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Review before it acts

When an Action proposes a real-world step that has not been pre-approved—such as sending an email, changing a calendar event, or moving messages to Trash—Chief pauses and surfaces a confirmation. Which controls you see depends on who owns the connected account and whether you can authorize the step.

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The “Action required” card

Pending steps appear in an Action required section, grouped by tool (for example Email or Calendar), with a count of how many are waiting. Each card shows exactly what will happen — the email’s recipients and subject, or the event’s title, time, and attendees.
  • Approve appears when you are allowed to authorize the step. Click it to proceed. The card updates to a confirmed state, such as “Email sent” or “Calendar updated.”
  • Always allow approves the step and saves permission for that operation, so later matching steps can run without asking. The label names the operation, such as Always allow sending email, Always allow calendar edits, Always allow Notion edits, or Always allow server name. Afterward, the card confirms that the operation now runs without asking and shows Manage.
  • Reject cancels the step. The card shows “Cancelled,” and nothing is sent.
  • Edit appears only when you can approve the step and its details are editable. Use it to adjust details, such as an email body, before approval.
Always allow is available only to the person the write was proposed for. It does not appear for deletes, writes proposed by an Action, or older pending steps that do not identify a permission Chief can save.

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Who can approve a proposed step

Some operations run through the personal account of the person Chief proposed them for. Only that person can approve or edit these operations:
  • Sending email, changing Gmail drafts, or moving Gmail messages to Trash.
  • Creating, updating, deleting, moving, or responding to Google Calendar events.
  • Creating or updating Google Drive documents.
  • Running a tool on an MCP server that uses OAuth, per member authentication.
If another Project member opens one of these pending cards, Chief hides Approve and Edit, leaves Reject available, and shows Only the person this was proposed for can approve it. Operations that use a shared Organization connection, such as Notion or Slack, can be approved by another eligible Project member. The same is true for MCP servers that use Token, org-wide or Public authentication. For operations inside Chief, the approving member generally needs permission to perform the underlying change; approval can fail if that access is missing.
ℹ️ Good to know: The Action required section is pinned outside the run’s collapsible timeline. The controls available to you remain accessible while you review the rest of the run.

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Skip the confirmation step

Chief: Confirming an Action before it runs — Skip the confirmation step
If you trust a step and don’t want to confirm it every time, choose Always allow on an eligible confirmation card. You can review or turn off saved permissions from Settings › Tool permissions; the card’s Manage link opens that page. For an Action that should run unattended, you can also pre-approve the operation under Permissions when you create or edit the Action.

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FAQ

The step was already approved or rejected, possibly in another tab. For shared-connection or Chief operations, another eligible member may have approved it. A personal-account operation can only be approved by the person it was proposed for, although another member can reject it. No further action is needed.
The step reached the tool but the tool reported an error (for example the connected account lost access). The card shows “Action failed. Please try again.” Reconnect the tool and re-run, or send manually.
The card names the server and shows Reconnect server name. Use that button to start the connection again, then ask Chief to retry. You can also manage the server under Connected accounts.
Yes — an unapproved step stays pending until you respond. If you want unattended runs to complete on their own, pre-approve those operations in Run without asking.
The step uses another person’s Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, or per-member MCP account. Only the person Chief proposed it for can authorize a write through that personal connection. You can reject the pending step, or ask that person to review it.