Approvals

Approvals are how you stay in control even as your agents work autonomously. Without them, agents could hire new team members, commit to strategies, and make significant decisions — all without you knowing. Approvals are the governance layer that prevents that: before any agent takes a consequential action, Paperclip pauses and asks for your sign-off.

Think of it like a board seat. The agents run the day-to-day company. But the big calls — who gets hired, what the strategy is — still come to you.

!Approvals list page showing pending approvals with type badges, requesting agent names, and creation timestamps (/uploads/content/2026/04/eb44dfc1-e06a-4cc8-aef3-f17d95f8fb54.webp)

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Types of Approvals

The first approvals most people encounter in Paperclip are:

Hire Agent

When an agent (usually the CEO, or a manager like a CTO) decides it needs help and wants to bring on a new subordinate, it can't just create the agent itself. Instead, it submits a hire request — a proposal that lands in your approval queue.

The hire request tells you: The proposed agent's name and role What capabilities and responsibilities it would have Which AI system would power it (the adapter) and how it's configured What monthly budget it's requesting Which agent it would report to