Human approvals

Approve a held action without moving the work into Slack

Ask one mapped person for one bounded decision while the task, policy, and evidence stay in Aestus.

Slack with Aestus

Keep the tool. Change what the team can see.

When a governed run needs a person, Aestus sends one bounded decision prompt. The card stays held under its policy. The response must match the configured Slack workspace and stable member identity.

The action button expires and works once. That limits copied or stale messages. If approved, the run continues with the approver and reason recorded beside the work. Slack carries only the context needed for that decision.

Good first workflows

Approve a customer export
Hold delivery and ask one mapped privacy owner for one short-lived decision.
Release a production change
Send a bounded release prompt while the deployment state stays in Aestus.
Reject an external write
Return the reason to the held workflow without turning a chat thread into the system of record.

A complete Slack example, from trigger to proof.

The example names the people, task event, tool boundary, returned evidence, and acceptance state. The run row below it is a fixed product example, not customer data.

Example — fictional team and data. Not a live run or customer result.

Inside the connected tool

What the approval looks like in Slack

The mapped approver sees one clear, short-lived decision. The held action and full evidence stay in Aestus.

# agent-approvals

Bounded decisions from Aestus

Aestus APP 10:11 AM

Customer export is waiting for your approval

Elena, approve the delivery of 2,418 customer records to the named compliance archive.

Task: AES-482 · Customer export
Held action: export_customer_data
Policy: PII-EXPORT-4
Expires: 10:26 AM · 15 minutes

Only the mapped approver can use this action. It can be used once.

Approve exportRejectOpen full task in Aestus ↗

Example — fictional team and data. Not a live run or customer result.

Concrete workflow example

Hold a customer export for one mapped approver

A workflow prepares a customer data export, then pauses before delivery and asks the assigned privacy lead for one bounded decision in Slack.

Triggerexport_customer_data reaches the approval gate

1
Aestus workflow
Prepares the export and pauses the delivery tool
The card stays held under the active policy while the file remains undelivered.
held · policy PII-EXPORT-4
2
Aestus for Slack
Sends one signed prompt to the mapped privacy lead
The message names the action, scope, requesting run, and expiry time.
workspace T024 · expires in 15m
3
Elena · Privacy
Approves once from the mapped Slack identity
A copied or expired action cannot be replayed by another member.
member U091 · token consumed
4
Aestus workflow
Delivers the export and records the decision
The actor, reason, policy, held action, and result stay in the evidence chain.
delivered · receipt a82c…411d

Example — fictional team and data. Not a live run or customer result.

Deterministic product example — not a production run

Hold the customer export for sign-off

Example run		Runtime	Outcome
EXAMPLE-SL-01	Aestus workflow	aestus	Completed	$0.02	15.0s

Tokens in / out: 4,800 / 300
Failure code: —
Agent: —

Example source: lib/marketing/integration-run-examples.ts

Example run cost

$0.0200 in the deterministic product example

The complete checked-in example defines this workflow cost. The approval message is part of the governed handoff, not a separate AI run.

Set it up in four steps.

Follow the real Slack connection path. Provider steps link to the provider documentation. Aestus steps name the contract they follow.

01
Connect Aestus for Slack
An organization admin opens Settings, Integrations, and completes the Slack OAuth connection.
Aestus contract: docs/runbooks/slack-interactive-actions.md
02
Confirm the workspace identity
Verify the connected Slack team ID before mapping any approver.
Aestus contract: docs/runbooks/slack-interactive-actions.md
03
Map stable member IDs
Map Aestus people to Slack user IDs; never infer identity from an email address or display name.
Aestus contract: docs/runbooks/slack-interactive-actions.md
04
Test one bounded decision
Send a non-production approval test and confirm that one authorized person can decide it once.
Aestus contract: docs/runbooks/slack-interactive-actions.md

The boundary stays visible while the work moves.

See what Slack can do, where a person still decides, and what Aestus records for every governed run.

Where control lives

The prompt is only a doorway

Slack presents the decision, but Aestus remains the source of task state and policy.

Identity is stable

The decision is accepted only from the mapped workspace and mapped Slack member.

Actions are short-lived

Signed action tokens expire after 15 minutes and are consumed once, limiting replay.

What Aestus records

Decision actor

The Aestus person, Slack team ID, mapped member, choice, and timestamp are retained.

Policy context

The held action and rule remain visible beside the card before and after the response.

Workflow cost

The host run keeps tokens, latency, cost, and failure code; Slack does not become a hidden model bill.

Questions teams ask

Can any Slack member approve?

No. Aestus checks the connected workspace and the stable mapped Slack user ID against the assigned approver.

Can an old approval button be replayed?

No. Interactive action tokens expire after 15 minutes and are consumed once.

Does the card move into Slack?

No. Slack carries a bounded prompt. The task, policy, state, and evidence remain in Aestus.

See all integrations See the security controls

Start with one Slack run.

Bring one real run. Map its actors, boundary, evidence, cost, and acceptance step.

Talk to us

Example — fictional team and data. Not a live run or customer result.

Concrete workflow example

Hold a customer export for one mapped approver

A workflow prepares a customer data export, then pauses before delivery and asks the assigned privacy lead for one bounded decision in Slack.

Triggerexport_customer_data reaches the approval gate

1
Aestus workflow
Prepares the export and pauses the delivery tool
The card stays held under the active policy while the file remains undelivered.
held · policy PII-EXPORT-4
2
Aestus for Slack
Sends one signed prompt to the mapped privacy lead
The message names the action, scope, requesting run, and expiry time.
workspace T024 · expires in 15m
3
Elena · Privacy
Approves once from the mapped Slack identity
A copied or expired action cannot be replayed by another member.
member U091 · token consumed
4
Aestus workflow
Delivers the export and records the decision
The actor, reason, policy, held action, and result stay in the evidence chain.
delivered · receipt a82c…411d

Example run

Runtime

Outcome

EXAMPLE-SL-01

Aestus workflow

aestus

Completed

$0.02

15.0s

Questions teams ask

Can any Slack member approve?

No. Aestus checks the connected workspace and the stable mapped Slack user ID against the assigned approver.

Can an old approval button be replayed?

No. Interactive action tokens expire after 15 minutes and are consumed once.

Does the card move into Slack?

No. Slack carries a bounded prompt. The task, policy, state, and evidence remain in Aestus.

Approve a held action without moving the work into Slack