Autonomy settings: what a worker may do without asking

Autonomy settings say how far an agent may take a piece of work on its own when it was dispatched to do it. You can set them for the whole workspace, for one release, or for one work item. A person working on their own work item, or directing their own agent, is never held back by these settings. They apply to agents working on their own in a dispatched wave.

Autonomy is turned on per workspace. If you don't see an Autonomy panel on your workspace's members page or on a release, it isn't on for your workspace yet.

#The three settings

Agent may take it (work items only). Turn this off and no agent may take that work item on its own. A person still can.
Level: how far an agent may go.
- Suggest only: the agent reports back what it would do. It opens no pull request.
- Open a PR and wait: the agent opens the pull request and stops. A person approves the merge first.
- Merge: the agent may land the work item itself.
Merge to main: who merges the release's pull request into your main branch.
- A person merges: a person approves first.
- An agent may merge: an agent may merge it once the release is ready.

Each setting is listed strictest first: Suggest only is stricter than Open a PR and wait, which is stricter than Merge. A person merges is stricter than An agent may merge.

#How settings inherit

Settings come in three layers. The most specific one that is set wins:

The workspace: the default for every release.
The release: overrides the workspace for this release. It may be looser or stricter than the workspace.
The work item: overrides the release, but only to be stricter.

Every value on screen says where it came from, for example "Merge from the workspace". Choose Inherit to clear a setting so it follows the layer above again.

#Why some choices are greyed out

When a choice isn't allowed, it is greyed out, and the reason is written under the list:

Looser than the release: a work item may only be stricter than its release. If the release is set to Open a PR and wait, a work item can't be set to Merge.
Looser than the workspace: only a workspace owner may set a release or a work item looser than the workspace's default.

If a release is tightened after one of its work items was set looser, the work item follows the release. Its screen says, for example, "Level is set to Merge but reads as the release's Open a PR and wait."

#Workspace settings

Open the workspace menu at the top of the sidebar and choose Members & invites. The Autonomy panel shows the workspace's level, merge to main, and the cap on autonomous agents. Owners can change them; members can see them.

#The autonomous agent cap

The cap limits how many agents may work on their own at the same time across the workspace. Leave it blank for no limit, or set it to 0 to stop agents from taking work on their own at all.

The cap counts autonomous claims only: work an agent took on its own in a dispatched wave. People, and agents a person is directing, never count toward it. The panel shows how many are running now.

#Release and work-item settings

On a release, the Autonomy panel shows the release's level and merge to main, then each work item with its own settings. Choose Change the release's autonomy to edit the release. Choose Change on a work item to edit that item. Anyone in the workspace can make a setting stricter.

A shipped release is history, so its autonomy settings can't be changed.

#Approving a merge

Some work waits for a person:

A work item at Open a PR and wait shows Needs approval and an Approve merge button until it is merged. Approve it once you have reviewed its pull request.
A release whose merge to main is A person merges shows Approve merge for the release's pull request.

After you approve, the panel shows who approved and when. An approval stops counting if the work item is reopened, and a release approval stops counting if any of its work items is reopened, because the pull request changed. The button then shows Needs approval again.

Approvals are made on this screen, by a person. An agent can't approve its own work.