Review and decide on agent actions that require human approval. See rich context, risk classification, and separation-of-duties checks.

Approval Queue

When a policy rule evaluates to approval_required, SidClaw creates an approval request and pauses the agent's action until a human reviewer approves or denies it. The approval queue is the central place for reviewers to see pending requests, understand the context, and make informed decisions.

How approvals work

An agent requests an action via POST /api/v1/evaluate.
The policy engine matches a rule with approval_required effect.
An approval request is created with a context snapshot, risk classification, and expiration time.
The agent's SDK waits (polling or blocking, depending on configuration) for a decision.
A human reviewer approves or denies in the dashboard or via API.
If approved, the agent's action proceeds. If denied, the agent receives an ActionDeniedError.

Listing pending approvals

curl "https://api.sidclaw.com/api/v1/approvals?status=pending&limit=20&offset=0" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"

Query parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
`status`	`string`	Filter by status: `pending`, `approved`, `denied`, `expired`.
`agent_id`	`string`	Filter by agent.
`limit`	`number`	Maximum results per page (default: 20, max: 100).
`offset`	`number`	Pagination offset.

Response:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "appr_abc123",
      "agent_id": "agent_xyz",
      "requested_operation": "database_query",
      "target_integration": "postgres",
      "resource_scope": "customers/*",
      "data_classification": "confidential",
      "risk_classification": "high",
      "status": "pending",
      "flag_reason": "Confidential data access requires human approval",
      "expires_at": "2026-03-22T12:00:00Z",
      "requested_at": "2026-03-21T12:00:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "pagination": { "total": 5, "limit": 20, "offset": 0 }
}

Approval detail

Get the full context for an approval request, including the context snapshot captured at evaluation time.

curl https://api.sidclaw.com/api/v1/approvals/{id} \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"

The detail response includes:

Request details: operation, integration, resource scope, data classification
Agent information: name, authority model, delegation model
Risk classification: low, medium, high, or critical (derived from data classification and operation type)
Context snapshot: the full context provided by the SDK at evaluation time, including tool inputs and descriptions
Flag reason: the rationale from the matching policy rule
Expiration time: when the request will auto-expire if no decision is made

Approving a request

curl -X POST https://api.sidclaw.com/api/v1/approvals/{id}/approve \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "approver_name": "Jane Smith",
    "decision_note": "Verified this query only accesses the customer's own records."
  }'

Field	Type	Required	Description
`approver_name`	`string`	Yes	Name of the person approving.
`decision_note`	`string`	No	Optional note explaining the decision.

Denying a request

curl -X POST https://api.sidclaw.com/api/v1/approvals/{id}/deny \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "approver_name": "Jane Smith",
    "decision_note": "Query is too broad — agent should scope to specific customer ID."
  }'

Polling approval status

The SDK polls this endpoint when waiting for a decision.

curl https://api.sidclaw.com/api/v1/approvals/{id}/status \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"

Response:

{
  "id": "appr_abc123",
  "status": "approved",
  "decided_at": "2026-03-21T12:05:00Z",
  "approver_name": "Jane Smith",
  "decision_note": "Verified the query scope."
}

Possible status values: pending, approved, denied, expired.

Pending count

Get a lightweight count of pending approvals, useful for badge indicators.

curl "https://api.sidclaw.com/api/v1/approvals/count?status=pending" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"

Separation of duties

SidClaw enforces separation of duties: the person who registered the agent or created the policy rule should not be the same person who approves the action. When a reviewer approves or denies a request, the system checks for conflicts and records the result as part of the audit trail.

The separation-of-duties check result is stored on each approval request as: pass, fail, or not_applicable.

Risk classification

Each approval request is automatically assigned a risk classification based on the data classification and operation type:

Data Classification	Typical Risk	Examples
`public`	Low	Reading public documentation, web search
`internal`	Medium	Accessing internal tools, reading internal data
`confidential`	High	Customer data access, financial records
`restricted`	Critical	PII modifications, security-sensitive operations

The risk classification is displayed prominently in the approval queue to help reviewers prioritize.

Expiration

Approval requests have a configurable TTL (time-to-live). If no decision is made within the TTL, the request expires automatically. The default TTL is 24 hours, but this can be overridden:

Per policy rule via the max_session_ttl field (in seconds)
Per tenant via the default_approval_ttl_seconds tenant setting

Expired approvals result in the agent receiving an ApprovalExpiredError.

Dashboard

In the SidClaw dashboard, the Approvals page provides:

A queue of pending approvals sorted by risk classification and age
Stale indicators for approvals approaching expiration
Click-through to approval detail with full context snapshot
Approve and Deny buttons with required approver name and optional decision note
Historical view of past decisions with filtering by status, agent, and date
Risk classification badges (green for low, blue for medium, amber for high, red for critical)

Approval Queue

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