Stay in control of your bot
You stay in control by saying what the bot may do, and where it must stop. Sending, paying, deleting, and publishing should wait for your yes. A password is something you type yourself, on the computer screen, not in the chat.
- 01
Say where it must stop
In your message, list what the bot may do and where it should pause for your yes. An approval is your yes or no on a proposed action. It does not undo work that already happened. Prefer a stop for sending, publishing, purchases, deleting, permission changes, and production changes.
- 02
Read the card before you allow it
The conversation shows the proposed action. Allow once lets that action continue. Always allow can remember the choice for similar steps. Deny blocks it. The same controls are on iPhone. Do not allow an action when you cannot tell what it will change.
- 03
Know when a card expires
If a routine or other unattended job needs your yes, the prompt waits roughly ten minutes. After that it shows Expired and nothing happens until you ask the bot to run the step again.
- 04
Use Auto-review as a backstop
Auto-review is a check the app can run before a tool or computer action. Open Settings, then General, then Auto-review. An Ask first rule always stops a matching action for you. If an Ask first rule and an Allow automatically rule both match, Ask first wins.
- 05
Keep your own computer separate
The cloud computer is online and shared by your bots. Your desk computer is separate. The default for running on that computer is Ask every time, under Settings, then General, then Bot, then Execution on Local Computer. Select Never allow unless local file access is truly required.
Questions
- What do Allow once and Always allow mean?
- Allow once continues that action. Always allow can store a standing rule for similar steps. Deny blocks it. Ask first still wins when both kinds of Auto-review rule match.
- Why did an approval say Expired?
- Background work gives you a short window to respond. Miss it and the UI marks the request expired with no change made. Have the bot retry if you still want the action.
- Does a second bot protect my files?
- No. All bots on your account share one cloud machine and browser state. Sign out of a service, and remove files, when that access should stop.