Approval Backends

Choose how tool approvals reach a human — console prompt, plan mode, accept-edits, or a chat channel

Pick who (or what) approves a tool call — the terminal, a coding-mode fast path, or a chat channel that fans out to Slack/Telegram/Discord.

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="coder",
    instructions="Edit files carefully.",
    tools=["write_file"],
    approval="console",
)
agent.start("Refactor utils.py")

The user triggers a risky tool; the chosen approval backend prompts or routes the decision to a human.

Available Backends

How It Works

A risky tool call pauses until the chosen backend collects a human decision.

Backend Matrix

Backend	Where it runs	One-line meaning
console (also true/yes/1)	Standalone	Ask on the terminal, y/N
none (also false/no/0)	Standalone	Auto-approve everything (unsafe)
auto	Standalone	Auto-approve safe read-only tools
plan	Standalone	Coding-mode plan approval
accept-edits	Standalone	Auto-accept file-edit tools
bypass	Standalone	Approve without prompting (dev)
agent	Standalone	Delegate to a reviewer agent (see below)
slack	Wrapper	Approvals routed to Slack
telegram	Wrapper	Approvals routed to Telegram
discord	Wrapper	Approvals routed to Discord
webhook	Wrapper	Custom outbound HTTP webhook
http	Wrapper	Inbound HTTP approval endpoint
secure	Wrapper	Secure-mode policy (audit-logged)
presentation	Wrapper	Presentation/demo-safe policy

Wrapper backends (slack, telegram, discord, webhook, http, secure, presentation) require pip install praisonai.

---

Quick Start

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="Code assistant",
    instructions="Help refactor code files.",
)
agent.start("Refactor utils.py")

1. Choose your approval mode

   Terminal

   Ask the user on the terminal before each risky tool call:

   praisonai-code run --approval console "Refactor utils.py"
   

   Coding fast path

   Use plan/accept-edits mode (Claude Code-style flow) for unattended coding runs:

   praisonai-code run --approval plan "Refactor utils.py"
   

   accept-edits auto-accepts file edits; plan requires explicit plan approval before execution.

   Chat channel (wrapper)

   Route approvals to a Slack channel:

   praisonai run --approval slack --approval-timeout 300 "Refactor utils.py"
   

   Channel backends (slack, telegram, discord, webhook, http, secure, presentation) require pip install praisonai.

---

--approval-timeout

--approval-timeout takes seconds. Pass none to wait indefinitely.

praisonai-code run --approval console --approval-timeout 60 "..."
praisonai-code run --approval slack --approval-timeout none "..."

---

Reviewer-Agent Mode (--approval agent)

When you pass --approval agent, a built-in LLM reviewer gates every tool call. The default reviewer instruction is:

“You are a security reviewer. Only approve low-risk read operations. Deny anything destructive. Respond with exactly one word: APPROVE or DENY”

praisonai-code run --approval agent "List all files and summarise the project"

The reviewer responds with exactly APPROVE or DENY for each pending tool call. You can override the default instruction by passing a custom reviewer prompt via the API:

from praisonaiagents import Agent
from praisonaiagents.approval import AgentApproval

reviewer = Agent(
    name="strict-reviewer",
    instructions="Only approve file reads. Deny everything else. Reply APPROVE or DENY.",
)

agent = Agent(
    name="Assistant",
    instructions="Help with coding tasks.",
    approval=AgentApproval(approver_agent=reviewer),
)
agent.start("Read and summarise main.py")

---

Unknown-Backend Error

If you pass an unrecognised backend name, the CLI raises:

Unknown approval backend: '<value>'. Valid options: console, plan, accept-edits, bypass, auto, agent, none, discord, http, presentation, secure, slack, telegram, webhook

Use this to trap typos — the valid list is alphabetically sorted within the wrapper group.

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Best Practices

Use console in interactive dev, agent for unattended runs

Use console in interactive dev, agent for unattended runs where a reviewer LLM can gate tools.

Pair accept-edits and plan with praisonai-code code

accept-edits and plan are the coding-mode fast paths — pair them with praisonai-code code.

Never use none outside throwaway sandboxes

none disables approval entirely; only use it in throwaway sandboxes.

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Related

Local Tools Loading

Approval decides who says yes to your local tools.

Approval

The full approval system — dangerous tool gating, TTY detection, and safe defaults.