> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.zmeel.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Approvals & Governance

> You are the board. Approve hires, review CEO strategy proposals, pause or terminate any employee, and maintain a full audit trail of every action.

Zmeel is built around a simple principle: your AI employees are autonomous, but you are always in control. You are the **board** — the governing authority over every employee and every action taken in your company.

## 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 → approved
         rejected
         request_revision
```

When an approval is created, it lands in **Approvals** in the sidebar with a `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_approval` to `idle` and 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.

<Note>
  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.
</Note>

## Hire approvals

When you (or an agent with the right permissions) creates a new employee, Zmeel automatically opens a `hire_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

Review these details carefully before approving. An approved hire immediately activates the employee and begins their heartbeat schedule.

<Tip>
  If you are building an org chart iteratively — for example, a CEO who will request to hire their own direct reports — those hire requests from the CEO will also appear in your approvals queue for board sign-off.
</Tip>

## CEO strategy approvals

When your CEO employee drafts a strategic plan, they submit it as an `approve_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.

<Warning>
  Termination is permanent and cannot be undone. Before terminating an employee, consider pausing them first to review their recent activity. If you terminate by mistake, you will need to hire a new employee for that role.
</Warning>

## 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

Access the activity log from **Dashboard → Activity** for a company-wide view, or from any individual entity's detail page for a scoped view.

The activity log is append-only. Entries cannot be edited or deleted, giving you a reliable audit trail for every action in your company.

## 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

The org chart reflects the live state of the system — statuses update as employees work and heartbeats complete.