Approvals for AI actions

Docs · AI control

Choose whether each AI action runs automatically, waits for the visitor to confirm, or waits for a teammate to approve. This guide covers the three modes, the teammate timeout, and what happens when a tool changes after it was approved.

Before you start

  • Difficulty: Medium
  • Time: 15 minutes
  • You need: An admin or owner account to change approval modes
  • You need: Your own HTTP tools or the built-in actions turned on

Steps

  1. Open AI Tools

    Go to AI & Answers → AI Tools. Each of your HTTP tools and each built-in action has its own approval mode.

  2. Choose a mode for each action

    Runs automatically: the AI calls the action when it decides to. Visitor confirms first: the visitor sees a confirm card and can confirm or decline. A teammate approves: the request appears in the inbox with Approve and Reject.

  3. Know the defaults

    A custom tool that makes a GET request runs automatically, and any other method asks the visitor first. Among the built-in actions, these ask the visitor first: capture contact details, create a ticket, notify Slack, collect details, escalate to a helpdesk and book a meeting time. Hand off to a human and the other built-in actions run automatically.

  4. Set the teammate timeout

    Open AI & Answers → AI Guardrails and set the approval timeout in minutes, from 1 to 1440 minutes. It applies to every teammate approval in the workspace and starts when the request is made. The default is 15 minutes.

  5. Test the actions before you go live

    On Test AI answers, a scenario turn can check that the AI calls an action, or that it does not. Use it to confirm that each action waits where you expect it to.

The three modes

  • Runs automatically: The AI calls the action with the arguments it chose, and the result goes back to the AI.
  • Visitor confirms first: The AI saves the exact arguments and shows a confirm card that begins: Before I go ahead, please confirm: The action runs only if the visitor confirms.
  • A teammate approves: The AI saves the exact arguments and tells the visitor: I need a teammate to approve this before I can go ahead. I'll continue as soon as they confirm. The action runs only if a teammate approves.
  • Visitor confirmation timing: A visitor can answer the confirmation for 24 hours. After that the action does not run.
  • Teammate approval timing: The request expires after the workspace timeout (default 15 minutes). The visitor is then told: Sorry, I couldn't complete that because the team didn't confirm it in time. Would you like to talk to a person? That message is sent only while the AI still has the chat.
  • Channels without a confirm card: On channels other than the website widget, a visitor confirmation becomes a teammate approval, because those channels cannot show a confirm card.

Good to know

  • An approved action runs at most once. A double click or a retried job does not run it again.
  • The saved arguments are what runs. The AI cannot change them after a decision.
  • A decision covers the tool as it was when the request was made. If you edit the tool before the approved call runs, the call is refused, the audit log says approval is required again, and the AI has to ask again.
  • The approval record covers the tool's name, description, method, URL, auth header name, whether a secret is set, its enabled state, its approval mode and its parameter schema. Replacing only the value of a secret does not change it.
  • A tool set to Runs automatically has no approval to go stale, so an edit takes effect on its next call.
  • Every decision is logged with who made it and when.

What you will see

  • A confirm card in the widget, or an Approve and Reject request in the inbox.
  • An outcome on each request: approved, rejected by a teammate, declined by the visitor, or expired.

Common mistakes

  • Setting a write action to Runs automatically. It then runs on the AI's request, with no one confirming.
  • Expecting the teammate timeout to apply to visitor confirmations. They stay answerable for 24 hours.
  • Editing a tool while an approval is waiting. The approval keeps the earlier definition, so the approved call is refused and the AI must ask again.
  • Expecting a changed secret value to ask for approval again. Only a change to the definition does.
  • Expecting a visitor confirmation to appear on a channel without a confirm card. It becomes a teammate approval there.

Guardrails narrow what the AI says. Approvals control what it does.