Approvals - Human-in-the-Loop Decisions

Use approval_create to pause and wait for human input before proceeding. Useful in workflows, dangerous operations, or any decision that needs human judgment.

Approval Types

• yes_no: Simple approve/deny (default)
• choice: Multiple options - renders as interactive buttons for easy selection
• text: Free-form text response from the user

How It Works

1. Call approval_create with a title and optional type/choices
2. Agent pauses - no further tools execute until the approval resolves
3. User responds (approve, deny, choose, or type) via the inline card, /approval answer, or chat
4. Agent resumes with the user's decision

Expiry

• Default: 7 days
• Max: 30 days
• In-chat tool approvals: 10 minutes
• Expired approvals are automatically cleaned up

Behavior Rules

• While an approval is pending, all non-approval tools are blocked
• approval_* tools (list, answer, cancel, create) stay callable so the agent can manage the queue
• After 2 denials of the same tool in a conversation, further attempts are hard-blocked
• Destructive operations (DROP TABLE, recursive delete, TRUNCATE) automatically trigger confirmation - you don't need to call approval_create manually for these

In Workflows

• Use wait_for_input step type for workflow-level approvals
• The workflow pauses until the user responds
• Great for: expense approvals, content review, deploy gates, data deletion sign-off

Tools

• approval_create: Create a pending approval
• approval_list: Check pending and resolved approvals
• approval_answer: Approve, deny, or reply to a pending approval (same capability as a human answering the card)
• approval_cancel: Cancel a pending approval without a decision - unblocks any waiting agent