HyperTeamsPending approval and operator rights
What this chapter covers Why some messages don't run immediately, what an operator is, and what you can do on the approval screen.
There are two kinds of waiting
The names are close enough that this is the most common confusion.
| Scheduled | Pending approval | |
|---|---|---|
| Who is waiting | The machine, for its turn | A person's judgement |
| Why it stopped | The previous item hasn't finished | The sender has no run rights |
| Where | Sidebar → Agents | Sidebar → Pending approval |
Operator rights
The idea only exists in selectively-visible groups.
graph TD
A["Group visibility"] --> B{"Visible to everyone?"}
B -->|"Yes"| C["Every workspace member runs immediately"]
B -->|"No (selected)"| D{"Does this person have run rights?"}
D -->|"Yes"| E["Runs immediately"]
D -->|"No"| F["Goes to pending approval"]Rights can be granted to a department or to a person. In the group's grantee list, turning on "run immediately" makes that grantee an operator.
Grant to departments. Grant to individuals and every staff move means editing every group.
What it is for
Three typical places.
| Situation | Why approval |
|---|---|
| A group with external intake (widget, email) | Unverified requests should not call tools directly |
| A group with new joiners | Let their instructions be seen for a few weeks |
| A group with irreversible tools | One person in front of sending, paying, deleting |
The approval screen
Each waiting message offers four actions.
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Approve | Runs as written |
| Edit and approve | Runs with your corrections |
| Reject | Does not run. You can leave a reason |
| Delete | Removes it from the record |
The second is the one used most. Usually the request is reasonable but the scope is too wide or the completion condition is missing — that is something to fix, not something to refuse.
Leave a reason when you reject. Reasonless rejections repeated a few times and people stop asking at all — which is when that group dies.
The settings travel with the request
A pending message does not store only the text.
So approving three days later runs it under exactly the conditions the sender intended.
Common misunderstandings
"Can I require approval in a fully-visible group?"
No. In a fully-visible group every workspace member is an operator. If you want an approval step, make the group selectively visible and narrow the run rights.
"Approvals pile up and nobody looks"
There are no operators, or too few. Approval spends human time, so a group that will always have a queue needs operators granted at department scale. A group where that isn't possible should narrow its tools instead of adding approval.
Check yourself
1. How does pending approval differ from the scheduled queue?
Answer
Scheduled means the machine is waiting for its turn; pending approval means a person's judgement is required. It happens when the sender has no run rights in that group.
2. Where do operator rights matter?
Answer
Only in selectively-visible groups. In fully-visible groups every workspace member can run immediately.
3. Which action is used most, and why?
Answer
Edit and approve. The request is usually reasonable but too wide or missing a completion condition — something to fix rather than refuse.
Now divide the permissions up yourself. Forty minutes → Actually divide up the permissions