Decide what Connect may do
Autonomy is one setting per channel with four possible values — off, draft_only, ask_before_send, autonomous — and it can be set at four scopes: one contact, one endpoint, a whole channel, or the workspace. The narrowest rule that applies wins. Most businesses start every channel on ask_before_send and narrow from there once they have read a week of drafts.
The four modes#
| Mode | Connect writes | Connect asks | Connect sends |
|---|---|---|---|
off | No — the channel is disabled | No | No |
draft_only | Yes | No, deliberately | No |
ask_before_send | Yes | Yes, every outbound | Only after a human yes |
autonomous | Yes | Only when a gate requires it | Yes, within the gates |
The pair worth understanding properly is draft_only and ask_before_send, because on a conversation screen they look identical — a written reply that has not gone anywhere. ask_before_send puts that reply in front of a person and waits for a decision. draft_only writes it and stops, on purpose, and queues nothing: it exists so a workspace can watch what Connect *would* say without anybody having to keep saying no.
The four scopes, narrowest first#
- Contact — one person. The narrowest, and the one that wins over everything else.
- Endpoint — one mailbox or one phone number.
- Channel — email, whatsapp, sms or voice, whole.
- Workspace — the default that applies where nothing narrower is set.
Resolution runs from the narrowest applicable rule outwards, so a rule against one contact overrides the channel's, and the channel's overrides the workspace's. In practice this is how you handle an account where every word matters without slowing everything else down: leave the channel autonomous and set that one contact to ask first.
What to start with#
ask_before_send on every channel, on day one, without exception. It is the only setting that lets you read what Connect writes against real messages while guaranteeing that nothing reaches a customer unread. The cost is that you must actually work the queue; a workspace that sets ask-before-send and then ignores Needs You has built a very thorough way of not replying to anybody.
draft_only is the alternative for a workspace that wants to evaluate quietly with no obligation to respond to a queue. off is right for a channel you have configured but are not ready to use — it is a clearer statement than leaving a channel connected and hoping nothing arrives.
What autonomy does not decide#
- Whether an action is recorded
- Everything is. The decision log holds what was decided, by what, under which rule, and what happened — refusals included.
- Whether a gate still applies
autonomousmeans acting within the gates, not past them. A spent daily allowance, a suppressed recipient or a do-not-contact entry stops a send in any mode.- Whether the Assistant can do it
- The Connect Assistant's rights are narrower than a person's regardless of autonomy — it cannot set pricing and cannot clear a do-not-contact entry.
- Whether Connect is running at all
- That is the runtime switch, which stops everything immediately and changes no settings. Autonomy is policy; the switch is a power cut.
Questions#
If I set the workspace to autonomous, is every channel autonomous?
Only where nothing narrower is set. A channel, an endpoint or a contact with its own rule keeps it, and that rule wins. This is deliberate: it means you can change the default without silently changing every exception you carefully made earlier.
Can I turn off just one channel?
Yes — set that channel to off and the rest are unaffected. That is the correct way to pause WhatsApp while keeping email running, rather than using the runtime switch, which stops everything.
How do I find out why one particular reply was held?
The decision log on #/autonomy-audit records the rule that applied. Four things hold a reply — the mode being ask-before-send, the mode being draft-only, a spent daily allowance, or a suppressed recipient — and knowing which is most of the work of releasing it.