---
title: "The Desk"
description: "The one place a person makes decisions and approvals, phone first."
url: "https://docs.octo.ad/desk/"
id: "desk"
type: "concept"
audience: "team lead"
dateModified: "2026-11-06"
productArea: "the Desk"
surface: "the Desk"
keywords: ["the Desk", "approvals"]
---

# The Desk

> The one place a person makes decisions and approvals, phone first.

## How approvals work

Decisions that belong to a person arrive on the Desk, on your phone. Each card leads with the question, a recommendation and its reasoning, and a card missing context is refused before it reaches you. Approvals are sorted by reversibility: a reversible action runs at once with a short undo window; an irreversible one, such as an outbound message or a payment, needs a deliberate confirmation first. Each decision is recorded with who made it, when and what they chose.

## What the Desk does

- Phone-first: one card per decision, question and recommendation first, options side by side, evidence attached
- A card that depends on missing context or undefined terms is refused before it reaches a person
- Reply by voice; the agent that owns the work picks up the reply in the same thread
- Reversible actions run at once with a short undo window; irreversible ones need a deliberate confirmation
- Every decision recorded with who made it, when and what they chose

## The approval model, by category

- **What the category typically offers:** Approval steps ask the same 'are you sure?' about every action.
- **What OCTOPUS does:** Approvals are sorted by reversibility: reversible actions run at once with a short undo window, irreversible ones need a deliberate confirmation, and higher stakes ask for a more deliberate one. A decision card missing context is refused before it reaches a person.
- **Question to ask any vendor:** How does your approval flow differ between a draft edit and an outbound payment?

More on the Desk: [octo.ad/desk](https://octo.ad/desk/).

- [Approve or decline a card](/desk/approve-or-refuse-a-card/): Act on a card: what runs at once with an undo, and what waits for a deliberate confirmation.
- [Reply by voice](/desk/reply-by-voice/): Answer a card by speaking instead of typing.
- [Why a card was refused](/desk/why-a-card-was-refused/): A card that leans on missing context or undefined terms is refused before it reaches a person.
- [When the person who decides is not available](/desk/when-the-decider-is-away/): If nobody answers a card, nothing irreversible happens. Hand-over to another person is not published.