Approvals

A brand can say that its changes need approval. When it does, a change waits in History's Review tab until someone who approves that part of the brand says yes. Until then, your agents, the brand files and the share link keep getting the approved version. You choose who approves each part: a head of design for Foundations and Components, a copy lead for Knowledge.

Turn approval on#

1. 1

   Open Settings → Team

   Scroll to Review. It's for the brand you have open.

2. 2

   Switch on Changes need approval

   Only admins and the owner can turn it on or off.

3. 3

   Choose who approves each area

   Next to each part of the brand, open the menu and tick the people who approve it. With nobody ticked, admins and the owner approve it.

Who approves#

• The people you name for an area. Anyone on the team can be named, Viewers included: approving doesn't need edit rights.
• Admins and the owner approve everything without being named.

Everyone on the team can see who approves what in Settings → Team.

What waits#

Your team's edits#

Someone who doesn't approve an area edits it as usual. Their change shows in the app straight away, for them and for everyone on the team, and is logged in History. What leaves Archetype doesn't change until it's approved:

• agents over MCP;
• BRAND.md, the tokens file and the downloadable bundle;
• the share link;
• checks, which grade against the approved brand;
• embed links and hosted fonts.

Changes are reviewed a thing at a time: a palette, a component and its examples, a template and its frames, one document. Ten edits to the colors are one item to review.

The item's page says it's waiting, and for whom. An approver opening it sees who changed it, with Review changes and Approve right there.

People who approve an area edit it as usual and their change lands straight away, unless they're editing something already waiting for review: then it joins what's waiting.

Changing something back to what's approved takes it out of the queue on its own.

Agents' changes#

Every change an agent makes through update_brand waits as a draft, whatever Review agent edits in Settings → Agents says. That switch stays on and can't be turned off while approval is on. See Changes from agents.

To approve a draft you need to approve every area it touches. It's then made with the rights of the person whose agent proposed it, so an approver who can't edit the area can still let it land. The person whose agent proposed a change can always discard it.

Approve a change#

Open History and the Review tab. Waiting for you lists what you can approve. Open a row to see each change, the approved version beside how it is now. Then:

• Approve: what's in the app is what agents and the share link get, from now on.
• Send back: say what should change. It keeps waiting, and the people who made it get your note in their notifications. Once they've seen to it, they select Ask for review again.
• Revert: put back the approved version. For an agent's draft this is Discard, and nothing in the brand changes.

To approve several at once, tick them and select Approve in the bar that appears. If something changed after you opened it, approving is refused so you never approve something you haven't seen.

Yours lists what you changed that waits on someone else, and what was sent back to you with the note. If you made all of a change yourself, Take back puts back the approved version.

Undo and turning approval off#

While approval is on, only someone who approves an area can Undo change in History for it. To take back your own change that's waiting, use Take back in the Review tab.

Approval can't be turned off while anything is waiting. Approve or revert what's there first.

Next steps#