# Invisible automation Reading needs no permission. Anything that leaves the system needs a standing grant from you and one first confirmation. Money is never automated. What is not allowed waits in an approval queue. ## What a grant is You grant one action type at a time with a switch in Settings, Automation: send mail, reply to mail, label or archive mail, create or change a calendar event, create or edit a document, call an outside webhook. Grants are **explicit and revocable**, so nothing gains permission **silently**. Revoking one also clears its first confirmation, so granting it again asks again. The feature needs a paid plan. ## Why the digest exists “It ran while I was away” never means “I do not know what happened.” Findings are collected and delivered once per period, as a plain list with the actions still waiting for you. Nothing pings per event, and a day with nothing to report sends nothing. ## How long it can run Your [plan](https://zerolog.ch/docs/plans) sets the running time for unattended background jobs. Follow a job live, or read its log afterwards, under [Jobs](https://zerolog.ch/docs/jobs). For a `/goal` in chat, the automatic limits are rounds and repeated lack of progress. ## How an automation action is gated Mermaid source of the diagram on this page: ```mermaid %% Automation gate: what happens to an action an automation wants to take. Facts from server/automation.js (ACTIONS, check, propose, approve, digest), server/routes/automation.js. flowchart TB act["An automation wants
to take an action"] kind{"What kind?"} read["Read only
mail, calendar, documents,
a web page"] write["Leaves the system
send or reply, label mail,
calendar, documents, webhook"] money["Money
transfer, purchase, refund"] run["Runs, no grant needed"] grant{"Standing grant,
confirmed once?"} allowed["Runs"] queue["Waits in the
approval queue"]:::hot never["Refused, always"] you["You approve or reject.
Approving also records the
first-time confirmation"] act --> kind kind --> read --> run kind --> write --> grant kind --> money --> never grant -->|yes| allowed grant -->|no| queue --> you linkStyle 8 stroke:#8f7ac9 linkStyle 9 stroke:#8f7ac9 ```