Approvals and Policy

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.decisional.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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Overview

Approvals are Decisional’s human-in-the-loop control system. They let an agent prepare work, show the relevant context, and pause before a sensitive action proceeds. Approvals can appear during automated runs, Chat Mode write actions, Run Mode flows, and workflow gates. They are especially useful when an agent is about to send information, update a system, make a decision with business impact, or continue past a manual review point.

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Where approvals appear

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What an approval contains

An approval should give the reviewer enough context to make a decision without digging through logs. Approvals typically include:

• The action the agent wants to take
• The relevant run, node, or chat context
• Inputs and generated outputs
• Files or records involved in the decision
• Approve and reject controls
• Any notes the reviewer adds before continuing

When an approval is accepted, the run continues. When it is rejected, the agent stops, routes to the configured rejection path, or asks for a correction depending on the workflow.

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Approval layers

Approval behavior comes from multiple layers working together. Use these layers together. For example, a low-risk reporting agent might bypass eligible approval prompts, while a finance agent can keep write tools on Needs approval and add gate nodes for final review.

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Ask approvals

Ask approvals means the agent pauses before eligible sensitive actions. A reviewer sees what the agent wants to do and chooses whether to approve or reject. Use Ask approvals when:

• The agent is new or still being tuned
• Outputs leave your company or affect customers
• The workflow changes records in important systems
• A human needs accountability for the final decision
• You want an audit trail of manual sign-off

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Bypass approvals

Bypass approvals means eligible approval prompts are approved automatically so the run can continue without waiting for a human click. Bypass approvals are useful for stable, low-risk workflows where the agent’s behavior is well understood. Bypass does not turn blocked tools into allowed tools. A blocked action remains blocked, and tool policy should still be used for actions that must never run. Use bypass carefully:

• Start new agents with Ask approvals until the workflow is predictable
• Keep destructive or externally visible actions behind tool policy or explicit review
• Review run history after enabling bypass
• Prefer bypass for repeatable internal tasks with clear inputs and low blast radius

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Settings and global policy

The Settings page contains the global approval default that agents inherit by default. From Settings, admins can manage:

• The default approval mode used when an agent has no override
• Toolkit defaults for read tools and write tools
• Per-tool overrides for actions that should always be allowed, require approval, or be blocked
• Team access and workspace configuration that affects who can approve or operate agents

Agent builders can then choose whether an agent follows the default policy or overrides it with Ask approvals or Bypass approvals. The effective behavior is the combination of the global default, the agent override, tool policy, and any workflow gates.

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Recommended rollout

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Related docs