How to set permissions for an agent that acts

An agent that acts does real work for a person. It books a calendar event, sends an email or opens a ticket. Each of those steps has a result outside the app.

Some of these actions can be undone. Sending an email cannot. Settings have to reflect that difference.

Harny sets permissions per kind of action, app-wide. Each kind has one of three modes: Act without asking, Ask the user first, or Never allowed.

When two kinds overlap, the strictest setting applies. Every action is recorded. Each action kind Harny can perform has an undo, except email.send.

When recorded responses support it, Harny offers a learned setting change. You apply the change or keep the current setting. You can restore the previous setting. Restoring changes the setting, not past actions.

1. Choose a mode for each action kind before you go live.
2. Run the agent with the SDK. The result of agent.run includes pending_confirmations.
3. Walk through a calendar event. The agent uses calendar.create_event. Check it in the action record. If it is wrong, undo it.
4. Walk through an email. The agent uses email.send. Email.send has no undo, so choose its mode with care.
5. Read the action record to confirm what ran. List it with GET /v1/actions or export it with GET /v1/actions/export.
6. When a learned setting is offered, apply it or keep the current one.
7. Set Never allowed for any kind you do not want the agent to use.

• An action kind is set to Act without asking, and it runs before you have checked it.
• email.send runs. It cannot be undone.
• Two overlapping kinds have different settings. The stricter one applies, so the action may not run as you expect.

Take the Acme pilot as an example. The agent books a follow-up call for March 14 with calendar.create_event. The action is recorded, and you can undo it if it is wrong.

Later, the agent sends an email to a client with email.send. The send cannot be undone, so Nadia at Acme sets the mode for email.send with care.