> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.visibility.so/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Inbox and approvals > Read and clear the notifications your agents and tasks generate, and approve or reject the two decisions Visibility asks you to make — agent hires and WordPress publishes. The Inbox is your company's notification centre. It has two tabs: * **Inbox** — a feed of real events from your agents and tasks: a task assigned to you, a new comment, a run that finished or failed, a decision that needs you. * **Approvals** — the decisions that wait for a person before an agent's action takes effect. There are exactly two kinds: **Agent hire** and **WordPress publish**. The Inbox is not a task list. Nothing that simply mirrors the [Tasks](/tasks) page appears in it, and there is no separate approvals page — every approval is decided here. ## Open the Inbox Click the bell beside the company switcher at the top of the sidebar. The bell shows a red dot while you have unread notifications; hover it to see **N unread** or **No unread notifications**. You can also search for **Inbox** in the command palette (see [Navigating the app](/navigating-the-app)). The page is titled **Inbox**, with the subtitle **Notifications and approvals for** your company's name, and opens on the **Inbox** tab. Switch to **Approvals** with the second tab. The Inbox tab in Visibility showing unread notifications, the Mark all read button and the collapsed Earlier accordion ## The Inbox tab Unread notifications sit in a card at the top, newest first. Each row shows an icon, a title, an optional two-line preview, a relative time such as **3m ago** or **4d ago**, and an unread dot. Everything you have already read is tucked into a collapsed **Earlier (N)** accordion below, which you can expand at any time. Above the list you see a **N unread** counter and a **Mark all read** button. The button is disabled when nothing is unread. When there is nothing at all, the tab reads **You're all caught up — Agent and task events will show up here as they happen.** When every item has been read, it reads **No unread notifications.** Click the bell at the top of the sidebar. A red dot means something is unread. Click a row to go to what it is about — the task, the run, or the **Approvals** tab. The notification is marked read as you go. Click **Mark all read**. Every remaining unread item moves into the **Earlier (N)** accordion. ## What creates a notification Only real events generate notifications. These are the kinds you will see: | Notification | When it arrives | | ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Assigned to you: ACME-12 · Title** | Someone assigns a task to you. | | **New comment on …** | Someone posts in the thread of a task you created or are assigned to. | | **Run completed: …** | A run on one of your tasks finishes without the agent posting a reply in the thread. | | **Run failed: …** | A run on one of your tasks fails. The reason is included. | | **Approval needed: …** | A new agent hire or WordPress publish is waiting for a decision. | | **Approved: …** / **Rejected: …** | A request you made has been decided. | | **Couldn't publish “…”** | A WordPress publish that was approved could not be completed by the site. | | **… was disconnected** | A Google Analytics or Search Console connection stopped working. | | **Mail checking stopped for …** | The sign-in for one of an agent's mail accounts was refused, so its mail is no longer checked. | Notifications are personal. Task events go to the task's creator and its human assignee — never to the person who acted, so you are not told about your own comment or an assignment you made yourself. If a task has no human owner, its events go to the company's admins. Approval-needed notifications go to every company admin plus whoever made the request; **Approved** and **Rejected** go to the requester. ## Where notifications appear Notifications are in-app only. Visibility does not email you about Inbox events or approvals, so check in regularly. * **The bell** at the top of the sidebar, which opens the Inbox. * **The notifications dock** (desktop) — a collapsed **Notifications** bar in the bottom-right corner with a count pill and a pulsing dot. It is only visible while you have unread notifications. Click it to expand: each row opens its target, hovering a row reveals **Dismiss**, which marks it read without leaving the page, and **Mark all read** clears the lot. The dock disappears once everything is read. * **The bell tab** (phone) — a small tab with the unread count pinned to the right edge of the screen. Drag it up or down and it stays where you put it. Tap it to open a **Notifications** drawer with the same rows and **Mark all read**. * **Pop-up toasts** at the top of the screen when a new notification arrives, with a short preview and a **View** action. Toasts appear for new comments, runs that complete or fail, tasks assigned to you, and approvals that are needed, approved or rejected. Approval-needed toasts are amber; failures and rejections are red. Other kinds go to the dock and the Inbox without a toast. The bell's unread count covers the Inbox tab only. Pending approvals are counted on the **Approvals** tab instead, so a clear bell does not mean nothing is waiting for a decision. ## The Approvals tab The **Approvals** tab shows a **N pending** counter and one card per request waiting for a decision. Each card carries: * a type badge — **Agent hire** (person icon) or **WordPress publish** (WordPress icon) * a **Pending** status badge * a summary line such as **Hire agent “Content Writer”** or **Publish “Post title” to My Site** * **Requested … ago** If you can decide, the card also has an **Optional note for the decision…** field and the **Approve** and **Reject** buttons. If you cannot, it reads **Pending — an admin will decide on this request.** Decided requests move into a collapsed **Resolved (N)** accordion below, each with an **Approved** or **Rejected** badge, the decision time and any **Note:** the decider left. An approved publish that the site then refused shows a red **Publish failed: … — the post is still a draft on the site.** line. When there are no requests at all, the tab reads **No approvals — Agent-hire and WordPress-publish requests will appear here for a decision.** When everything has been decided, it reads **Nothing pending a decision.** The Approvals tab in Visibility showing pending approval cards with Approve and Reject buttons and the collapsed Resolved accordion ### Who can decide Approving or rejecting needs the **Decide approvals** permission. The built-in **Admin** and **Manager** roles have it; **Member** does not; a custom role can include it. See [Team management](/team-management) for roles and permissions. Anyone in the company can open the Inbox and read the Approvals tab. Each request is decided exactly once. If a colleague decides it before you, your click returns **This approval has already been decided.** and the card is already in **Resolved**. Use the note. It is shown to the person who made the request and kept on the resolved record, so a short reason for a rejection saves a follow-up conversation. ## Agent hire approvals ### When one is raised An **Agent hire** approval appears when: * your Head Agent (its preset is shown as **SEO Manager**) or another agent proposes hiring an agent it has designed — for example after you ask it in [Chat](/chat) or in a task for a specialist; * a team member who does not have the **Manage agents** permission requests a new agent. Until someone decides, the proposed agent sits paused and does no work. Someone with the **Manage agents** permission hiring directly from the **Hire agent** page creates the agent immediately, and no approval is raised — see [Agents](/agents). ### Approve or reject a hire Go to the Inbox and open the **Approvals** tab. The amber **Approval needed: agent “Name”** toast or dock item links straight here. Look for the **Agent hire** badge. The summary reads **Hire agent “Name”**. Type in **Optional note for the decision…**. Click **Approve** to activate the agent or **Reject** to decline. A toast confirms **Approved** or **Rejected** and the card moves into **Resolved (N)**. ### What happens next | Decision | Result | | ----------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Approve** | The agent goes live immediately. If its role comes with a starter task, it begins working on it straight away. | | **Reject** | The proposed agent is removed. | If a person made the request, they receive an **Approved** or **Rejected** notification. ## WordPress publish approvals Every publish to a connected WordPress site is approval-gated — there is no setting that lets an agent or a teammate publish without one. Posting from the content editor always creates a **draft** on the site; approving the request is what makes it live. ### When one is raised A **WordPress publish** approval appears when someone asks to publish a draft on the project's connected site: * a person, from the content editor's **Post to WordPress** dialog — **Create draft**, then **Request publish**, optionally with a **Publish at** date and time; * an agent that has drafted a post and asks for it to be published. Agents can request a publish but never publish themselves. For drafting, pairing a site and what gets sent to WordPress, see [Content and WordPress](/content-and-wordpress). ### Approve or reject a publish Go to the Inbox and open the **Approvals** tab. The **Approval needed: a WordPress publish** notification links straight here. Look for the **WordPress publish** badge. The summary reads **Publish “Post title” to Site**, so you can confirm which post and which site before you decide. Type in **Optional note for the decision…**. Click **Approve** to publish or **Reject** to leave the post as a draft. A toast confirms **Approved** or **Rejected** and the card moves into **Resolved (N)**. Expand **Resolved (N)**. An approved publish that the site could not complete shows **Publish failed: … — the post is still a draft on the site.** ### What happens next | Decision | Result | | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Approve** | The post goes live on the site immediately. If the request carried a **Publish at** time that is still in the future, the post is scheduled in WordPress for that time instead. Times are in your local time zone. | | **Reject** | Nothing is published. The post stays a draft on the site. | The requester receives an **Approved: a WordPress publish** or **Rejected** notification. **Approve** publishes at once unless a future **Publish at** time was requested. A **Publish at** time that has already passed publishes immediately on approval. ### When a publish fails after approval Approving tells the site to publish; the site can still refuse or fail to complete it. When that happens: * the request stays in **Resolved (N)** as approved, with a red **Publish failed: … — the post is still a draft on the site.** line that includes the site's reason; * everyone who can decide approvals, plus the requester, receives a **Couldn't publish “Title”** notification. This one reaches the dock and the Inbox without a pop-up toast. Nothing was published, and the draft is untouched on the site. ## Common questions Notifications are per person. You see events for tasks you created or are assigned to, and approvals you requested or can decide. Tasks with no human owner notify company admins. Pending approvals are not part of the bell's unread count. Open the **Approvals** tab directly, or act on the **Approval needed** notification when it arrives. A colleague with **Decide approvals** got there first. Each request can be decided once; expand **Resolved (N)** to see the outcome and any note they left. No. Notifications and approvals are in-app only — the bell, the Inbox, the bottom-right dock and pop-up toasts.