Approve in the console

You approve a held call from the console or with strazactl, and the agent's retry runs on your decision.

Who

You, as an admin who decides held calls

Where

The console in a browser, or a terminal with strazactl

Profile

Standalone and enterprise

You decide the calls a policy holds for a person, as an admin, in the console or with strazactl. Every call a mode: approve rule holds waits on the Requests tab of the Approvals area, whatever other channels the deployment has. By the end of this page you have approved one, watched the agent’s retry run, and read the record your decision left.

A held gateway call runs the moment you approve, and a decision made here is final for that request. An unanswered request expires into a deny.

Before you start

• An account with straza-admin, or a delegated admin role that covers the approvals area. Only a person signs in here. An AI agent is refused on every admin route, whatever roles it holds.
• A pending request, such as the one Hold a call for a person raises.

Admin standing is what opens the area, and the rule that held the call is what names the decider, so the two are separate questions. The role that one MCP server names opens that server alone and never the approvals area, so a server admin cannot decide here.

A person who is not an admin decides on the self-service page at /self-service/, the address every pending reason names. Approve in the browser shows that path, where each decision is signed by a key that stays in the person’s browser.

1. Sign in

   Open the console at your server’s address, http://localhost:8420/console/ on the demo stack, and press Sign in with a code. The line under the button says who the console is for: Admin roles only. Anyone else lands on the self-service page, still signed in.

   A code appears under Enter this code at your identity provider:. Press Open the sign-in page, sign in at your identity provider in the new tab, and grant the request. The card says Waiting for authorization until you do. On a standalone host the same button opens the server’s own sign-in page.

   

   You should see

   The console lands on Overview, the first area in the sidebar.

   Your session token lives in this tab only, so a closed tab means a fresh sign-in. The self-service page reads the same per-tab key, which lets a sign-in on one of them resume on the other.

   Terminal administration

   strazactl login --server http://localhost:8420

   strazactl prints an address to open and a code to confirm. Open the address, check that the code matches, and sign in.

   You should see

   Logged in as, followed by your name.

2. Find the request

   1. Approvals
   2. Requests
   3. Waiting

   

   The Requests label carries the number of requests that wait. Above the table sit the filters Waiting, Decided and All, a search box that reads Search who asked, calls, rules, and a count of what is shown. With two requests waiting in the example, that count read 2 requests wait, 2 yours to decide.

   Each row has five columns: Asked, Who asked, Call, Who decides and State. Here is the held get-sum call as the queue rendered it, one column per line, with the second line of a cell under the first.

   ASKED         1 m ago
   WHO ASKED     joe-java-developer-agent
                 01a0e9b2-cc62…
   CALL          demo-tools  get-sum
   WHO DECIDES   alice  yours
                 joe-java-developer-agent's sponsor
   STATE         hold  16 s left
                 the agent is waiting now

   • Who asked names the requester, joe-java-developer-agent, with the id of the session that made the call below the name.
   • Call carries the MCP server demo-tools in a chip of its own, with the tool name beside it.
   • The badge yours marks a row this account may decide.
   • hold says the agent’s call is on the line right now. ticket marks a request the agent was told to come back for, and its row reads runs later, after a yes under the chip. Tickets raises one.

   Deny and Approve close the row, in a last column that carries no header.

   Terminal administration

   strazactl approvals list

   The list prints one row per pending request, a held call and a ticket alike, under the columns ID, STATE, REQUESTER, SUMMARY, ROLES, EXPIRES and DECIDED BY. ROLES names the roles whose holders may decide the request. Copy the id of the request you mean.

3. Read the request

   Select the row to open the request. The sheet is titled Approval request. A strip under the title carries the kind, hold, and what that means: The agent is waiting right now for your answer. The time left stands at the right of the strip, 14 s left over then the call is denied, and a thin meter under the strip drains with it.

   

   The body reads in the order of the decision:

   • joe-java-developer-agent wants to call stands over a box with the tool, get-sum, and the MCP server demo-tools in a chip beside it.
   • A folded line, Parameters · 2 values, opens a table of what the agent passed to the tool as the server stored it. Secrets are redacted, and the whole preview is cut at 2 KiB.
   • Show as JSON and the hash, inside it, shows the same arguments as JSON with the fingerprint the approval binds. For this call that read sha256 6b604dd458ac….
   • One line places the call: through the MCP gateway · asked 1 m ago · sponsored by you.
   • The agent’s reason comes next, in quotes, over the line The agent's own words. Nobody checked them. This call carried no reason, so it read The agent gave no reason.
   • Two boxes say what each button does. IF YOU APPROVE reads The call runs now, once. and IF YOU DENY reads The call does not run. The agent is told who said no.
   • One sentence says who can decide: You (alice), as joe-java-developer-agent's sponsor. Nobody else.

   The last line of the body, Details, is folded while the request waits. It opens the record as one table of facts, with a label on every row.

   Requested by     joe-java-developer-agent · sponsored by alice
   Session          01a0e9b2-cc62… · Open session · Open transcript
   When             1 m ago · 2026-09-28 20:26:58 UTC
   How it came in   through the MCP gateway
   Decide by        14 s left · until 2026-09-28 20:28:58 UTC · then the call is denied
   Policy rule      demo-tools-get-sum-approve in policy demo-tools-sandbox-access

   Session and Policy rule carry links into the Sessions, Transcripts and Policies areas. The buttons at the foot of the sheet are Close, Deny and Approve.

   Terminal administration

   strazactl approvals list --wide

   --wide prints each request as a block instead of a row. The block adds the redacted call preview under parameters (preview):, the agent’s reason under stated reason (unverified):, and the line that says what an approval covers.

4. Decide

   1. Approve
   2. Approve request

   Press Approve, on the row or at the foot of the sheet. A second dialog asks Approve get-sum for joe-java-developer-agent? and says what happens next: The call runs now, once, and the agent's session gets the answer. Type your own words under Reason, optional, plain text up to 500 characters, and press Approve request.

   

   You should see

   A toast says Approved. get-sum runs now for joe-java-developer-agent., and the row leaves the Waiting filter.

   Deny asks in the same shape. On the example’s ticket row it asked Deny get-env for joe-java-developer-agent?, with The call is denied and the agent is told who denied it. under the question, and its button read Deny request. Once every request is decided, Waiting reads No pending approval requests.

   Terminal administration

   strazactl approvals approve <id> --reason "The change window is open until 18:00"

   You should see

   One line, approved <id> (by <your name>).

   strazactl approvals deny <id> denies in the same shape and answers denied <id> (by <your name>). A reason is optional and at most 500 bytes.

   The console and strazactl approvals reach the same admin endpoint, so the record names the channel console either way.

   The server checks every decision when it arrives, whatever surface sent it:

   • The request must still be pending and inside its window.
   • You must be a decider it names at that moment. By default that is the person behind the agent, or a holder of one of the approver roles the rule names.
   • A decision on your own request counts only from an enrolled phone or browser, never from the console or strazactl, unless the operator sets approval.unsignedOwnDecisions. When approver roles carry your own request, the rule must also set selfApproval.
   • An AI agent is refused whatever roles it was given.

   Repeating a verdict that already landed changes nothing. The opposite verdict on a resolved request is refused.

   If this fails

   This is your own request.

   The console does not decide a request you raised. Confirm it on your enrolled phone, or in a browser you enabled on the self-service page, as Approve in the browser shows.

   The window closed while this was open, so the call was denied.

   The request’s window ran out before your answer landed. The agent’s next try raises a new request.

   This request is no longer yours to decide: followed by the server’s reason

   The server checked again and no longer counts you as a decider of this request. The reason after the colon says why.

   <call> for <requester> was already approved by <person> from <channel> <time>, so there is nothing left to decide here.

   Another person who may decide answered first. Nothing more is needed.

5. See the decision

   1. Approvals
   2. Requests
   3. Decided

   

   The row keeps the state word and adds who decided it, from where and in what words. The request above then read Approved over by alice from the console, 8 s ago · “Expected call from the build job”. Opening that row shows the badge Approved in the strip, beside one sentence that says who decided. Details stands open, with the decision at the top of the same facts table.

   Decided by    alice from the console · 2026-09-28 20:28:45 UTC · 9 s ago
   Their reason  “Expected call from the build job”
   Signed with   the console session

   The Signed with row names the console session, because a decision made here is carried by the session that made it. A decision from an enrolled phone or browser is signed by that device’s own key, and the row then names the device.

   Terminal administration

   strazactl approvals list --state all

   The DECIDED BY column names the person who decided each request. --state also takes approved, denied or expired.

6. Watch the retry

   The agent’s next identical call runs without asking again. Behind it sits one run of that exact call for that session and rule, kept in the database and good for the rule’s retryTTLSeconds. The demo stack’s rule sets timeoutSeconds: 120 and retryTTLSeconds: 120. That is two minutes to decide, and then two minutes for the agent to use the approval. Lifetimes and timeouts lists the defaults and limits of both settings.

   In the example, joe’s client had stopped waiting when a second request for the same call was approved the same way. The next identical call from that session came back with the tool’s own answer.

   {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":9,"result":{"content":[{"type":"text","text":"The sum of 2 and 40 is 42."}]}}

7. Read the record

   1. Audit
   2. Lens
   3. approvals

   

   Terminal administration

   strazactl audit tail --type straza.audit.approval

   The approval leaves three audit records: the request phase written when it opens, the resolution phase written when it is decided, and the consumed phase written when the approved call runs. This is the resolution record of the call above, as the audit API returned it.

   {
     "approvalId": "01a0e9b5-34ff-755a-a64b-0539a6338197",
     "channel": "console",
     "decidedBy": "01a0e97b-b571-723c-ae36-fcebb51ac719",
     "decidedReason": "Expected call from the build job",
     "lane": "gateway",
     "phase": "resolution",
     "rule": "demo-tools-get-sum-approve",
     "session": "01a0e9b2-cc62-7c79-85e7-f950c4729e29",
     "set": "demo-tools-sandbox-access",
     "state": "approved",
     "summary": "mcp.call demo-tools:get-sum",
     "user": "01a0e97b-cc2e-7555-926b-25954f31e3dc"
   }

   The retry lands as a record of its own, a straza.audit.mcp event with "effect": "allow", next to the record of the first call the rule held. That record carries no approval id, because the decision was made once, on the request above.

Undo

A decision cannot be taken back. An approved hold is used once, by the call that is still held when its wait ends or by the agent’s retry within retryTTLSeconds, and otherwise lapses. A denied one stays denied. If you approved in error and the retry has not run yet, revoke the session that asked.

Revoke session?
Every agent action in this session of joe-java-developer-agent is denied within
seconds. A session revoke is a stand-down, not a ban: the same device can check
in again as a new session. To cut access off entirely, revoke the device or lock
the user on their Users sheet.
                                                    Cancel   Revoke session

strazactl sessions revoke <session-id>

Next

• Approve in the browser lets a person who is not an admin decide from the self-service page.
• Approve on a phone adds a phone that signs each decision with its own key.
• Slack posts each held call to a channel with Approve and Deny buttons.
• Approvals explains who may decide which request.

Walked on v1.1.0-117-g106081a8 on 2026-10-06. The CLI form on a throwaway standalone server in a Linux container, where the admin decided a hook hold and a ticket that dana's machine raised and revoked the session that asked. The console form and the gateway retry were walked in headless Chromium against the demo stack on v1.1.0 on 2026-09-28 and not again, because deciding there writes to the shared stack. That walk's held call was the agent joe's gateway call to demo-tools get-sum, and the denied one his get-env ticket. Console screenshots show strazad v1.1.0-117-g106081a8, standalone.