Using Sands
Approvals
One setting decides when Sands asks before changing your tools. Whatever you choose, Sands only carries out changes you asked for.
The three modes
Pick a mode from the approval control next to + in the composer. It applies to every chat and to Sands in Slack, and you can change it at any time.
| Mode | What happens | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Manually approve | Every change waits for your OK on an approval card. | Getting to know Sands, or shared and client-facing boards. |
| Automatically approve (default) | Ordinary changes you ask for run right away. Riskier changes pause for your OK. | Day-to-day work. |
| Skip all approvals | Every valid change you ask for runs right away, with no approval card. | Fast solo work where you review the results. |
What counts as a riskier change
In Automatically approve, these always pause for your OK:
- Creating a project in Jira, Linear or Asana.
- Sending a whole plan to a project tool.
- A Slack message to more than one destination.
- A Slack message that notifies a whole channel, with @here or @channel.
Everything else, like creating a ticket, assigning it, moving it to another status, editing a field, adding a comment, reacting in Slack, or posting one message to one channel or person, is an ordinary change.
The approval card
When a change pauses, Sands shows an approval card in the chat with exactly what it will do: the tool, the target, and the content. If the change carries text, like a comment or a message, the full text is on the card before you approve. Approve to run it, or decline.
- Approving runs exactly what the card shows. If the target changed or the content no longer matches, Sands does not run it.
- Declining is final for that change. Sands will not bring it back unless you ask again.
- After it runs, Sands reads the result back and links to what it changed.
True in every mode
Approval mode is about asking, not permission
Skip all approvals means Sands will not ask before doing what you requested. It never lets Sands invent a change, act on a ticket or channel it guessed at, or post text you did not provide or that it did not read from your tools.
- Sands only writes to tools you have connected, with the access you granted.
- If Sands is not sure which ticket, project or channel you mean, it asks instead of guessing.
- A change runs once. Retrying a request or re-sending a plan never duplicates work.
- Sending a plan from the plan drawer always shows you the mapping first, whatever your mode.
Approvals in Slack
When you use Sands in Slack, your approval mode follows your linked Sands account. A change that pauses shows its approval in the thread. See Sands in Slack.