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Decisions are the primary way you interact with OrgX agents. When an agent needs human judgment—approval, clarification, or a tie-breaker—it surfaces a decision for you to act on.

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Questions This Page Answers

  • When should a decision be created instead of auto-shipping?
  • What is the fastest safe way to triage pending decisions?
  • How do decision outcomes improve future agent behavior?
  • What autonomy settings reduce noise without losing control?

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Why Decisions?

Agents are powerful, but they shouldn’t operate unchecked. Decisions ensure:
  • Quality: Human review catches errors before they ship
  • Alignment: You stay in control of strategic direction
  • Trust: Build confidence in agents incrementally
  • Compliance: Maintain audit trail for governance
The goal isn’t to slow agents down—it’s to keep you in the loop on what matters while agents handle the routine work.

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Decision Types

Approval Decision

Agent completed work and needs sign-off before shipping.
Examples:
  • PR ready for merge
  • Campaign brief ready to send
  • Outreach sequence ready to launch
Actions:
  • Approve: Ship the artifact
  • Reject: Send back with feedback
  • Edit: Modify before approving

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Decision Anatomy

Every decision includes: 
interface OrgDecision {
  id: string;
  type: 'approval' | 'escalation' | 'clarification' | 'conflict';

  // Context
  title: string;
  description: string;
  agent_reasoning: string;

  // Links
  artifact_id?: string;
  work_item_id: string;
  initiative_id?: string;
  agent_instance_id: string;

  // Evidence
  evidence: Evidence[];
  citations: Citation[];

  // State
  status: 'pending' | 'approved' | 'rejected' | 'expired';
  urgency: 'low' | 'medium' | 'high' | 'critical';

  // Resolution
  resolved_by?: string;
  resolved_at?: string;
  resolution_note?: string;

  // Metadata
  created_at: string;
  expires_at?: string;
}

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Decision Card UI

In the Mission Control, decisions render as actionable cards: 
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 🟡 APPROVAL                          HIGH PRIORITY  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Campaign brief ready for Q1 launch                  │
│                                                     │
│ Agent Reasoning:                                    │
│ "Created 3 variants based on past high-performers.  │
│  CTAs optimized for mobile. Ready for review."      │
│                                                     │
│ Evidence:                                           │
│ • ENG-123: Original campaign request               │
│ • Past campaign performance data                   │
│                                                     │
│ [View Artifact]                                     │
│                                                     │
│ ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐          │
│ │ Approve  │  │  Reject  │  │   Edit   │          │
│ └──────────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────┘          │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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Decision Flow

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Urgency Levels

Decisions are prioritized by urgency:
LevelDescriptionSLANotification
CriticalBlocking production or revenue1 hourPush + email + SMS
HighBlocking other work4 hoursPush + email
MediumShould handle today24 hoursPush
LowCan batch with others72 hoursBadge only

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Urgency Triggers

Urgency is set based on:
  • Time sensitivity: Deadlines, SLAs
  • Dependencies: Is other work blocked?
  • Impact: Revenue, users, compliance
  • Agent confidence: Low confidence → higher urgency

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Decision Queue

Access decisions from multiple surfaces:

Mission Control

Primary decision queue with full context and batch actions.

ChatGPT

Review and approve via natural conversation.

Slack

Coming soon: Approve directly in Slack threads.

Email Digest

Daily summary of pending decisions.

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Batch Actions

In Mission Control, you can batch-approve similar decisions:
  1. Select multiple decisions
  2. Review the batch summary
  3. Approve all with a single note
Batch approval is convenient but risky. Only batch decisions you’ve individually reviewed or that are low-stakes.

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Autonomy Settings

Configure when decisions are required:

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Per-Agent Settings

interface AgentAutonomy {
  agent_type:
    | 'engineering-agent'
    | 'product-agent'
    | 'marketing-agent'
    | 'sales-agent'
    | 'design-agent'
    | 'operations-agent'
    | 'orchestrator-agent';
  level: 'shadow' | 'tutor' | 'supervised' | 'autonomous' | 'full_auto';
  budget_threshold: number; // Actions above this $ value require approval
  scope_limits: string[]; // Tools that always require approval
}

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Autonomy Levels

LevelDecisions CreatedUse Case
ShadowEvery actionLearning mode
TutorEvery action with explanationTraining
SupervisedAll artifacts before shippingDefault
AutonomousOnly when budget/scope exceededTrusted workflows
Full AutoNone (dangerous)Low-risk automation only

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Adjusting Autonomy

  1. Go to Settings → Agents
  2. Select the agent type
  3. Adjust the autonomy slider
  4. Optionally set budget thresholds
  5. Save changes
Start conservative (Supervised), then gradually increase autonomy as agents earn trust through the Intelligence Flywheel.

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Autonomous Sessions

At the Autonomous or Full Auto level, you can start budget-bounded sessions that run while you’re away:
  • Set max_cost_usd and max_receipts to cap spending
  • Agents work through the IWMT task queue automatically
  • Every action generates a receipt in the value ledger
  • Review all session output the next morning with orgx_recommend

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Decision Analytics & the Flywheel

Track decision patterns in Mission Control. Every decision outcome feeds the Intelligence Flywheel, improving agent quality over time.

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Metrics

MetricDescription
Approval Rate% of decisions approved vs rejected
Time to DecisionAverage time from creation to resolution
Escalation Rate% of decisions that are escalations
Edit Rate% of approvals that required edits

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How Decisions Feed the Flywheel

  • Approvals increase agent trust for that capability, potentially unlocking higher autonomy
  • Rejections with feedback become org learnings that prevent repeat mistakes
  • Quality scores from record_quality_score weight future trust calculations
  • Morning brief value signals via orgx_recommend track the ROI and downstream impact of approved decisions

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Proactive Sentinels

Decisions that go unresolved trigger proactive sentinels:
  • Pending Decision Sentinel: Escalates decisions waiting too long
  • Blocked Workstream Sentinel: Creates decisions when workstreams are stuck waiting
  • Stale Initiative Sentinel: Flags initiatives with no recent activity

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Insights

High edit rate might indicate:
  • Agent prompts need improvement
  • Task descriptions are unclear
  • Verification checks are too lenient
High rejection rate might indicate:
  • Agent selection is wrong for task type
  • Autonomy settings are too aggressive
  • Context is insufficient

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Best Practices

Before looking at the artifact, read the agent’s reasoning. It helps you understand the approach and catch logical errors early.
When rejecting, always include feedback. This helps the agent (and the system) learn what you want. Vague rejections lead to repeated mistakes.
If you frequently edit before approving, consider: - Improving task descriptions - Adjusting agent prompts - Adding constraints to the workflow spec
Stale decisions block agent work. Set aside time daily to clear your decision queue, or delegate to team members.
Escalation decisions often reveal gaps in your autonomy settings. After resolving, consider whether to adjust settings to prevent repeat escalations.

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Decision API

For programmatic access, use the decisions API: 
// Get pending decisions
GET /api/decisions?status=pending&urgency=high

// Approve a decision
POST /api/decisions/{id}/approve
{ "note": "Looks good, ship it!" }

// Reject a decision
POST /api/decisions/{id}/reject
{ "reason": "Budget too high, reduce by 20%" }
Or via MCP: 
// Get pending decisions
await mcp.tool('orgx_search', {
  type: 'decision',
  status: 'pending',
  limit: 10,
});

// Approve
await mcp.tool('orgx_decide', {
  decision_id: 'dec_123',
  note: 'Approved',
});
orgx_decide remains available as a compatibility alias for older clients, but new integrations should prefer orgx_search.

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Next Steps

Agents

Understand how agents create decisions.

Artifacts

Learn about the outputs decisions approve.