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# Approvals, steering, and run controls

The assistant drafts and proposes. **You decide what to approve.** This page
covers the approval cards, steering the agent between steps, and the run
controls. For the run page layout and timeline, see
[Run a playbook](/workspace/playbooks/run-a-playbook).

## Approval gates

A run reaches a gate that you set on an action (see
[Build a playbook](/workspace/playbooks/build-a-playbook)). Its status becomes **Waiting
for approval**. An **approval card** appears inline above the timeline,
badged **Approval needed**. There are two kinds.

### Before action (pre-approval)

Labelled **Before action**. Shown before the agent dispatches the action.
The card contains:

* the agent's **rationale** for the step it proposes;
* **Documents to include** — checkboxes. Clear the files the agent must not
  use;
* **Proposed parameters** — the action's payload. You can edit it.

Choose **Approve** to let the action run. Choose **Reject** to send it back.

### Output review (post-approval)

Labelled **Output review**. Shown after the action produces a result, so you
can check the result before it commits. The card lists the source documents
and any **artifacts**.

An embeddable artifact opens a fullscreen review surface, for example an
extraction table. Inspect or edit the result there before you approve. Saving
changes there saves only your table edits. The agent resumes when you
approve. The approve button reads **Approve & resume agent**.

Approving an extraction output "adds the extracted records to Data, with every
extracted field marked approved." The records land in the space
[Data](/workspace/data/records) tab.

<img src="https://fdr-prod-docs-files-public.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/cloudraker.docs.buildwithfern.com/9db189e8419bc395fd382e14a60e6ccb0f3fe2fab8f6af08565c90377c839d09/docs/assets/images/guide/playbooks/approval-card.png?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA6KXJSKKNFOCF7G4B%2F20260826%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20260826T020744Z&X-Amz-Expires=604800&X-Amz-Signature=7c3b3cc776b8d740d0afb8de2594885784d7e6a3a26fe3cdc9556a49011811fa&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&x-amz-checksum-mode=ENABLED&x-id=GetObject" alt="An 'Approval needed' card for the Invoice extraction action labelled Output review, showing the agent rationale, the source documents, and the Reject and 'Approve & resume agent' buttons" />

### Rejecting

To reject, add a note and confirm. The prompt reads **"Add a note so the agent
can adjust."** The agent uses your note to retry or adjust its approach.

**Who approves:** anyone with enough access to the space who looks at the
run. An approval is a single decision on the card. It is not a request routed
to a named person. Contributing to a space grants the ability to decide.
See [Members and roles](/workspace/admin/members-and-roles).

<a id="steering" />

## Steering the agent

The **steering composer** sits at the bottom of a live run: **"Add guidance for
the next agent step."** Type your guidance and click **Steer**. The guidance
applies **between** the agent's steps. Helper text reads "Guidance applies
between agent steps." Your message appears in the timeline as your event.
When the run finishes, the composer is disabled ("This run has finished and no
longer accepts guidance.").

<a id="run-controls" />

## Run controls

For a live run, the controls sit in the header.

* **Pause** / **Resume** — pause the agent and pick it back up. A paused run
  shows **Resume**.
* **Stop** — opens a confirm dialog ("Stop this run?" — "The agent will stop
  after the current operation. A downstream action may continue running.").
  Confirming marks the run **cancelled**.
* **More run controls** (the **⋯** menu) — **Skip current action** when the run
  is Waiting for approval, or **Skip running actions** when it is Waiting for
  action. Skipping cancels the in-flight action(s) so the run can move on.

<img src="https://fdr-prod-docs-files-public.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/cloudraker.docs.buildwithfern.com/0539a4df4539abdba484e46ff886d9f8f0238353f012040c565075b6e72ce331/docs/assets/images/guide/playbooks/run-controls-menu.png?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA6KXJSKKNFOCF7G4B%2F20260826%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20260826T020744Z&X-Amz-Expires=604800&X-Amz-Signature=1451b162284e93ccf1313d928958fc61a15c8ed74f08f603fc918ba277b594dc&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&x-amz-checksum-mode=ENABLED&x-id=GetObject" alt="The run header with the Pause and Stop buttons and the More run controls menu open showing 'Skip running actions'" />

## Where to go next

#### [Run a playbook](/playbooks/run-a-playbook)

The run page, statuses, timeline, and comments.

#### [Build a playbook](/playbooks/build-a-playbook)

Set which actions pause for approval and behind which tasks.