Approvals in workflows
Where humans decide around workflows — approving the AI editor's changes to a definition, approving an agent's request to run a workflow, and answering the questions that pause a run.
3 min read
Workflows run without you, but they change and start only with you. Three human gates surround every workflow: the AI editor's changes to a definition apply only after you approve them, an agent that wants to run a workflow needs your sign-off first, and a run that hits a question pauses until someone answers. This page covers the three gates; the org-wide story of what an approval card is lives on Approval concepts.
Approving changes to a definition
Ask the AI editor to build or rework a workflow and its proposal lands as a card in the panel — a Create workflow card with the step count for a new definition, or an update card badged by scope: Update step for a single-step patch, Update {count} steps for several, Update workflow for a full save. Approve and the change is applied and versioned like any manual save; Cancel discards it. Nothing touches the definition while the card is pending.
Approving a run
An agent in chat with the workflow tools can ask to start a workflow. The request arrives as a card naming the workflow — expand Show parameters to inspect the exact input it will run with — and holds until you click Run workflow or Cancel. After approval the same card tracks the live run: the current step, elapsed time, and the outcome, with Stop to cancel mid-flight and View execution details to jump to the run's journal.
Answering a paused run
A run that needs a human answer pauses with the Waiting for input status in the execution list. The question arrives as a form card — fill it and click Submit response, or click Reply differently to push back in free text. The run resumes with your answer as the step's input, and the journal records who answered and what.
What each decision leaves behind
Every gate resolves to the same states — Pending, Executing, Completed, or Rejected — visible on the card itself, and the decision lands in the audit log with the actor and timestamp. A resolved card cannot be re-opened; to retry a rejected run, ask again and decide the fresh card.
Where this fits
These gates are the workflow-side face of one product-wide pattern: an agent proposes, a human disposes. Approval concepts names every card type beyond workflows — document writes, knowledge writes, integration calls — and Configure approvals shows where the requirements are declared.