Approvals

When an AI agent asks miServer to do something that changes what it serves, the request waits for you. Nothing happens until you approve it. This page explains where those requests appear, what approving does, and what History keeps.

An agent is any client that sends the X-miLLM-Agent request header. miWorkbench's Model Context Protocol (MCP) server sends it on every request it makes to miServer, so a request an agent makes through miWorkbench's miserver_* tools waits here, in miServer, not in miWorkbench. A client that does not send the header is treated as you, the operator, and runs at once, exactly as before.

What waits for you

Action	What it does
Load a model in miServer	Loads a model onto a graphics card. The model being served now is unloaded first
Unload a model in miServer	Unloads the served model, with any attached sparse autoencoder (SAE) and active steering
Delete a model from miServer	Deletes a downloaded model from disk. It cannot be recovered
Change a model's probe limits in miServer	Sets how many probes and behaviours may be armed on a model, and the time each pass may spend on them
Measure a model's probe capacity in miServer	Runs the resident model on its graphics card to measure the step time and the cost of each probe
Import a rule set with operator code into miServer	Imports a rule set that names operator code. The card shows every code document in full. A rule set without code never asks
Change telemetry settings in miServer	Changes the OpenTelemetry export settings (switches, endpoint, sampling, queue and timing). The card shows each setting's value now and after approval, the endpoint without credentials; approving drains and restarts the export pipeline. An agent's change of any other setting does not ask (since 2026-10-29)

Downloads, reads, scoring and everything else an agent does run at once.

The banner and the Approvals page

While any request waits, a banner sits at the top of every page, below the header. It shows up to three requests, the ones that expire soonest first, each with its Approve and Reject buttons, and a line "and N more waiting" when there are more. Collapse shrinks it to its heading line for this browser tab; a new request opens it again.

The Approvals menu entry carries the number waiting. Its page has two sections:

• Waiting for you: every waiting request, the soonest to expire first.
• History: every decided request, the most recent decision first, with the outcome, what was asked, who asked and when, who decided and when, the reason, and the result. Show older loads 200 more.

Each card shows the action, the agent that asked, when it asked and when the request expires, the facts of the request, every argument the agent sent (under All arguments the agent sent), and the request id. A lease the agent sent with a load or an unload is never shown: miServer keeps it hidden, checks it again when the request runs, and forgets it once the request is decided.

Approving and rejecting

Approve carries the request out once, exactly as shown. The outcome appears in History: Approved and run with the result, or Approved, then failed with the error, for example MODEL_LEASED when another tool leased the model before you approved. A long request, such as a capacity measurement, shows Running until it finishes.

Approve all settings changes (N) appears in the banner and above the waiting list when two or more waiting requests change a setting (a model's probe limits, or telemetry settings): it lists every request it will approve, with what changes and who asked, and one confirmation approves them all; each still runs once and appears in History on its own row, marked with the shared batch. Approve all code rules (N) does the same for two or more waiting imports of operator code, as a separate button and batch (code rules and settings are never approved together); its confirmation shows each rule set, the first 12 characters of each code document's hash, and the full code.

Reject opens a reason field. The reason is optional; left blank, History records "Rejected by the operator." A rejected request never runs.

A request nobody decides expires after 24 hours (the APPROVAL_TTL_HOURS setting, changeable on the Settings page) and can never run; History shows it as Expired, decided by nobody. The agent must ask again.

An agent can never approve or reject: miServer refuses it (approval_operator_only). If miServer restarts while an approved request is running, that request is recorded as failed ("interrupted by a restart; ask again").

For agents

An agent's gated call returns 202 with the header X-miLLM-Approval: pending and the request's approval_id. The agent polls miserver_get_approval_status (or GET /api/approvals/{approval_id}) and never sends the request again. The full contract is in the MCP contract, section 2 "Pending approval", and the error codes are in Error codes.