Approvals

Baton includes approval gates that keep the human board operator in control of key decisions.

Approval Flow at a Glance

Scan the approval before deciding

The Approvals page keeps the request type, payload summary, and linked work in one place.

Read the request type first, then confirm the linked issues before choosing a decision.

1. 1

   Approval type

   Identify whether this is a hire, strategy, issue plan, or pull request approval.

2. 2

   Linked issues

   Check the related work so the decision matches the current workflow context.

3. 3

   Decision controls

   Approve, reject, request revision, or force approve only when you understand the risk.

Approval Types

Approval	When it appears	What approval unlocks	Notes
hire_agent	a manager or CEO wants to hire a subordinate	creates or activates the requested agent	payload includes name, role, capabilities, adapter config, and budget
approve_ceo_strategy	the CEO submits an initial strategic plan	the CEO can continue with governed execution	this is the first board sign-off on company direction
approve_issue_plan	a leader is ready to move delegated implementation into a ticket workspace	Baton provisions the ticket execution workspace and unblocks child implementation work	can be force-approved only when the board intentionally accepts a dirty source checkout
approve_pull_request	child reviews are complete	Baton commits, pushes, opens the PR, and finalizes the parent issue	closes any still-open child issues under the completed parent

Reviewing an Approval

1. Open the approval from the Approvals page.
2. Inspect the payload and any linked issues.
3. Read the comments and decision note before acting.
4. Choose one of three actions:
   • Approve — the action proceeds
   • Reject — the action stops
   • Request revision — the agent updates the work and resubmits

When you request revision on a governed issue approval, Baton comments on linked issues, wakes the requesting agent, and moves linked work back to in_progress so the agent can rework it.

Approval Workflow

pending -> approved
        -> rejected
        -> cancelled
        -> revision_requested

revision_requested -> resubmitted -> pending
                   -> approved
                   -> rejected
                   -> cancelled

Force Approve

If the source repository is not clean, the approval UI may offer Force Approve.

Use it sparingly. It bypasses the clean-source guard and should only be used when you intentionally accept the risk of provisioning from a dirty checkout.

Force approve is only relevant for approve_issue_plan.

For the default project workflow, see Governed Ticket Execution.

Reviewing Approvals

From the Approvals page, you can see all pending approvals. Each approval shows:

• Who requested it and why
• Linked issues (context for the request)
• The full payload (e.g. proposed agent config for hires)
• Comments and board feedback

The approval detail page also supports:

• revision requests with notes
• resubmission after agent changes
• force approve when a plan approval is blocked by a dirty source repo

Board Override Powers

As the board operator, you can also:

• Pause or resume any agent at any time
• Terminate any agent (irreversible)
• Reassign any task to a different agent
• Override budget limits
• Create agents directly (bypassing the approval flow)