Agentican Docs

Approvals

Human-in-the-loop controls that keep you in charge of what agents do.

Overview

Approvals are Agentican's human-in-the-loop system. They ensure agents don't take irreversible or sensitive actions without your explicit consent. When an agent encounters an approval gate, it pauses and waits for your review.

Types of Approvals

Agentican has two distinct approval mechanisms, each configured in a different place:

Tool Call Approvals

Tool call approvals are configured per-function in tool settings. When you toggle "require approval" on a specific function (e.g., Slack's send_message), every agent that calls that function will pause and wait for your review — regardless of which plan or step is running.

The approval request shows:

  • Which tool and function the agent wants to call
  • The full parameters/data being sent
  • The step and task context

You can approve the call to let it proceed, or reject it to stop the agent from executing that action.

Tool Approval Required ✕
Send message

Send a message to a Slack channel or user

Input 
{
  "channel": "#sales-team",
  "text": "Hi team — the Q1 competitor analysis for Acme Corp is ready for review. Key findings: they've launched a new enterprise tier at $299/seat undercutting our pricing by 15%. Full report attached.",
  "unfurl_links": false
}
Reject Approve

Output Approvals

Output approvals are configured per-step when building a plan. When enabled, the agent completes its work and then pauses for your review before dependent steps can proceed. This is useful for review checkpoints — for example, approving a draft before the next step sends it.

The approval request shows the step's full output so you can review quality and accuracy before the workflow continues.

Draft executive summary ✕
Content Strategist
Competitor Analysis: Acme Corp

Market Position: Acme Corp has gained 12% market share in the mid-market segment over the past two quarters, primarily through aggressive pricing and a simplified onboarding flow.

Key Threat: Their new enterprise tier at $299/seat undercuts our pricing by 15%. Early feedback from 3 churned accounts cites cost as the primary switching factor.

Recommendation: Introduce a competitive response bundle that highlights our superior integration ecosystem (993 vs their 340) and approval-based governance features they lack entirely.

Reject Approve

Configuring Approvals

The two approval types are configured in different places:

  • Tool call approvals — Go to the Tools page, click the gear icon on a connected tool, and toggle "require approval" on individual functions
  • Output approvals — When editing a plan step, enable the approval toggle. The step shows an amber indicator when approval is required

Recommendation: Use tool call approvals for sensitive external actions (sending messages, modifying data). Use output approvals for quality checkpoints where you want to review an agent's work before it flows to the next step.

Reviewing Approvals

Pending approvals appear in multiple places:

  • Tasks page — Tasks with pending approvals are grouped under "Approval Required" at the top
  • Task detail — The specific step shows an approval badge
  • Real-time notifications — SSE events update the UI as approvals arrive

Click on a pending approval to open the review modal, which shows the full context of what the agent is requesting.

Approval Timeout & Auto-Approval

Both approval types have a timeout (default: 1 hour). If an approval is not reviewed within the timeout period, it is auto-approved so the workflow can continue:

  • Tool call approvals — The tool call is marked as expired and the agent continues execution as if the call was approved
  • Output approvals — The step is automatically marked as finished and dependent steps proceed

This prevents workflows from stalling indefinitely when a reviewer is unavailable.

Best Practices

  • Start with approvals on — Enable approvals for new plans until you trust the agent's behavior
  • Reduce friction over time — As you gain confidence in a plan, disable approvals on steps that consistently produce good results
  • Keep approvals for external actions — Always keep approvals on steps that send emails, post messages, or modify external data
  • Review promptly — Pending approvals block task execution, so review them quickly to keep workflows moving
← Tasks Chat →