Jobs and approvals

Chat with a Relay

Open a Relay. Its Chat column sits beside the work on the right, titled Chat with [Relay]. If the Relay is also reachable on Slack, Teams, or email, the subtitle says so (Also on …). Type in the box labelled Send message to the Relay's name. The switch next to it decides what happens:

• Message — a normal conversation. Ask questions, get explanations, or talk through a piece of work.
• Assign as job — turn the message into a job the Relay works on and reports back about.

A Relay has to be published before you can chat with it. A job started from Chat links back with Started in your Chat with [Relay].

Assign a job

Click Assign job in the Relay's header. The Assign to [Relay] dialog has:

• Examples — the Relay's example jobs, to start from
• Title
• What do you need?
• Done when — how the Relay can tell it is finished
• Use these resources — any data it should focus on

Click Assign. Anyone who can work in the team space can assign a job. Assignment fails if the Relay is paused, retired, not yet published, or has reached its daily job limit.

Jobs also come from routines, from hand-offs by other Relays, from Slack, Teams, or email channels, and from sources a Relay watches.

Job states

Inside a job

Open a job from the Work tab or Needs you. It shows who is Accountable (the Relay), who it was Requested by, who it Runs on behalf of, the Relay Version it ran on, its Source, and when it was Created and Completed. Below are:

• Objective, with Done when
• the review card, if an action is waiting
• Outputs — what it delivered. See Outputs.
• Tool calls — each step it took and its outcome: Ran, Held for review, Refused, Failed, or Simulated. Anything other than Ran also shows the rule and the reason.
• Result — its write-up, marked Written from evidence only when every claim is backed by evidence
• Evidence for each claim
• Handed-off jobs

Use Pause, Resume, Hand off, or Cancel from the job.

Hand off passes part of a job to another Relay you allowed in setup. The receiving Relay must be published and active, works with its own connected resources for the same delegating person, and never gets more access. Work can be passed on at most twice in a chain, never back to a Relay already in it, and a job can hand off at most six times in all. On Observe, a hand-off needs approval.

Auto-review

Before a Relay does something that changes anything — in a connected tool, a workflow, or a computer app — and its rules already allow it, auto-review checks the action first. It looks for signs that a person should look:

• it is the first time this Relay uses that tool,
• a person declined this tool in the last 7 days,
• the tool failed 3 or more times in the last 24 hours,
• the tool ran 20 or more times in the last hour (a burst), or
• the action does not fit the job. This check uses the Relay's decision model, when one is set, and errs on the side of asking.

If every check passes, the action runs, and its log entry says auto-reviewed. If any check fails, the job stops at Waiting for review with Auto-review asked a person: and the reasons. In Chat (outside a job), the action is refused instead, and the Relay suggests assigning it as a job.

Auto-review can only send an action to a person. It never lets through anything the rules hold for approval or block. Reading data is never held.

Approvals

When an action needs approval — because the rules say so, or auto-review asked — the job stops at Waiting for review and a review card appears on the job and in Needs you.

The card shows exactly what will happen: the Target, the full email or event, attachments, attendees and whether they will be notified, and when the review Expires. For an action in a connected tool, it shows the Tool, Service, Effect (Reads, Makes a change, Deletes or cancels, Moves money, or Runs a workflow), Why it asks, and the Parameters (secrets hidden).

• Approve. The button names the action — Approve & send, Approve & book, Approve & move, Approve & cancel meeting, Approve & run once, or Approve. Your approval covers exactly the content shown. The job goes back in the queue, the Relay checks access again, and carries out the action once.
• Decline. You must give a reason. The job is cancelled and the reason is shown on it, so the Relay can learn from it.
• Edit (in Needs you) opens the job. An approved action cannot be changed in place.
• Expiry. A review that nobody decides before it expires (24 hours by default) shows Review expired and nothing is carried out.

The first decision wins. Review states are Waiting for review, Approved, Declined, Review expired, Done, and Not done.

Who can approve: the approvers named in setup, or — if none are named — the Relay's owner, its steward, and workspace admins.

Approve the same kind of action often enough and the Relay will suggest a rule so you don't have to. See Rules suggested from your approvals.

How a Relay reports back

A Relay posts updates into your Chat with it and raises a notification at the same time. It reports when:

• a job is completed or fails,
• a review is needed,
• it needs more input from you,
• a hand-off comes back, or
• something it is watching needs attention.

Updates go to the person who delegated the work, plus the approvers for reviews and the failure contacts for failures.