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Questions, plans and permissions

A desk works on its own, but sometimes a decision is genuinely yours: a detail missing from a strategy, a choice between two approaches, or an action you asked to be consulted about. Desks have three ways to involve you, borrowed from Claude Code. None of them makes the desk wait.

Kind Started by What you see What you can answer
A question The desk, with ask_user One to four multiple-choice questions, each with a short header and options with descriptions Pick one option, or several when the question allows it, or type your own answer under Other
A plan The desk, with present_plan A plan written in Markdown Approve, or Keep planning with what should change
A permission request trading-agent itself, when a desk calls a tool listed in [approvals] The exact call the desk wants to make Allow once, Always allow, or Deny

The desk never waits

When a desk asks, the request is saved, the desk's turn ends, and the desk carries on with the rest of its work: its heartbeats, checks and fills keep arriving as usual. Your answer reaches it later as a new message that names the request. An unanswered request therefore holds nothing up, and a desk is never stuck waiting for you during market hours.

A desk asking the user A question, a plan or a held action is saved as a request and shown in the web chat and on Telegram; the desk's turn ends, and the user's answer later reaches the desk as a new message. Desk turn ask_user ยท present_plan or a call held for permission Request store desks/<desk>/requests/ the turn ends; nothing waits Web chat a card above the message box Telegram buttons, or /approve and /deny Request responder records the answer once an allowed call runs as it was held Desk's queue the answer arrives as a new message naming the request Expiry watcher a permission request lapses after 5 min 1 saved 2 shown to you 3 your answer 4 a new message tells the desk the request going out your answer coming back
The orange dots are a request being saved and shown in the web chat and on Telegram. The blue dot is your answer, recorded once and handed to the desk as a new message. The expiry watcher tells the desk when a permission request lapses.

Where requests appear

In Chat, a waiting request is shown as a card docked above the message box, and a short summary of it stays in the conversation afterwards. A question card has one tab per question, a review step before you submit, and sometimes a preview beside the options.

In the terminal program, the same cards wait in a dock above the message box. Press Tab to answer and Esc to go back; the dock never takes the keyboard by itself, so a request that arrives while you type cannot receive your Enter. The terminal program explains why.

On Telegram, each request arrives as a message with buttons: one button per option, ticks and Done for a question that allows several answers, and a typed reply for Other and Keep planning. For a permission request you can also type /approve or /deny, as the Telegram guide explains.

A request answered in one place loses its buttons in the other, so it can never be answered twice. Every request also has a Dismiss button, which closes it without an answer.

Permission prompts

A permission prompt is not something a desk chooses to ask for. The tools named in [approvals] in trading_agent.toml are held by trading-agent every time a desk or one of its subagents calls them, and the model has no way around that. This is the setting on this machine:

[approvals]
tools = [
    "flatten_desk",
]
expiry_minutes = 5

The steps below are what happens to a held call.

  1. The desk calls flatten_desk. Instead of running, the call is saved as a permission request, and the desk is told to end its turn.
  2. You see the exact call, with its arguments, in Chat and on Telegram.
  3. If you allow it, trading-agent runs exactly that call, and it still passes through the risk engine like any other. If you deny it, the desk is told, with your reason if you gave one.
  4. If nobody answers within expiry_minutes, the request lapses, the call is never run, and the desk is told. A lapse protects you from an action approved much later on prices that have moved.

Always allow lets that desk use that tool without asking until you revoke it. The standing permissions are listed on the Settings page, where each can be revoked.

Your own Flatten button on the Desks page is never held, because it is you acting rather than a desk.

Held calls and the scalper's 15:05 exit

The scalper's rules in TradingRules.md say it must be flat by 15:05 by calling flatten_desk. While flatten_desk is in [approvals], that call waits for you and lapses after five minutes if nobody answers. Its bracket orders' stops and targets are held by UBI and are not affected. To let the scalper flatten itself, either choose Always allow for the scalper once, or remove flatten_desk from [approvals].

Where they are kept

Requests are saved per desk in workspace/desks/<desk>/requests/, and the standing permissions in workspace/shared/permission_grants.json. Both are working state, like the desks' notes, so git ignores them. The routes that read and answer them are listed in the gateway API.