/pending-approvals

name: pending-approvals
description: Use when the user asks to list, inspect, approve, reject, or revoke pending approvals

Pending Approvals

Pending approvals are not automatically resurfaced in later sessions. Recovery is explicit: the user asks to list/search pendings or supplies an approval id.

Use the unified CLI and treat the DB as primary:

• `gaia approvals pending` -- the undecided pendings only (all sessions by

default; `--session <id>` narrows to one orchestrator session)

• `gaia approvals list` -- the DB-backed grants table plus the undecided

pendings beneath it; it takes `--session` / `--orphans-only` / `--json` and has NO `--status` filter. Filtering by decision lives on `gaia approvals history --status <pending|approved|rejected|revoked>` (`--limit N`, default 50).

• `gaia approvals show <approval_id>` -- ordinary human detail; `--json` keeps

the machine detail shape, while the mutually exclusive `--consent-surface` returns trusted `visible_text`, `visible_lines`, `metadata`, and the exact resolver-compatible `approve_label` for an undecided pending only

• `gaia approvals approve <approval_id>`
• `gaia approvals reject <approval_id>`
• `gaia approvals revoke <approval_id>`

Every lookup and single-item decision requires the complete canonical `P-<32 lowercase hex>` id. A short display label or raw nonce is never a lookup key. Full-id lookup may cross session boundaries. Always re-present exact content, risk, rollback, and verification before an approve decision; for COMMAND_SET, show the full indexed ordered set. Never infer approval from conversational language alone or select a similarly prefixed id.

**These verbs are not all the orchestrator's to run.** The trusted-CLI role guard (`hooks/modules/security/gaia_cli_only_guard.py`) splits them along a read/write line, not a T3 line: `approvals list` / `show` / `pending` / `history` / `stats` are in `ALLOWED_READ_PHRASES` -- the orchestrator reads these directly. `approvals approve` / `revoke` / `reject` / `reject-all` / `clean` / `replay` are in `EXPLICITLY_DENIED_PHRASES` -- categorically denied for the orchestrator role, not approvable, regardless of mode. **Reads are the orchestrator's; decisions are not.** A decision is dispatched to a specialist (or, for the CLI-only admin case below, made explicitly by the user) -- never run bare by the orchestrator itself.

**For a SINGULAR approval, `gaia approvals approve <approval_id>` is an admin decision-recording verb, not executable activation.** It writes `APPROVED` directly to the `approvals` row, but creates **no executable grant** and triggers **no automatic re-dispatch**. The originally blocked command therefore remains unexecutable from that admin decision alone. When the blocked command still needs to run, this verb **MUST NEVER** substitute for the structured decision path owned by the active host adapter. Load the adapter skill declared for the active host by `hooks/adapters/registry.py::registered_adapter_skill_documents` for the mechanism it owns; `orchestrator-present-approval` owns the neutral presentation and activation contract. Use the bare `approve` CLI verb only for the audit/CLI-only case -- for example, marking a row from a different session as decided when the command it covers will not be re-run.

**COMMAND_SET now activates through the same writer from either entry point.** For a plan-first `request_type: "COMMAND_SET"` pending (minted by `gaia approvals request-set`, which carries a `request_fingerprint`), `activate_db_pending_by_id` takes a dedicated branch that calls `insert_plan_command_set` -- the identical call the CLI admin verb `gaia approvals approve` makes, and the only shape the runtime's execution check (`reserve_plan_command`, keyed on `source='plan-first'`) finds. The structured decision path and the admin verb therefore activate a `request-set` pending identically. The legacy `create_command_set_grant()` route survives only for a multi-command payload with NO `request_fingerprint`, a chain-intake shape production no longer emits; it is kept as a defensive fallback, not as the plan-first path. The earlier defect -- a correctly labeled Approve reporting success while the retried commands re-blocked, because every multi-command payload went through the legacy route -- is closed.

Legacy filesystem records may still be read as a compatibility fallback for older singular approvals; new COMMAND_SET requests and grants are DB-backed. See `reference.md` for current precedence, legacy locations, ambiguity handling, expiry, and batch rejection rules. Never edit the DB or legacy files directly.

A COMMAND_SET grant in `FAILED` is not pending or resumable. Show its completed, failed, and untouched indexes as history; require a new request and approval for all retry/remainder work.