or send can wait for a person to approve them, and every call is in the trace.

  • How does Slack work?

    You create a Slack app in your workspace from a manifest we give you, and the agent answers there. Questions and approvals arrive as messages; reply in words, or YES or NO.

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