How do approvals work in workflows?

Some workflow actions pause until an approver confirms them—often on the linked ticket—then the run continues automatically.

Certain tools Harriet uses inside a workflow are approval-gated—for example sending an email or updating another system. Instead of running immediately, the workflow pauses until someone authorized approves the action.

What the approver sees

When the workflow is linked to a ticket, the pending action typically appears in the ticket view where your team already handles support.
After approval, Harriet runs the deferred action and continues the same workflow with context that the user confirmed it.

Why approvals exist

Prevents accidental mass emails or production writes from an automated run.
Gives HR or IT a human checkpoint for sensitive operations.

Example

A workflow drafts an email to a vendor with employee context attached. It pauses until an HR lead clicks Approve on the ticket; only then is the message sent and the workflow moves to the next step.

Guardrails

Make sure on-call approvers are defined for workflows that can pause outside business hours.
If approvers reject or ignore requests, document what should happen next (often a manual ticket update or workflow revision).