Ask an agent to do it

Today an agent can read and file what you drop, but setting up the workspace around that — making a channel, changing its name or instructions, turning on capture — is still yours to do by hand, screen by screen.

This makes one promise: you can just ask. Ask an agent, in a channel or its DM, to do an ordinary Woodstock task, and it does it — except when the task would change your workspace. Then it doesn't just go ahead. It tells you in one plain sentence what it wants to do, and waits for your tap.

1 · You ask, it shows you, you approve

That message is the approval card: one sentence, written from the exact request, and two buttons. The sentence names the channel and who will be able to see it, because that is what you are agreeing to. There is no form to read and nothing hidden under a heading.

The agent doesn't stand and wait. It finishes its turn and moves on to other work, the way an assistant would say "let me know once you've approved" rather than standing over your shoulder. The request stays in the conversation, ready whenever you are.

Ask for several at once

Ask for the same kind of change more than once in one message, like “Create sales, legal and ops”, and you get one approval for all of them, not one each. One tap creates every channel it names.

• All or none. Approving creates every channel it names or, if one can't be created right then, none of them. You see which one failed and why, and Approve all stays there to try again.
• No picking and choosing. You approve or decline the whole request. If you want fewer, tell the agent; it asks again, and you tap Not now on the old request.
• A new message, a new approval. “Also create finance” later is asked for on its own; a request that's already waiting never grows.
• Still the agent's permission. If the agent's permission to create channels is taken away after it asks, approving creates nothing and says so.
• Different changes stay separate. Only repeats of the same change share one approval. Combining different changes into one approval is still coming; see below.

Revised card

The approval moment can be much simpler: a short message, then a clear choice. The card still appears in the conversation and still asks before it changes the workspace.

Asking approval

Result

Result with interrupting messages

Input

2 · Every state of an approval

Whatever happens, the conversation shows it, and keeps showing it, so anyone scrolling back later sees where things stand. Someone who isn't the one being asked sees it too, but can't tap.

3 · It waits — however long, however busy the channel

Approve the moment you see it, or two hours and a dozen messages later. The approval is tied to the request, not to where it sits in the chat, so scrolling back up to tap Approve always works. When you do, it flips to Approved in place, and the agent's reply appears at the bottom, where you are. You never have to hunt.

Until you approve, the agent calls a channel what it is: waiting for your approval. Ask for several channels at once and they share one approval (see Ask for several at once). After every tap the agent picks the request back up knowing where each of its requests stands, so its reply says what just went live and what is still waiting on you: "#sales, #legal and #ops are live."

Ask what's there

Before an agent changes a channel, it has to know which one you mean. You can ask it about the workspace's channels and agents directly. Looking is not a change, so there's nothing to approve.

• Channels: each listed channel's name, whether it's archived, and a summary of its capture setting and agent. Archived channels come up when you ask about them ("is there an old expenses channel?").
• This lookup is limited. It shows up to 100 matching public channels at a time. A channel can have more than one governing capture rule; the summary may show only one. The agent says when there are more channel matches or capture rules and does not claim this is a complete capture audit.
• Agents: the workspace's agents by name, so "have Librarian file them" points at the right one.
• "This channel" means the one you're in. The agent always knows which channel you're talking in, so "what channel is this?" gets its real name, even when the conversation mentions others.
• Two with similar names? The agent doesn't quietly pick one. It tells you about both, or asks which one you meant.
• Public channels only, for now. This lookup never lists a private channel or DM, even the one you're talking in. Private-channel lookup will come later.
• The agent needs these tools switched on in its settings, like any other tool.

Change a channel

Ask an agent to rename a public channel, change its description, or update the instructions it uses. It looks up the channel first, then shows the exact change for approval.

• Every change to a channel, together. Ask for all the changes you want to a channel in the same request. Changes to several channels in one reply share one approval, with a line for each.
• Nothing hidden. The approval names the channel and each change, and shows the new description or instructions in full beneath it, so you approve the exact words that will be saved. Clearing one says so.
• Public, active channels only. Private channels, DMs, and archived channels are not changed this way yet.
• A fresh request if it changed. If someone changes the same setting after the approval was shown, approval leaves it alone and asks you to make a fresh request from the current channel.

Tell a channel what to file

Once a channel exists, you can tell an agent what it should file there, instead of opening Channel settings yourself. Name the channel, the agent that should do the filing, what kinds of drops it should pick up, and anything it should know.

Tap Approve and the channel files from then on, exactly as if you had saved it in the channel's settings: the next PDF dropped in #reimbursements is filed by Librarian, following your instructions. Channel settings → Auto-capture shows the new setting.

• You don't have to spell it out. The agent writes the instructions from what you want the channel for, the way a teammate would. Asking you in one line when you didn't say what matters is still Coming soon.
• Just want it on? Say so ("no instructions needed") and the agent turns filing on without writing any, the same as switching it on in Channel settings.
• Every instruction, in full. Instructions are what the agent follows for every future drop, so the approval quotes them word for word under the sentence, however long they are. Nothing is shortened or hidden: you approve exactly what gets saved.
• "This channel" and "here" work. "Have Librarian file images here and in #tennis" proposes the channel you're typing in, not one named earlier in the chat. In a private channel the agent says so: filing can only be changed from chat for public channels.
• Only what you name changes. "Only PDFs" turns the other kinds off in that channel. Changing the agent keeps the instructions you already had for the other kinds. Instructions you don't mention stay as they are.
• Replacing someone else's setting says so. If another agent files there today, the sentence says whose place it takes: "…instead of Accountant." If the channel follows the workspace default, it says that too, and only this channel changes. The workspace default is never touched.
• Turning filing off reads the same way: "Marcie wants to turn off filing in #reimbursements, so Librarian stops filing the PDFs posted there."
• Already set that way? The agent tells you there is nothing to change, and no approval appears.
• A teammate changed it first. If someone saves a different setting in Channel settings while the approval waits, approving changes nothing and the card says why: "Couldn't change filing in #reimbursements: its settings changed after this was asked. Nothing was changed. Ask again to see the current settings." Your approval never overwrites a newer choice.
• Public channels only, for now, and one approval per channel; several channels in one ask share one approval, one line each.
• The agent needs the "change what a channel files" tool switched on in its settings, like any other tool.

4 · What happens on its own, and what asks first

Not everything needs a tap. The rule is simple and it's about safety, not friction:

You don't set this up per request. Creating a channel and changing what it files already know they need your approval, so you never have to remember to ask for approval.

5 · You're always the one who decides

6 · Where it starts, and where it goes

We started with the one that sets up the approval everything else reuses: create a channel. From here the same one-sentence approval carries the rest, one at a time.

Planned: several channel changes, one approval

This is the next planned experience; today the agent can create public channels and set what an existing public channel files, each with its own approval. Different kinds of change in one approval are not live yet.

Ask “Create reimbursements, have Librarian capture PDFs there, and file them under reimbursement work.” One approval will list the channel, who can see it, the saved instructions, the selected agent and the capture kinds. You will review every change before approving the whole request; nothing changes while it waits. Later steps in the same request can use the channel or section created by an earlier step. Every channel and section change will ask for confirmation for now.

The next three deliveries are complete channel setup, changes to an existing channel, and section organization. For example, “Create Finance, move reimbursements into it, and put Finance above Operations” will show those three changes together. A successful result will name what changed and take you to the channel, settings or sidebar arrangement. If you change the request, you will review a new approval; approving an old one cannot authorize extra changes.

The planned failure behavior is all-or-nothing for these channel changes: if one step cannot be completed, none of the requested changes are saved. The conversation will retain what was requested, who approved, and the result or failure reason. The detailed action record will identify the affected resources and recorded execution attempts. An interrupted attempt with no verified result will remain incomplete; it will not be described as successful. This experience is planned, not yet shipped. Private-channel creation, integrations and routines are outside these three deliveries.