Escalations and approvals
An escalation is a point where a run stops and waits for a person. The run’s status becomes Needs review, and it continues once someone decides. Escalations in the workspace rail lists them, and the rail shows how many are open.
What raises an escalation
Section titled “What raises an escalation”| Type | Raised by |
|---|---|
| Approval | The Approval block. It raises one on every run, or one per item inside a For each item loop. |
| Checklist | The Checklist block, when its checks find something and it is set to ask for review. |
| Correction | A block that failed on data a person can fix, when its Correction section is set to Request correction and retry. Once the input is corrected, the run retries that block. |
Approvals
Section titled “Approvals”The Approval block pauses the run with a request for the reviewer. You can show them data to review, and let them edit it, and attach source documents such as PDFs or images.
The block has an Approved exit and a Rejected exit, so the automation can do different things for each. Give it a Timeout to stop it waiting forever; it then also gets a Timed out exit, and the escalation closes as expired when the time runs out. Without a timeout the run waits until someone decides.
Who gets it
Section titled “Who gets it”A Set Assignees block says who owns work on its branch: people, teams and agents, in order, up to 10. Approvals and corrections on that branch go to the first assignee in its Decisions list, and failures to the first in Technical, or Decisions when Technical is empty. Each assignee can have a timer that moves the work on to the next one. See Decide who owns the work.
An escalation with no assignee sits in the Workspace queue, where anyone with access can claim it. The Assigned to menu on an escalation lets you Claim for myself, Unassign, or assign it to anyone: a person, a team or an agent. That replaces the current assignee on this escalation only.
Picking an agent starts it straight away, with your authority and your approval cards, and nobody has to open a chat. The escalation shows that the agent is looking and links to its conversation. People can still approve, reject, correct or reassign while it looks. Doing so stops the agent, and what it spent so far is not refunded.
When an escalation is assigned or reassigned to someone else, that person gets an in-app notification and an email.
Answer an escalation
Section titled “Answer an escalation”Open it from the Escalations page or from the run. It shows what the run is waiting for and links back with View run.
- Approve or Reject an approval. Rejecting asks for a comment. If the reviewer was allowed to edit the data, they can approve with changes.
- Apply correction and continue for a correction, after fixing the input.
- Accept a finding on a Checklist, or correct a value and Apply corrections and re-check, then Approve or Reject. See Reconcile two documents or lists.
Decisions are final. The run picks up from the exit that matches the decision.
When a run ends some other way, for example because it was cancelled, its open escalations close with it.
Filter the list
Section titled “Filter the list”The list shows open escalations by default. Search by text, filter by status (Open, Resolved, Expired, Canceled or All) and severity, and use Add filter for assignee, automation or how long an escalation has been waiting.