Workflow guide
Human approval for AI drafts: how a person stays the sender
Short answer: Staffbox has no sending code and no mail credentials: every reply leaves only when a person sends it. Four controls enforce that.
An approval step is only as strong as the easiest way around it. If sending is a switch, someone will one day flip it. Staffbox has no switch to flip, because the code cannot send. Send up to three requests your team already answered; drafts come back within 2 business days, ready for a person to check.
Updated 13 October 2026
Approval is enforced by four controls, not by a setting
- The box reads the request from the requests folder.
- The box prices and drafts: code does the sums, and it writes a draft plus one log line into the drafts folder.
- A person checks the row, quantity, list date and any reviewer note.
- A person sends from their own mail. The box has no step 4: no sending code and no mail login.
The full who-does-what between the box, your IT provider and your team is on the company page.
Approval built into the code
Many AI products say a human stays in the loop. In most of them that is a setting. Someone can switch it off, and the product then sends on its own. Staffbox is built the other way. The code that writes drafts contains no function that sends email, and the box holds no mail credentials. The only way a draft leaves is for a person to open it and send it from their own mail.
You do not have to trust that sentence. The code is open source (MIT) and the drafting module is a short file. Your IT provider can read it before it goes on your network.
The four controls, in order
| Control | What it does | Where it is stated |
|---|---|---|
| 1. No sending code | The mailbox door reads request files from one folder and writes draft files to another. | Repository code |
| 2. Narrow permissions | In the quote pilot the box can read forwarded quote requests and one price-list file, and write drafts and a log line. It has no permission to send email or delete files. Set at install. | Security sheet |
| 3. Reviewer note | When the worker will not price a request, the draft starts with a note to the reviewer that must be deleted before sending. | Repository code |
| 4. A log that only grows | Every draft adds one line to the log, ending in "not sent: a person sends". When the vault is in git, the check command verifies that the log has only been appended to. | Repository code |
The default install also turns off nine tool groups plus image generation (terminal, code execution, browser, computer use, web, connections, delegation, cron jobs, text-to-speech), so the worker has no other route out. Details are in the Trust Center.
The approver owns what the email does not say
The reviewer is the only part of the system that knows things the email does not say: that this customer has a standing deal, that the item was discontinued on Friday, that the quantity in the email is a typo. The software does the lookup and the arithmetic. The person owns the commitment.
On the scorecard this shows up as minutes spent editing each draft, graded on your own past quotes. If the minutes stay high, the draft is not saving you much, and that is a reason to fix the price list or the instructions before paying for anything. The method is on the scorecard page.
This is the draft approval exists for. The customer asked for an item the price list does not carry. The worker wrote no number and named what is stocked; a person decides what to offer.
What is the price of a 34in ultrawide monitor?
NOT IN VAULT: 34in ultrawide monitor is not on the price list (we stock: monitor 24in; monitor 27in). Ask the customer whether a stocked item works, or the person who owns pricing if it is a special order.
- hardware-price-list · no matching row · updated 30 Sep 2026
- price-list rule: not on this list = special order, not priced here
The weak point is a reviewer who stops reading
The main failure of any approval step is that people stop reading. After fifty correct drafts, the fifty-first gets a click. We do not have a customer yet, so we have no data on how reviewers behave over months. Our view is that the design should make a wrong draft look different from a right one. That is what the reviewer note, the row citation and the list date are for (our view).
The monthly re-test adds a second check. Staff corrections are saved as new test cases with staffbox addtest, which only adds lines and never edits old ones, so a mistake that was caught once is tested every month after. A mistake that was not caught remains a risk, and the pass bar only covers what is in the test set.
Five decisions set up approval before day 0
- Decide who approves. For quotes, whoever owns pricing today. Name a role and a backup.
- Decide where drafts land: a folder, or a mail client that syncs it, so approvers see them where they already work.
- Agree what the approver must check, using a short list such as the one on the draft replies page.
- Decide which requests should go straight to a person without a draft, for example anything over a dollar amount or any customer on a special deal. Write that rule into the brain and add a test for it.
- Agree the pass bar before day 0. A workflow goes live only if it meets it.
Your IT provider applies the permissions at install. See how IT providers install and support Staffbox. For the broader picture of what the worker cannot do, read what Staffbox does not do.
Questions
Can an AI draft emails without sending them?
Yes. Staffbox writes draft files to a folder and has no sending code. A person opens each draft, checks it and sends it from their own mail.
Can the AI delete or change my files?
Not in the quote setup. The box can write drafts and a log line; permission to send email or delete files is not granted at install. The default install also turns off nine tool groups plus image generation, including the terminal, browser and web tools.
What stops reviewers from approving without reading?
Nothing fully does. The draft is built to make errors visible: a cited price-list row, the list date, and a reviewer note when the worker declines. Staff corrections become monthly test cases.
Sources
- Mailbox door and log behaviour:
staffbox/inbox.pyand README in github.com/Staffbox-ai/staffbox, read 13 Oct 2026. - Safe default tool set:
scripts/install.shin the same repository, checked 14 Oct 2026. Permission list: Staffbox security sheet for an installed unit (see the Trust Center).
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