Decide what agents can do
Each agent has Permissions, which control which actions it takes on its own and which wait for someone to approve them. For each kind of action there are three settings:
- Allow: it goes ahead.
- Ask first: it asks for approval and waits.
- Don’t allow: it can’t do it, and it can’t ask to.
Presets
A preset sets every row at once. There are four:
| Preset | What it means |
|---|---|
| Read only | Looks things up. Never changes anything. |
| Ask for changes | Asks before it changes your Drive or workspace, or uses a connected app. |
| Ask for apps | Asks before it uses a connected app. Everything else runs, including Drive changes. |
| Full access | Never asks. |
New agents start on Full access. If a Full access agent can send email, anyone who uses it can have it send email with no check. Change the preset before you share an agent that can reach important apps.
Set an agent’s permissions
- Go to Agents > the agent > Permissions. You need edit access to the agent.
- Pick a preset from the Preset menu. Ask for changes suits most new team agents.
- Change single rows if you need to. Changing a row turns the setup into Custom. Click Save as preset… to reuse it on other agents.
Use Don’t allow for things that must never happen, such as deleting files in a shared drive. Don’t set everything to Ask first, though. If people see too many approvals, they stop reading them and click Allow without looking.
Answer approvals
When an agent asks, a card takes the place of the composer in the task and the bell on the rail shows a count. Click Review under the bell to see every waiting approval in one place. A task waiting for approval can look stuck, so check there first.
On each approval, click Allow once, or click the arrow beside it for Allow all … until this task is done or Always allow …, which asks you to confirm. “Until this task is done” saves clicks without changing the rules for future tasks. Always allow adds the action to the agent’s Always allowed list on its Permissions tab. That list keeps growing over time, so check it now and then.
If you find yourself always granting the same approval, change that row to Allow.
On newer organizations. With the newer permissions system, an agent works with its own access. The person who asks it doesn’t change what it can reach, so set its Access and Permissions carefully before you share it.