Approvals
Decide whether a bot asks before it acts, set rules for each kind of action, and read and answer an approval request.
Bots take real actions, like running programs, changing files, and sending email from your connected apps. Approvals decide which of those a bot checks with you first.
Two settings work together:
- the approval level, a quick choice in the message box, and
- What needs your OK, optional rules for each kind of action, in the bot's settings.
The approval levels
| Level | What happens | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Ask for approval | Before it runs a command, changes a file, or uses an app, the bot stops and asks. You see exactly what it wants to do. | Learning how bots work. Sensitive work. A new bot you don't know yet. |
| Approve for me | Machine says yes for you, so the bot keeps going. It still stops to ask before anything is sent or deleted. | Work you're comfortable with. Long tasks you want finished without watching. |
Under Approve for me, the menu says "This provider has no automatic review; behaves like Ask". That means no extra AI checks each step for you. What the bot may do on its own comes from the level and your rules in What needs your OK, described below.
With either level, a bot changing its own setup (its routines, skills, profile, or model) goes ahead and leaves a note in the chat that you can undo. See Notes in the chat.
Cloud threads are a safe place to experiment
In a normal (Cloud) thread, everything happens on the bot's own computer in the cloud, not yours. The worst it can do there is make a mess of files on that computer, which you can throw away by deleting the thread. That's why many people use Approve for me for cloud threads once they're comfortable. Sending and deleting still ask. Work on your own computer has extra protections. See Safety and stopping.
Change the level
- Make sure the bot isn't working. (You can't change it mid-turn.)
- Click the approval button in the message box, next to the paperclip. The menu asks "How should Machine actions be approved?".
- Choose Ask for approval or Approve for me.
The level is set per thread. A bot's Approval level in Bot settings → Permissions is the default for its new threads. Existing threads keep their own level.
Levels are saved on Machine, so they're the same on all your devices.
What needs your OK
For finer control, open Bot settings → Access → What needs your OK. Each kind of action gets its own choice: Default, Ask, Allow, or Block.
| Kind of action | With Default under Ask for approval | With Default under Approve for me |
|---|---|---|
| Send or post | Asks | Asks |
| Delete | Asks | Asks |
| Change files | Asks | Allowed |
| Run commands | Asks | Allowed |
| Open the web | Asks | Allowed |
| Use This PC | Asks | Allowed |
| Change its own setup | Allowed, with a note | Allowed, with a note |
| Everything else | Asks | Allowed |
A rule you pick always wins:
- Ask: always stop and ask, whatever the level.
- Allow: always go ahead, whatever the level.
- Block: never. The bot stops and the chat says Blocked by your rules.
For example, Alex at Northwind keeps the Inbox bot on Approve for me so it can sort and draft freely, but sets Delete to Block so it can never remove an email.
These rules are kept on the device where you set them. See Bot settings.
This PC has its own safeguards
Use This PC covers your own screen, files, and apps. This PC also has its own permission requests and ways to stop a bot instantly. See Safety and stopping.
A thread that works on This PC has one more switch, Ask before each action, in its folder menu. It's a second, separate check: when it's on, Machine also holds each action on your computer until you approve it. When it's off, that extra check is skipped, but the approval level and the Use This PC row above still apply. Under Ask for approval, the bot still asks before it uses your computer.
Answer a request
When a bot needs your OK:
A card appears
In the chat, a card says what the bot wants, like "Scout wants to run a command", with the exact command or change underneath. It says Waiting for your answer below.
The message box becomes Pending approval
The message box is replaced by a panel that shows:
- the question, like Run a command? or Send email with Gmail?, with Scout is asking · Pending approval under it,
- one plain sentence on what allowing it does, starting "If you allow it, …". For example: "If you allow it, the bot runs this command on its own computer. Your computer is not touched.",
- the full details, never shortened.
If several requests are waiting, it shows 1 of 3 and so on.
Choose
| Button | What happens |
|---|---|
| Allow once | This one action runs. The bot carries on. |
| Allow all 3 | Shown when several requests are waiting. Allows every waiting request in this thread, once each. It never covers anything that sends, deletes, or uses This PC: those always get their own answer. |
| Deny | The action doesn't run, and the bot stops here. |
| Cancel turn | The bot stops completely. |
The card then shows Allowed or Denied.
Allow all never includes anything that sends, deletes, or uses This PC. Those always need their own answer, one at a time, so you see each one before it happens.
When you deny, the bot doesn't look for another way around your answer. The turn ends with a note: You said no, so Scout stopped here. Send a message to carry on another way, for example "Save it as a draft instead."
If Machine Desktop is in the background, you get a notification naming the bot and the action, like Scout: Run a command?. Click it to go straight to the request. The bot waits as long as it takes.
Notes in the chat
Sometimes your rules answer for you. Then there's no card, just a one-line note in the chat:
| Note | Means | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Changed its own setup | The bot changed one of its routines, skills, its profile, or its model. The line shows what it ran. | Click Undo to ask the bot to put it back the way it was. The button then says Undo sent. Wait for a running turn to finish first. |
| Blocked by your rules | A rule set to Block stopped an action, and the bot stopped there. | Send a message to carry on another way, or change the rule. |
How to read a request
Most requests are one of a few kinds:
A command: a line of text the bot wants to run on its computer. For example:
npm installinstalls the tools a website project needs.
python analyze.py sales.csvruns a script the bot wrote, on a file you gave it.
A file change: which file the bot wants to change, and how.
An app action: something in one of your connected apps, named in the question, like Send email with Gmail?.
If you don't understand a request, click Deny, then ask the bot:
What were you trying to do with that command, and why?
It will explain in plain words, and you can decide.
Things to look out for
Take a closer look before allowing anything that:
- deletes files or folders (look for words like
rm,delete,del), - sends something to the outside world (email, messages, uploads),
- spends money or changes an account,
- uses a password or key you didn't expect.
Machine's own safety rules mean bots shouldn't do these things unless you asked, but approvals let you check for yourself.
Stop a bot asking about the same thing
Each request is answered on its own. If a bot keeps asking about one kind of action you're happy with, set that row to Allow in Bot settings → Access → What needs your OK. To make it ask again, set the row back to Default or Ask.
Approval requests from Machine bots have no Always allow button, so this is the way to stop a bot asking about one kind of action.