Review Sydekick approvals
How do I review and approve the work Sydekick drafts?
Open Inbox → Approvals to review work Sydekick has drafted. Read the draft, edit it if you need to, then choose Approve, Reject or Request changes. Know what each one does: in Inbox, Approve saves your decision for the version you are looking at. The page says nothing is published or sent, and no agent resumes from it. Publishing and delivery are separate from this decision, so check the review, post or listing itself before telling anyone it is live.
Key facts
| Where | Inbox in the left navigation, then Approvals. Tasks is the other section |
| Queues | My review, All pending, Returned and History, each with a count (History has none) |
| What a decision does | Records your decision on that exact version. It does not publish or send anything from this screen |
| Who can decide | People with the role the request needs, shown on it as Requires the admin role or similar |
| Changing a draft | Edit makes a new version to review. Request changes sends it back to its creator |
| Several at once | Select requests, then Approve or Reject. Up to 500 per run |
| Keys | J and K move between requests, X selects one. No key approves |
Why this matters
Inbox records the decision and does not deliver it, so an approved item can still be unpublished. Treat Approved as "a person said yes to this wording", then confirm where it was meant to end up.
The four queues
- My review holds requests waiting for you to decide. It is where Inbox opens.
- All pending holds every request still waiting for a decision, whoever is meant to make it.
- Returned holds requests sent back for changes. Each shows Waiting for the person who has to revise it.
- History holds decided requests from the last 26 weeks.
Your choice of queue is remembered. The counts on the tabs cover loaded items only. If there is more work than loads, the page says Some work exceeds the loading limit. Counts include loaded items only. Home links to My review from its approvals tile and list; see understanding your Home page.
Steps
Open Inbox → Approvals and choose a queue.
Narrow the list if you need to. Use the search icon to search requests, Filter to narrow by client, location, type, platform, publish date, tags, who requested it, or whether you can decide it, and Sort to order by Waiting longest or Newest first (History offers Oldest first and Most recent first). Filters apply when you select Apply, and appear as pills you can remove.
Select a request. Each row shows what it is (such as Review reply or Social post), how long ago it arrived, the client, location and address, its state, and who has to decide it. The right-hand side shows the exact version submitted, with the version number.
Read the whole request. For a review reply you see the customer's review and the Suggested reply; for a post you see its caption, media, accounts and date. Below it, Record approval states the client, location, publisher or account, and what the decision does.
If the draft needs a change, choose Edit. The page says Editing this version; make your edit and select Save version. Saving creates a new version to review and doesn't approve, publish or schedule anything. You must save or cancel before you can decide: the buttons say Save or cancel your edit before deciding.
Decide. Approve records your decision. Reject asks What needs to change? and records your reason. Request changes sends the draft back, as described below.
Check the screen the work was meant to change before treating it as done.
Request changes and return
Request changes opens a form with the recipient, by default the original creator, and a required note, What needs to change? Feedback applies to the version you are looking at. The request moves to Returned, where it shows Waiting for the person, who can Edit and resubmit it for a new decision. If the source changed after the version was reviewed, you are asked to review the latest source before continuing.
Request changes works on one request at a time. To hand the draft to Sydekick instead, choose Modify with Sydekick where it appears.
Approving or rejecting several at once
Each row has a checkbox. Select all picks what is shown, and Select all N matching requests picks everything that matches the current filters. A single run handles at most 500 requests; if more are selected the page says only the first 500 are included.
- Approve asks you to confirm and shows a count by client. The confirmation says Your approval is recorded on the version each request shows now. Nothing is published or sent.
- Reject needs one reason, which is recorded on every rejection.
- Tag and Assign label or reassign the selection. Task reviews are assigned on the task, not here.
- Decisions run in groups. Any that could not be saved stay selected with the reason, for example the content changed, someone else changed the request, or you cannot decide it, and Retry sends the same decision again safely.
- Requests that are not waiting for a decision, that you cannot decide, or that are open in an unsaved edit are skipped and listed.
Bulk approval is not a substitute for reading. Open a few of the requests, and filter before you select.
Who can approve
Each request says who may decide it: Requires the admin role, or Approver: and a name. If you cannot decide it you see why, for example Requires the admin role to approve., You are not an approver for this item. Assignment does not grant approval authority., Client approval required. This item cannot be approved from the agency workspace., or This approval has expired. Assigning a request to someone does not give them authority to approve it. There is one pending request per version, not a chain of stages; earlier rounds of review are listed under Earlier reviews.
What approved means
Approved means a person approved that exact version. Each request lists its history under All activity, and the outcome is one of Awaiting decision, Approved (the outcome notes that delivery is tracked separately), Rejected, Changes requested, Withdrawn, Invalidated or Closed without a decision. Work that Sydekick started in the background, such as a large bulk edit, shows its own progress on the card in the conversation, not here. See asking Sydekick for bigger jobs.
What you'll see when it's done
- The request leaves My review and All pending and appears in History as Approved or Rejected
- A rejected or returned draft with your note on it, waiting for the creator's revision under Returned
- A new version number when a draft was edited
- A toast such as 2 approvals recorded after a bulk decision
Watch out for
- A decision belongs to one version. If the draft changes while you are looking, the page says This item changed since you opened it. The latest version is now shown; review it before acting again. Read the new version before deciding.
- If a request says it could not confirm your action, it says We could not confirm this action. It will not be repeated automatically. Check History before deciding again.
- Do not bulk-approve unread work. Filter first and check the count.
- Whether work needs approval at all is decided where it is created: by a playbook, a skill or, for workspaces that have it, Autonomy. See configuring a playbook.
Questions people ask
I approved something. How do I check whether it went out?
Look at the place it was meant to appear: the review, the post on its network, or the listing. Inbox shows your decision in History as Approved, but the page itself says nothing is published or sent from there.
Does Sydekick approve things by itself?
No. Sydekick drafts and queues; a person with the right role decides. Where Autonomy is on for a workspace, it controls whether a type of change waits for approval at all, not who approves it.
Can I approve from the keyboard?
No. J and K move between requests, and arrow keys move within the queue. X selects the open request (Shift with X selects a range). None of them approves.
Why can I not approve a request that was assigned to me?
Assigning does not give approval authority. Check the line on the request: it says which role or person can decide it.
Fifty drafts came through with almost the same wording. Is that a fault?
No. One playbook running across many locations produces one draft per location. Select them with the bulk bar, read a few, and approve or reject them together. If the wording is wrong for all of them, Reject with a reason so the creator can fix the source.