Autonomy Controls and Safety

Autonomy Controls and Safety

Autonomy controls determine how much freedom Quickly has when taking actions on behalf of your team. You can configure these at the workspace level, per tool, and per role. This guide covers all the options.

Three Autonomy Modes

Every workspace operates in one of three autonomy modes. You can switch modes at any time from Dashboard > Settings > Autonomy.

Conservative

Quickly asks for explicit approval before any action that writes, updates, or deletes data. Read-only actions (searching, querying, looking up information) proceed automatically without asking.

This is the default mode for new workspaces. It is a good starting point while your team learns what Quickly can do and builds confidence in the results.

Balanced

Quickly handles low-risk write actions automatically but asks for approval on high-risk actions. Low-risk means creating a single issue, adding a comment, or updating a field. High-risk means deleting resources, bulk updates, or posting to public channels.

Most teams switch to Balanced after a few weeks of using Quickly in Conservative mode. It strikes a good balance between speed and control.

Autonomous

Quickly handles all actions independently and reports results after the fact. The only exception is DESTRUCTIVE actions (deleting resources, revoking access), which still require confirmation even in Autonomous mode.

This mode works well for well-tested playbooks and experienced teams that trust their configurations.

Per-Tool Overrides

You can override the workspace-level mode for individual tools. Go to Dashboard > Settings > Tool Policies to configure overrides.

Each tool can be set to one of three policies:

• AUTO - Run this tool without asking, regardless of the workspace mode. Use this for tools you trust completely, like creating Jira issues.
• CONFIRM - Always ask for approval before running this tool, regardless of the workspace mode. Use this for sensitive actions you always want to review.
• BLOCK - Never run this tool under any circumstances. Use this to disable tools entirely, like preventing Quickly from deleting resources.

Overrides stack on top of the workspace mode. For example, in Balanced mode with delete_jira_issue set to BLOCK, Quickly will never delete a Jira issue even if asked directly.

Member Restrictions

You can set different tool policies for ADMIN and MEMBER roles. This is configured in Dashboard > Settings > Tool Policies using the role toggle.

A common configuration:

• Admins use Balanced mode with broad AUTO overrides for routine tools
• Members use Conservative mode with no overrides, so every write action requires approval

This lets experienced users move fast while new team members have guardrails.

The Slack Confirmation Gate

When Quickly needs approval, it sends a structured message in Slack (or Teams) containing:

1. A description of the action ("Create a P2 bug in PROJECT-X: Login button unresponsive")
2. The key parameters (project, priority, assignee, summary)
3. Approve and Reject buttons

If you tap Approve, the action proceeds and the message updates to show the result with a link. If you tap Reject, Quickly cancels and asks if you want to modify the request. If you do not respond within 5 minutes, the action times out.

The confirmation message also shows why approval is required, such as "WRITE action in Conservative mode" or "DESTRUCTIVE tool override."

Tool Risk Levels

Every tool in Quickly has a risk level that informs the autonomy system:

• READ - Tools that only retrieve information (searching, querying, listing). These never require approval in any mode.
• WRITE - Tools that create or modify resources (creating issues, updating fields, sending messages). These require approval in Conservative mode and for high-risk scenarios in Balanced mode.
• DESTRUCTIVE - Tools that delete resources or revoke access. These always require approval, even in Autonomous mode.

You can see each tool's risk level in Dashboard > Settings > Tool Policies.

Changing the Mode

1. Go to Dashboard > Settings > Autonomy.
2. Select the new mode: Conservative, Balanced, or Autonomous.
3. Click Save.

The change takes effect immediately across all channels and all team members (subject to per-tool and per-role overrides).

Best Practices

• Start with Conservative mode for the first week so your team can see how Quickly handles requests.
• Move to Balanced once you are confident in the results. This is where most teams settle.
• Use per-tool overrides to fine-tune. Most teams set routine creation tools to AUTO and destructive tools to BLOCK.
• Review the action logs periodically to see what Quickly is doing automatically. Go to Dashboard > Logs to check.