Tool Approval in Assistant Chat
When Assistant needs to run certain tools—like web search or specialized agents—it may pause mid-run and ask for your permission. An approval card appears inline above the composer, letting you allow or deny the tool call before the conversation continues.
When You'll See an Approval Card
Not every tool call requires approval. The approval card appears when:
Web search is triggered by your query
Sub-agents (like drafting or analysis agents) are invoked
Other gated tools your organization has configured require permission
The card shows which tool is requesting access, so you always know what action is about to run.
How the Approval Card Works
When a tool pauses for approval, you'll see a card with two split buttons:
Allow — Let the tool run and continue the conversation
Deny — Skip this tool call and proceed without it
Each button has a dropdown that lets you choose how long the approval or denial lasts.
Scope Options
Both Allow and Deny offer four scope choices:
Scope | What It Means |
|---|---|
Once | Applies only to this specific tool call. The next time this tool is triggered, you'll see the approval card again. |
Conversation | Applies to all future calls of this tool in the current chat. You won't be asked again in this conversation. |
Matter | Applies to this tool across all chats in the same matter. New conversations in this matter will skip the approval card for this tool. |
Forever | Always allow or deny this tool across all your chats. You won't see the approval card for this tool again. |
Scope resolution checks in order: conversation first, then matter, then forever. A more specific rule takes precedence. If you previously set "Allow forever" and then choose "Deny conversation," the deny applies in that conversation—the forever rule still holds for other chats.
What Happens After Your Decision
If You Allow
The tool runs immediately and Assistant continues its response. If you chose a persistent scope (conversation, matter, or forever), future calls of this tool in that scope will skip the approval card.
If You Deny
Assistant skips the tool call and continues with an alternate approach or explains what it would have done. The conversation doesn't end—you can keep asking follow-up questions or try a different request.
If you deny a web search, Assistant will work with the documents and context you've already attached, but won't pull in external web sources.
If You Deny All Planned Tools
When multiple tools are queued and you deny all of them, Assistant provides a graceful explanation instead of failing. It describes what it would have done and offers alternative approaches. The chat remains open for follow-up questions.
Timeout Behavior
If you don't respond to an approval request, it expires automatically after 5 minutes (300 seconds). The request is treated as denied, and Assistant continues with available context.
The expired request appears in the chat with an explanation, so you know why the tool didn't run.
Managing Your Tool Permissions
Since scope choices can persist across conversations, you may want to review or change past decisions:
To change a "forever" rule, trigger the same tool again and choose a different scope.
Conversation-scoped permissions reset when you start a new chat.
Matter-scoped permissions apply only within that matter's chats.
Related Resources
Assistant Overview — the main workspace guide
Ask August Assistant — how to submit queries