Tool approvals

When a tool can change things (send email, merge a PR, delete a file), you probably want to see the call before it runs, especially during a live demo. With approvals the model waits: the tool card shows its arguments and Approve / Deny buttons.

Who asks

From most to least specific:

1. Per tool: in Settings → MCP servers → a server → Tools, click the auto / asks pill next to a tool.
2. Per workspace: Settings → Workspaces → Ask before every tool call puts every MCP tool in the workspace in “ask” mode, which is handy as a safe mode for demos. Tools you explicitly set to auto still run.
3. Per server: Tool approval in the server form: run automatically, always ask, or never ask.
4. Default: tools the server annotates with destructiveHint: true ask. Everything else runs.

moka.json

{
  "mcpServers": [
    { "id": "gh", "name": "GitHub", "transport": "http", "url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/",
      "approval": { "default": "ask", "tools": { "search_code": "auto", "get_file_contents": "auto" } } }
  ],
  "workspaces": [{ "id": "live", "name": "Live demo", "requireApproval": true }]
}

Answering

Button	Effect
Approve	Run this call
Allow for session	Run it, and don’t ask again for this tool until Moka restarts
Always	Run it and save "tool": "auto" to moka.json
Deny	Don’t run it. The model is told the user declined and should ask how to proceed

Pressing Stop cancels any pending approval. Approvals show up in the inspector as interaction.request / interaction.resolved events.

Note

Approvals apply to calls the model makes. Calls you make yourself from the tool runner, and calls an MCP App makes from its own UI, run immediately.

From code

With @mokalabs/core, pending approvals are published on the event bus. Answer them with engine.respond(id, { approved: true }), or pass onInteraction to decide programmatically:

const engine = new MokaEngine({
  config,
  onInteraction: async (request) => (request.kind === "tool-approval" ? { approved: request.tool !== "delete_repository" } : { action: "decline" }),
});