One of three levels of human oversight for automated tasks. Autonomous runs freely. Queue holds drafts for approval. Notify requires explicit confirmation before and after execution. Configured per client, per task.

Approval Tier

An approval tier defines how much human oversight a scheduled task requires before its output takes effect. The three tiers match automation level to risk level.

The Three Tiers

Tier 1: Autonomous

Runs, writes output, no human needed. The agent acts on its own authority.

Used for observation tasks — ranking scans, review monitoring, competitor snapshots, citation audits. These collect data and write findings but don’t publish, send, or change anything externally.

Tier 2: Queue for Approval

Runs, produces a draft, holds until a human approves. Nothing goes live until approved.

Used for content creation tasks — GBP posts, review responses, client-facing reports. The draft lands in the drafts/ directory with an approval request sent to Slack or email. The human replies APPROVE, REJECT, or EDIT.

Drafts that aren’t acted on within 72 hours auto-archive with a note in the brief.

Tier 3: Notify Before and After

Highest stakes. Notifies before execution, waits for explicit go-ahead, executes, then confirms completion.

Used for externally visible actions — client emails, GBP publishing, website content publishing. Double confirmation ensures nothing goes out accidentally.

Configuration

Approval tiers are set per task (via the TASK.md template) and can be overridden per client (via the brand brief). A task might default to queue but be set to autonomous for a client who trusts their agency to post without preview.

Four actions always require explicit human approval regardless of configuration: client GBP publication, emails to clients or third parties, website content publishing, and any action difficult to reverse.

  • Scheduled Task — the automated workflow governed by approval tiers
  • Brief — where approval configuration is stored (in the brand brief)
  • Notification — the alert mechanism used to request and confirm approvals