Approvals on the web and your phone

Approvals are the human gate

An approval is a pause that only a person can end. Use them for anything that sends, shares, spends or installs, and anything you would not want to undo. They are the strongest practical control against both mistakes and prompt injection, because the agent cannot approve its own request.

What a good approval looks like

An approval should tell you three things: what the agent wants to do, with what exact data, and why it is asking. PGB Agents shows a summary and a Details section with the exact arguments, such as the recipient and the full message text.

Approving well

• Read the details, not just the summary. The summary is a headline.
• Check the recipient and the numbers. These are where mistakes and attacks hide.
• Deny when unsure. Denying is cheap: the agent is told the request was refused and carries on without it.
• Do not approve on autopilot. If you find yourself tapping Approve without reading, the agent is asking too often. Narrow its work or add a guardrail so only the truly risky steps ask.
• Act on patterns. If the same denial happens repeatedly, fix the instructions.

Where to decide

• On the web. The Approvals link in the top bar shows a number badge when something is waiting. Open it and each card says " wants to use ". Choose Details, then Approve or Deny. Show history reveals earlier decisions, and the same card appears at the top of the run page.
• On your phone. The PGB Agents mobile app has an Approvals tab, and a notification preference for agent approval requests. Turn it on and you are alerted when something is waiting, and can read the request and decide without opening a laptop. Check Settings in the app to see which notifications you receive: approval requests, failed runs and budget alerts.

Rules that protect you

• Only you see and decide your approvals.
• Your rights are checked again when you approve. If the agent is no longer yours, no longer active, or no longer lists the tool, the request is marked denied.
• Requests that nobody answers eventually expire, and the agent is told.
• Cancelling or deleting an agent expires its pending requests.

Approvals in PGB Business

If an agent uses a PGB Business key with agent rules, a message can be held in PGB Business Approvals as well. Two gates are intentional for outgoing mail: you approve the agent's action, and the mailbox's own rules may hold the message for an owner or administrator. See the course "Agents for Business Teams".

Try it yourself

1. Run an agent that asks for approval, such as one with notify.email ticked.
2. Open Approvals, choose Details and read the exact email.
3. Deny the request and read how the agent responded in the trace.
4. If you have the mobile app, open its Approvals tab and check your notification settings.

Recap

• Approvals are a human gate that the agent cannot pass by itself.
• Read details, check recipients and numbers, deny when unsure and avoid approving on autopilot.
• Decide on the web in Approvals or in the mobile app, and expect two gates for outgoing business mail.