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How Lucius's permissions work

Two settings decide whether Lucius changes something straight away or stops to ask you first:

  1. The approval mode of the conversation (or of the Automation running it) — how cautious Lucius is overall: ask about everything, ask only about risky things, or never ask.
  2. The permission level of each tool he can use — Always allow, Needs approval or Blocked. A level you set yourself always wins over the mode.

When Lucius does ask, you get a confirm card with what would happen and buttons to approve or deny it.

Choose how much Lucius asks in a conversation

  1. Open a conversation with Lucius.
  2. In the message box’s toolbar, click the approval control. It shows the current mode in one word: Manual, Auto or Skip.
  3. Pick one:
ModeWhat it means in this conversation
Manually approve“Lucius pauses so you can approve each action.” Every change asks first, unless you’ve already chosen Always allow for that tool.
Automatically approve“Lucius runs on its own and pauses to ask if anything looks unsafe.” Ordinary changes happen straight away and the reply shows what changed. He still stops for the riskier operations listed below.
Skip all approvals“Lucius never pauses, even for unsafe actions.” Use it only for a task you’re watching.

A new conversation starts in Automatically approve. Conversations from before this setting existed keep behaving as Manually approve. The mode belongs to that one conversation — it never carries over to another one, and Lucius cannot change it himself; only you can, from this control.

In a conversation that is an Automation run, the control is greyed out with “Set by this Automation — change it on the Automation.” Change it in the Automation’s editor instead.

What still asks, even in Automatically approve

  • Deleting a filtered set of transactions and re-applying a payee rule across your whole ledger. In both, Lucius picks which rows are affected, so you see the count and the rows first. (Skip all approvals lets these through too.)
  • Creating, editing, deleting or running an Automation — in every mode, so a conversation can never give an Automation more freedom than you did.
  • Any tool you’ve explicitly set to Needs approval on a connector’s page (see below).
  • Tools from an external MCP server you added, unless you set them to Always allow — they follow their own level in every mode.

Everything Lucius changes, whether or not he asked first, can be undone: see Undoing a change.

The three permission levels

LevelWhat happens when Lucius wants to use the tool
Always allowIt runs immediately — no card, no pause.
Needs approvalIt pauses on a confirm card until you approve or deny it (unless the conversation’s mode lets it through — see above).
BlockedRefused outright, in every mode and every Automation. Lucius is told it isn’t permitted.

What a tool does before you’ve chosen anything

  • Built-in reads (balances, transactions, reports) just run.
  • Built-in changes (logging or editing a transaction, moving budget money, creating an account, sending an email) count as Needs approval.
  • Connector tools — a bank sync, a web search, Telegram, an MCP server — count as Needs approval, reads included, until you decide. A few read-only ones, like searching and reading your own email, run freely.

Where to set a level

WhereWhat you can do there
On a confirm cardAllow once approves just this call. Always allow approves this call and every future one. On a narrow card it sits behind the small arrow beside Allow once. Deny, on the right, refuses this call only. See Confirm cards.
Connectors → a connector → Tool permissionsSet each of that connector’s tools to Always allow, Needs approval or Blocked before you ever use it. Setting a whole group sets every tool in it; a group with mixed levels shows Custom.
Settings → PermissionsThe Tool permissions list: every built-in tool you’ve made a decision about, with its level and when it changed. Click Reset, then Confirm reset?, to return a tool to its default. Connector tools are managed on their connector’s page, not here.

If the list in Settings → Permissions shows a row called All tools (confirmation off), confirmations are switched off for every built-in tool you haven’t decided about. Reset it to turn them back on.

Always allow means everywhere — including when you’re not watching

Always allow is not “trust it while I’m around”. It also applies to Automations running on a schedule, Telegram conversations, and anything else with nobody at the screen — money-moving tools included. If you’d only be comfortable with a tool running while you supervise it, leave it at Needs approval (or Blocked).

The card says this too: under Always allow it reads “every future call, any amount • revoke in Settings”. The Permissions list doesn’t repeat the warning, so decide before you tap.

One exception: Automations set to Manually approve

An Automation never borrows a permission you granted in chat. In an Automation set to Manually approve, a tool you’ve globally set to Always allow still pauses — unless it is on that Automation’s own Always allowed list. Tapping Always allow on a card during an Automation run adds the tool to that list, not to your global settings. See Automations.

How the mode and the level combine

When Lucius wants to use a tool, the app checks, in order:

  1. Blocked? Refused. Nothing overrides it.
  2. Inside an Automation run? The Automation’s own Always allowed list lets it through; a tool you explicitly set to Needs approval asks; otherwise the Automation’s approval mode decides.
  3. In a conversation? In Automatically approve or Skip all approvals, the mode decides (with the exceptions above). In Manually approve, the tool’s level decides.

Undoing a change

Every message of yours that led Lucius to change something has a Restore button under it, always in view. Click it to see what restoring would undo, then pick Restore data (put your data back as it was before that message) or Restore data & rewind chat (also remove the conversation from that point). “This restore can itself be undone.” — the Undo beside Restored to before this message stays in view too, after a reload and on your other devices. Undo can only reach back so far: once enough newer changes have been made that the copy it restores from is cleared, the message still reads Restored to before this message but no longer offers Undo.

Restoring to before an earlier message hides Restore on the later messages of that conversation while the restore stands. Undo brings them back.

The first time Lucius changes your data, a one-time tip points at that message’s Restore.

Troubleshooting

Lucius changed something without asking. The conversation is in Automatically approve (the default for new conversations) or the tool is set to Always allow. Switch the conversation to Manually approve, or check Settings → Permissions and the connector’s Tool permissions.

Lucius keeps asking about the same tool. The conversation is in Manually approve and the tool is still Needs approval. Tap the arrow on the card and choose Always allow, or switch the conversation to Automatically approve.

I tapped Always allow, but an Automation still asks. That Automation is set to Manually approve, or you’ve explicitly set the tool to Needs approval on its connector page — an explicit “ask me” wins over a grant.

Lucius says a tool is blocked. It’s set to Blocked on its connector’s page (or in a connector’s group). Change it there.