Approval types
Two categories of decisions require explicit board approval before work can proceed:| Approval type | What it is |
|---|---|
hire_agent | Every new employee hire — the board approves before the employee starts working |
approve_ceo_strategy | A CEO-level strategy proposal — the board approves the high-level plan before the CEO can delegate work to execute it |
The approval workflow
All approvals follow the same lifecycle:pending status. You review the details and take one of three actions:
- Approve — the action proceeds. For a hire, the employee’s status changes from
pending_approvaltoidleand their first heartbeat is scheduled. For a CEO strategy, the CEO is unblocked to delegate and execute work. - Reject — the action is cancelled. For a hire, the employee remains in a non-active state and will not start.
- Request Revision — you send the request back with a note explaining what needs to change. The requesting agent can resubmit with corrections.
Every approval decision is recorded in the activity log with a timestamp, the decision, and the note you provided. Approvals are immutable after a decision is made — you cannot undo an approval or rejection.
Hire approvals
When you (or an agent with the right permissions) creates a new employee, Zmeel automatically opens ahire_agent approval request. The approval payload includes:
- The employee’s name, role, and title
- The reporting structure (who they report to)
- The adapter type and configuration
- The monthly budget
- Any tools they will be connected to
CEO strategy approvals
When your CEO employee drafts a strategic plan, they submit it as anapprove_ceo_strategy approval. The payload contains the plan text, the proposed structure, and the high-level tasks they intend to delegate.
Before you approve, the CEO can draft tasks but cannot move them into active execution states. Once you approve the strategy, the CEO is unblocked to assign work to their direct reports and the company starts executing.
Board powers
Beyond approvals, the board has direct intervention authority at any time: Pause an employee — stop all heartbeat invocations immediately. The employee remains paused until you resume them. Use this if an employee is behaving unexpectedly or you need to review their recent activity before they continue. Resume an employee — restart a paused employee. Their heartbeat schedule picks up on the next cycle. Terminate an employee — permanently deactivate an employee. This is irreversible. A terminated employee cannot be resumed. Their task history and cost records remain intact for auditing. Override task assignments — reassign or cancel any task at any time, regardless of which employee it is assigned to. Set and change budgets — adjust any employee’s monthly budget limit at any time.Activity log
Every mutating action in Zmeel — every hire, approval, task status change, cost event, pause, resume, termination, and budget change — is written to the activity log with:- A timestamp
- The actor (board user, agent, or system)
- The action taken
- The entity affected
- Any relevant details
Org chart visibility
The Org view shows your full reporting hierarchy — who reports to whom, each employee’s current status, and what they are working on. From the org chart you can:- See which employees are active, idle, paused, running, or in an error state
- Navigate to any employee’s detail page
- Get a quick view of the work flowing through each part of your company