Approval Model

What you will learn

When and why transactions require human approval
The three approval modes (CLI, web, auto)
How approval tokens provide single-use authorization
How the web approval dashboard and Telegram bot work

When approval is required

The policy engine determines whether a transaction needs human confirmation:

Policy Decision	Approval Required?
`allow`	No — transaction proceeds automatically
`require_approval`	Yes — operator must confirm
`deny`	N/A — transaction is rejected

A transaction triggers require_approval when:

Its value exceeds requireApprovalAbove.valueWei
Its risk score exceeds maxRiskScore

Approval modes

Set the mode via ISCL_APPROVAL_MODE environment variable:

CLI Mode
Web Mode
Auto Mode

Mode: cli (default)A readline prompt appears in the ISCL Core terminal:

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  APPROVAL REQUEST                         │
│  Action: Transfer 100 USDC to 0xAlice    │
│  Chain: Base (8453)                       │
│  Risk Score: 15/100                       │
│  Gas Estimate: ~0.0001 ETH               │
│                                           │
│  Approve? (y/n):                         │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘

Best for: development, single-user setups where someone watches the terminal.

Mode: webApproval requests are held in an in-memory PendingApprovalStore and exposed via HTTP:

GET /v1/approvals/pending — list pending requests
POST /v1/approvals/:requestId/decide — submit approve/deny
GET /approval-ui — browser-based approval dashboard

The web dashboard polls for pending requests every second and shows Approve/Deny buttons with risk color coding.Best for: interactive use with browser, Telegram bot integration, multi-tool workflows.

Mode: autoAll transactions are automatically approved without human confirmation.

Never use auto mode in production. It bypasses the human-in-the-loop security guarantee.

Best for: automated testing only.

Approval tokens

When a transaction is approved, ISCL Core issues an approval token:

Property	Value
Format	UUID v4
TTL	300 seconds (5 minutes)
Usage	Single-use (consumed on first `sign-and-send`)
Binding	Cryptographically bound to the intent’s canonical hash

The token prevents:

Replay attacks — tokens cannot be reused
Substitution attacks — approving intent A and signing intent B is impossible (hash binding)
Stale approvals — expired tokens are rejected

Token lifecycle

approve-request
    │
    ▼
┌──────────────┐
│ Token Created │  ← TTL starts (300s)
│ Hash-bound    │
└──────┬───────┘
       │
       ▼
sign-and-send
    │
    ▼
┌──────────────┐
│ Token Verified│  ← Hash matches? Not expired? Not consumed?
│ Token Consumed│  ← Marked as used (single-use)
└──────┬───────┘
       │
       ▼
   Signing

Web approval dashboard

The built-in web dashboard at http://localhost:3100/approval-ui provides:

Real-time polling for pending requests (1-second interval)
Approve / Deny buttons for each pending request
Risk score with color coding (green/yellow/red)
Recent audit history (5-second polling)
Dark theme, zero external dependencies

No authentication is required because the API is bound to localhost.

Telegram approval

The Telegram bot (@clavion/adapter-telegram) provides inline approval keyboards:

Transfer 100.0 USDC to 0xAbCd...1234

Chain: Base (8453)
Risk Score: 15/100

[Approve] [Deny]

Security: only the user who initiated the command can tap Approve/Deny (same-sender enforcement). Requires ISCL_APPROVAL_MODE=web on ISCL Core.

PendingApprovalStore

In web mode, pending requests are stored in an in-memory Map:

TTL: 300 seconds per request
Cleanup: Every 30 seconds, expired entries are removed
Blocking: The approve-request HTTP call blocks until the operator submits a decision or the TTL expires

Next steps

Transaction Lifecycle — How approval fits into the full pipeline
Telegram Bot Setup — Configure Telegram approval
Web Approval Dashboard — API endpoints for web approval

Architecture

Security & Design

What you will learn

When approval is required

Approval modes

Approval tokens

Token lifecycle

Web approval dashboard

Telegram approval

PendingApprovalStore

Next steps

​What you will learn

​When approval is required

​Approval modes

​Approval tokens

​Token lifecycle

​Web approval dashboard

​Telegram approval

​PendingApprovalStore

​Next steps

What you will learn

When approval is required

Approval modes

Approval tokens

Token lifecycle

Web approval dashboard

Telegram approval

PendingApprovalStore

Next steps