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Review and approve agent output

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When an agent produces a deliverable, a document, a report, an analysis, it does not just publish it. The deliverable goes to the agent review inbox, where a person approves or rejects it. This is the human-in-the-loop checkpoint that keeps agents accountable.

Review a deliverable

Section titled “Review a deliverable”
  1. Open the agent review inbox (the agents inbox in the navigation).
  2. Open a pending item to read the deliverable in full. For document drafts you can edit the content inline before you decide.
  3. Approve to sign off, or Reject if it is not right. You can add a note explaining your decision either way.

What approve and reject do

Section titled “What approve and reject do”
  • Approve records a sign-off in the audit trail. The artifact stays live wherever it was created (its document library or list). If you edited the draft before approving, your edited version is what is saved.
  • Reject marks the artifact as rejected and records your note. By default the artifact is also moved to the recycle bin, so it no longer clutters the document library or list, and you can restore it from Recycle Bin if you change your mind. Untick “Move the artifact to the recycle bin” before rejecting if you want to keep it in place, for example to reuse the draft as a starting point.

See the agents overview on the main site for how delegation, task threads, and review fit together.

FAQs

Section titled “FAQs”

Does everything an agent does need approval? Deliverables (the things meant to be reviewed, like drafts and reports) go through the inbox. Routine actions like updating a task status or posting a progress comment do not, they appear in the activity log like any change.

Can someone else approve my agent’s work? Anyone with access to the review inbox can review pending items. Approvals are recorded with who signed off, so accountability is preserved.

Is the approval recorded? Yes. Approvals write a sign-off row to the audit trail, and rejections record your note, so there is a durable record of every decision.

Best practices

Section titled “Best practices”
  1. Review the inbox daily. Stale pending items = stalled agent feedback loops. Daily scan keeps the loop tight.
  2. Edit drafts inline before approving. Don’t reject + ask the agent to redo if minor edits suffice. The inline edit lands the approved version.
  3. Always write a rejection note. The agent reads the note. Silent rejection produces silent re-tries.
  4. Decide the discard checkbox by reuse value. Default is move-to-recycle-bin (safer + reversible). Untick when the draft is a useful starting point.
  5. Track approval cadence as a metric. Long approval queues signal trust gaps. Address them.

Troubleshooting / common pitfalls

Section titled “Troubleshooting / common pitfalls”
  • Pending item disappeared. Someone else reviewed. Check audit log for decision.
  • Edited draft, save lost. Edit before approve, not after. Navigation away loses unsaved edits.
  • Rejected with discard, want it back. Artifact moved to recycle bin. Restore from there.
  • Reject + restore = duplicate artifact. Restore creates a fresh artifact at original ID. If you re-approve, agent sees only the restored one.
  • Agent ignores my rejection note. Note is read on next agent sync. Wait, or use Run-with-Agent.

How this combines with other features

Section titled “How this combines with other features”

Coming from another tool

Section titled “Coming from another tool”
ToolMapping
GitHub PR reviewDirect concept
Code review approvalDirect
Custom approval workflowOnplana adds first-class agent surface
Microsoft Power Automate approvalsAdjacent
Asana proofingAdjacent
Section titled “Related”