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Module 02 · The CEO

Approvals

Risky steps wait for your Approve. See what asks, how to approve or reject on the Approvals screen, your standing approval rules, and how auto-approve works.

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Your assistants ask before they do anything that is hard to undo or that people outside your company can see. You answer with Approve or Reject. Nothing in this category runs until you decide, unless you have turned on auto-approve for that kind of step.

What asks and what does not#

StepAsks you?
Opening a pull requestYes
Pushing a branch or changing code on your repositoryYes
Opening an issueYes
Sending mailYes
Creating a calendar eventYes
Charging a customerYes
Spending your money: ads, boosting a post, payments, subscriptions, paid mediaYes, always, with no switch to turn off
Registering a domainYes
Changing DNS records or nameserversYes
Deploying to productionNever, until you change the default rule. Then yes, unless you turn on auto-approve for production actions
Posting on social mediaNever, until you change the default rule. Then yes
Deleting, closing, or removing something in a connected serviceYes, unless you turn on auto-approve for deletions
Reading, searching, or listingNo
Reviewing a pull request or checking CINo
Drafts that are not sentNo
The Coder editing files in its own workspaceNo

Where you answer#

  1. Answer in the chat where the request came from. A step that waits sits in the answer, right at the step that asks, with Approve and Reject. If notifications are on, the bell tells you when one waits and takes you there.
  2. Or open Approvals. It lists everything waiting, across all your chats. You find it in Settings, under Elsewhere in StellarFirm, and you can pin it to the sidebar from there.
  3. Read what the request says, then choose one.
ChoiceWhat happens
ApproveThe assistant carries out that step, and only that step.
RejectThe step is cancelled and nothing is sent, pushed, or created.

The job stays open while it waits. You do not have to answer right away.

What a request shows#

Each request says what the assistant wants to do and where. For a pull request, that is the repository and the work it is about to publish. You can also open the job in Jobs to read the Coder's changes before you decide.

A request to register a domain names the registrar, what it charges now and for each renewal year, and the registrant contact that will be used. To use other registrant details for that one domain, reply with them before you approve; the assistant posts a new request. A request to change DNS lists every record or nameserver it will set.

Your approval rules#

Your approval rules are standing instructions that stay until you change them. Each one is either:

  • Ask me first: "Ask before the Coder runs a command on its computer." The step waits for your Approve.
  • Never allow it: "Never let any assistant ship to production." The step does not happen at all, and there is nothing to approve. The assistant tells you what it would have done.

You start with two rules, marked Default:

  • Never let any assistant ship to production.
  • Never let any assistant post on social media.

Change them on Approvals whenever you like. Ask me instead turns a never rule into an ask, Never allow does the opposite, and Remove drops a rule. StellarFirm asks you to confirm before a change that lets more happen. If you remove a default, Add the defaults back brings it back. Add your own rules for any assistant, for any kind of step, and only when a step mentions words you choose.

StellarFirm also learns from what you approve and reject. When you keep rejecting the same kind of step from one assistant, it suggests a never rule. When you always approve the steps one of your ask rules holds, it suggests removing that rule. A suggestion changes nothing until you take it, and Dismiss drops it for good. StellarFirm never approves a step or changes a rule on its own.

No auto-approve switch lifts a rule.

Auto-approve#

Auto-approve is your switch, and only you can turn it on. Every category starts off.

  1. Open Settings and go to Auto-approve. The same switches sit at the bottom of the Approvals screen.
  2. Turn on a category. StellarFirm asks you to confirm, in plain words, and warns that the assistant may do something unexpected.
  3. Choose the Yes answer to turn it on, or No, keep asking me to leave it off.

With a category on, the assistant does that kind of step without asking and tells you afterwards in the same chat. Turning it off takes effect straight away.

CategoryWhat it covers
Production actionsShipping to production.
DeletionsDeleting or closing things in a connected service.

Auto-approve also never covers a step that needs your Approve for some other reason.

Routines and loops#

A routine or a loop never skips an Approve. Anything it sends, publishes, creates, or spends waits for you on every run, exactly as if you had typed the message yourself. A loop does not start its next run while the last one is still waiting for you.

Auto-approve and house rules#

Auto-approve is the "what you allow without asking" half of your house rules. The other half is the rules you write in your company brief. Together they decide what the assistants do after the work.

Prompts to try#

PromptSee what is waiting

CEO, list everything waiting for my approval, with one line on what each step will do.

PromptExplain a request

CEO, explain the approval request for [job] in plain words: what will happen if I approve it, and what happens if I reject it?

PromptSet a standing rule

CEO, I never want [assistant] to [kind of step] without asking me first. Which approval rule should I add?

PromptCheck what asks

CEO, remind me which kinds of steps ask for my approval and which ones do not, given my current settings.

Next#