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Open source Require approval for tools that change data, contact users, or reach external systems. The agent pauses before it calls an approval-gated tool, and a reviewer approves, edits, or denies the call from the agent inbox.

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Require approval for tools

Choose where to set approvals based on how you run the agent:
  • Agent presets (recommended): Open the preset, select the Tools tab, expand the tool’s group, and set the tool to Ask. Every ai.preset_agent run and chat with the preset uses that setting.
  • MCP integrations: Turn on Approval for a tool on a remote MCP integration. Approvals are not supported for stdio MCP servers.
  • ai.agent: Set tool_approvals on the action. Keys are action names, and true requires approval.
For example, set core.cases.update_case to Ask on a case-triage preset, then run it from a workflow:
The agent pauses before it calls core.cases.update_case and waits for a decision in the inbox. A pause for a tool approval does not count toward the agent timeout. The workflow-level timeout still bounds the whole run, including approval waits.

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Set approvals on a preset

Each tool in a preset’s Tools tab has a toggle:
  • Auto: The agent calls the tool without asking.
  • Ask: The agent pauses before the call and waits for a decision in the inbox.
Click the toggle to switch a tool, then click Publish version in the top right. To change a whole group, right-click it and choose Require approval for all or Run all automatically. Set a tool to Ask on a preset A group with tools on Ask shows a badge such as 1 need approval. Tools from attached skills appear under From skills with the same toggle. An MCP integration row shows the same badge for tools that require approval on the integration.

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Review tool calls in the inbox

Open Inbox from the workspace navigation. Runs waiting on a decision appear under Review required, and the sidebar badge shows how many are pending. Your workspace role needs inbox:read to open the inbox, and agent:execute to submit a decision or reply to a run.
  1. Select a run to open its session and the pending tool call.
  2. Choose Approve, Edit + approve to change the tool arguments, or Deny with an optional reason.
  3. Click Submit.
An approved call runs and the agent continues. A denied call does not run, and the agent stops instead of retrying the tool.

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Availability

Tool approvals and the agent inbox are open source. Enterprise Edition Enterprise adds:
  • Chatting with agents and approving tool calls from Slack through agent channels.
  • View agent runs on a case, which opens the inbox filtered to agent runs for that case.