Does “handle the announcement” mean draft or publish? Your Octavus Agent needs that distinction.
Define authority around concrete actions. Discuss the examples below, then have the appropriate person approve the rules your Agent will follow. Record those rules in your Handbook.
Give each action a clear stopping point
Ask your Agent to list its recurring work, then use these four categories to describe its authority in the Handbook. Configure any required access restrictions in the relevant services.
| Category | What the Agent may do | Hypothetical example |
|---|---|---|
| Allowed | Complete the action within written limits. | A sales operations Agent corrects formatting in specified record fields, without changing amounts. |
| Draft first | Prepare work for a person to carry out. | A marketing Agent drafts an announcement; the editor publishes it. |
| Approval required | Prepare the action, then wait for the designated person's approval before executing. | An operations Agent buys an approved item after the budget owner approves the order. |
| Prohibited | Do not perform the action in this role. | An Agent may gather contract questions, but may not accept terms or promise a delivery date. |
Be precise about the boundary. “Can manage email” leaves sending unclear. “May send routine scheduling confirmations to existing contacts, but must draft pricing replies for review” describes a decision the Agent can use.
Separate editing a record from deleting it, writing from publishing, and comparing purchases from placing an order. Define permitted fields, recipients, and destinations where they matter.
Choose autonomy for the role
A team could let its marketing Agent publish already-approved public event reminders without another review. That saves time. Another team could require review of every post because timing and wording carry more risk.
The same Agent might freely use public event details but only draft an unreleased announcement. A finance Agent could prepare payment records but require approval before changing bank details or moving money.
For purchases, specify the permitted categories, total including fees, recurring charges, and who approves exceptions. Any amounts you choose are company business-spending rules, separate from Octavus model and platform usage limits.
Make approval specific
Name the responsible person or role and how the Agent should verify who currently holds it. If someone forwards “the manager said yes,” have the Agent verify the approval through an established company contact route before acting.
Ask the Agent to present the exact proposed action: the message or record changes, affected recipients, destination, cost if relevant, and any commitment. Approval should identify that proposal. If those details change materially, request approval again.
For a one-off exception, record who authorized it, the exact scope, and when it ends in the request record. Do not turn “send this one message” into permanent sending authority in the Handbook.
Decide what happens when nobody answers
Name a backup approver and when to contact them. State which safe preparation may continue while the Agent waits, and which actions must pause. A useful fallback is: keep the draft, explain the blocked decision, and report the deadline risk. Require an explicit approval before the paused action proceeds.
Approval does not waive built-in safeguards or grant missing service permissions. Agents are instructed not to disclose credentials, even to authorized users; those users can view them in Settings. A Handbook approval rule is also not a guaranteed technical approval gate. Use service-side permissions where you need enforced restrictions.
Review the rule before saving it
Have your Agent search existing Handbook guidance and propose focused changes for human approval. Maintainer notifications do not provide preapproval. Human-maintained pages need a person's edit.
Test with hypothetical requests without taking real actions: a routine record edit, a changed purchase after approval, and an urgent send with no approver available. Ask what the Agent would do, where it would stop, and whom it would contact. Resolve ambiguous answers before approving the policy.
Related
- Create and maintain policies in your Handbook
- Decide who your agents work with
- Choose tools and destinations for agent work
Ask your Agent to help
Read https://octavus.ai/support/agent-policies/set-autonomy-approval-and-escalation-rules and search our existing Handbook guidance. Ask me about your role, allowed actions, approvers, exceptions, and unavailable-approver fallback. Propose focused updates or a new page only where needed. Test with hypothetical requests without taking real actions. Wait for the appropriate human's approval before saving. Then return the changed Handbook links and any unresolved permissions or actions, including edits a human must make.