## Overview

**Autonomy** defines how much the **Bot** (Maestro acting inside the conversation) does on its own
versus when it asks a person to confirm. You pick the level of trust, and it governs how the Bot
behaves in support.

There are **three modes**:

- **Autopilot** — the Bot executes on its own, without waiting for approval.
- **Copilot** — the Bot **proposes** cards (a message draft or a module action); you **review and
  send**. Nothing goes out on its own.
- **Hybrid (Require approval / HITL)** — the Bot acts on its own in day-to-day work, **except** for
  **sensitive actions**, which are **held, waiting for your approval**.

The safety principle is simple: in **Hybrid**, nothing sensitive or final happens without approval;
in **Copilot**, nothing is sent without you. You decide how much to trust.

> This concept has analogs elsewhere in the platform: the Brain's **departments** have their own
> autonomy level (including an "Ask first" tier), and **Follow-ups** have AI-draft approval. Both are
> linked under "See also".

## Prerequisites

- **Maestro enabled** and a Bot/agent configured on the inbox.
- **Administrator** permission to set the autonomy mode.
- An **owner** (the conversation's assignee or a team) to receive the approval notifications.
- The **per-module tools** you want proposed/parked must be **enabled** — see the tools article.

## Step by step

1. In the Bot configuration, choose the **autonomy mode**: Autopilot, Copilot or Hybrid (Require
   approval).
2. To change only one conversation, open the **Maestro** side panel, click the **Autonomy mode** card
   and choose another mode. The card says **Set for this conversation**; use **Use Bot default** to
   remove the exception. Only administrators can make this change.
3. In **Copilot**: the Bot proposes cards (a draft or a module action); you review and send/confirm —
   nothing goes out on its own (details in the generative copilot article).
4. In **Hybrid**: for day-to-day actions the Bot acts; when a **sensitive action** comes up, it is
   **parked** — the Bot posts a **private note** that **@mentions the owner** (firing the native
   notification) and creates an **approval card** with an action id.
5. The owner taps/clicks the **Maestro** indicator in the conversation header to open the panel; the
   adjacent shortcuts **Pause**, **Resume**, or **Take over** the service. Pending approvals stay
   visible in the numbered shield. In the panel, choose **Approve** or **Reject**. On
   **Approve**, the **exact action** that was held is re-executed; the note records **who approved it**.
6. In **Autopilot**: the Bot executes on its own (sensitive actions are still recorded in the audit
   trail).
7. Track the result on the **card** and in the conversation's **activity line**.

## Settings & options

### The three autonomy modes

| Mode | Behavior |
|------|----------|
| **Autopilot** | Runs on its own; no approval wait. |
| **Copilot** | Proposes; the person reviews and sends. Nothing is sent without you. |
| **Hybrid (Require approval / HITL)** | Runs on its own, **except** sensitive actions, which are parked for approval. |

### What counts as a sensitive action in Hybrid (gets parked)

- **Assign to a team**, **run a macro**, **mark the conversation as resolved**.
- Writes to **CRM**, **Tasks**, **Calendar** (create/edit/reschedule/cancel an appointment) and
  **Payments**.
- **Commerce recovery** (a recovery card sent to the customer), **cancel** a follow-up cadence,
  **enroll into a distribution group** and **trigger a collaboration round**.
- **Database** writes, **generate video**, **contracts** (create/send/remind) and **delegating to a
  sub-agent** when that delegation is marked as sensitive.

### What the Bot does freely (even in Hybrid)

- **Reply** to the contact, add **labels**, **internal notes**, **reactions**, **generate an image**,
  **knowledge-base searches** and other **read-only** lookups.

### Human-only action

- **Approving an AI Follow-up draft** is always human — the Bot **never approves its own draft**. This
  holds in any mode (see the Follow-ups article).

### The approval card and note

- The **private note** @mentions the owner (or the team) and references the **action id**, to trigger
  the platform's native notification.
- The **approval card** sits in the conversation's **Maestro panel**, with **Approve** and **Reject**.
- The decision is **recorded** with **who approved** — and on approval, the exact parked action is
  re-executed.

### Handoff to a human: status, priority and summary

When handing a conversation off to a human team, the Bot sets the conversation's **status** (open,
pending, snoozed or resolved) and **priority** (none, low, medium, high or urgent). Each one can be a
**fixed** value or **"Maestro decides"**: in that mode the Bot itself picks the most suitable value per
conversation, at the moment of handoff — a fixed value always prevails over the Bot's choice. The
**handoff note** sent to the agent includes the **reason** and a **conversation summary** (generated on
the spot when there is no accumulated summary yet), so the person can take over with context.

### Taken over by a human (the bot stands down, then comes back)

When a person **replies** in the conversation (from the dashboard or the mobile app) or **pauses** the
bot, it **stands down on that conversation** — it stops replying so it does not talk over the human.
This applies to that conversation only; the bot keeps working everywhere else.

Two options control the comeback:

| Option | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| **Resume automatically after a while** | The bot takes the conversation back once the window below passes with no new human reply. | On |
| **Resume after** | The idle window before it returns: 1 hour, 4 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, 1 week, or **Custom** (you type the hours). | 24 hours |

- With **auto-resume off**, the bot stays paused on that conversation **until a person hands it back**
  — there is no time-based return.
- The clock runs from the **last human message**: if the person replies again, the window restarts.
- The minimum accepted window is **1 minute**; anything shorter is raised to that floor.
- The setting is **per bot** (it applies to every inbox the bot answers on).

### Where the mode applies, and the per-department analog

- The mode configured on the Bot is the default for every inbox it serves. A conversation may keep a
  persistent exception; precedence is **conversation → Bot**. The change starts on the next turn,
  does not interrupt an in-progress reply, and neither executes nor discards existing approvals.
- The Brain's **departments** have **their own autonomy level** (including "Ask first") — a separate
  setting, detailed in the departments article.

## Use cases

- **A team new to AI**: start on **Copilot** and review everything before sending.
- **A trusted operation with guardrails**: **Hybrid** — routine replies on their own, money/data moves
  waiting for approval.
- **High volume, low risk**: **Autopilot** for simple touches, or **Hybrid** for most cases.
- **Sensitive sub-agent delegation** kept under approval in **Hybrid**.

## Tips, limits & best practices

- **Grow trust** gradually: Copilot → Hybrid → Autopilot.
- Make sure there is an **owner** (assignee or team) so approval requests don't slip by.
- **Review pending items** often so the flow doesn't pile up.
- **Approving re-executes the exact parked action** — check the data before approving; if something
  changed, **reject** and ask again.
- Only **enabled** tools are proposed; keep the more powerful ones starting with **approval**.

## Troubleshooting

- **"The action didn't run"**: in Hybrid, a sensitive action is held — **approve it in the Maestro
  panel**.
- **"Nobody saw the approval request"**: check the **owner** (assignee/team) and the account's
  **notifications**.
- **"The Bot acted on its own on something I wanted to review"**: it's **not on the sensitive list**,
  or the mode is **Autopilot** — switch to **Hybrid**.
- **"I can't approve an AI Follow-up draft through the Bot"**: draft approval is **human by design** —
  see the Follow-ups article.

## See also

- [What Maestro AI and the Account Brain are](/hc/ajuda/articles/maestro-brain-overview-en)
- [Generative copilot: propose, confirm and execute](/hc/ajuda/articles/maestro-brain-copiloto-generativo-en)
- [Departments, risk analysis and insights](/hc/ajuda/articles/maestro-brain-departamentos-risco-insights-en)
- [Maestro tools by module](/hc/ajuda/articles/maestro-brain-ferramentas-maestro-por-modulo-en)
- [AI with human approval (human-in-the-loop) in Follow-ups](/hc/ajuda/articles/follow-ups-ia-com-aprovacao-humana-en)