Deliverd compared with building approvals yourself
An approval is a table and a button.
Then it needs everything else.
Most teams start by building it: a pending row, a link in an email, a webhook back to the agent. For one agent and one approver that is a sensible afternoon's work. It grows when the approver is on a phone, away for a week, or one of two people who both have to agree — and when someone asks, a year later, who said yes.
Free to start · Approvers never need a seat · No card required
Human-in-the-loop infrastructure for AI agents. An agent asks a person for an approval, a review or an answer, and carries on when they respond. Below is how that compares with building approvals yourself, and where the two work together.
Credit where it is due
What building it yourself does well.
Exactly your model
The request, its states and the people in it fit your system and nobody else's. Nothing to map and nothing to work around.
Nothing new in the path
No vendor to assess, no data leaving your estate and no contract. For one agent asking one person, that is a reasonable trade.
It ships with the agent
The approval code is versioned, tested and deployed with the agent that uses it, by the people who already understand both.
The boundary
What it grows into.
Reaching the person where they are
An email link, then a page that works on a phone, then a Slack or Teams message, then a notification. Each is a channel to build, secure and keep working, and each has to lead to the same decision.
Deciding who may decide
The requester cannot approve their own request, an agent cannot approve anything, some requests need two people, and a group means whoever in it answers first. Each rule is code, and each has an edge case.
Waiting without forgetting
Requests expire, reminders go out, an unanswered request moves to someone else, and a colleague covers while the approver is away. That is a scheduler and a set of rules before the agent hears anything back.
Getting the answer back to the agent
The process that asked may have gone. Telling it means a signed callback with retries, or state that can be resumed, and making sure a stray message cannot approve anything.
The record someone asks for later
Who was asked, what they saw, what they decided and when, kept where it cannot be quietly edited, and exportable when a client or an auditor asks.
Where Deliverd fits
What Deliverd adds.
Every channel, one decision
The request goes out by email, browser push, Slack and Teams, and opens on a page built for a phone. A press in chat goes through the same decision as the page.
Rules about who decides
An agent never decides, and a requester never approves their own request. Standing rules, on Business and Enterprise, send a request to two people or a named set, or refuse it.
Expiry, escalation and cover
A request nobody answers escalates to more people and then expires, and a colleague can cover someone's approvals while they are away.
Approve with changes, or ask
The approver can correct the fields the agent opened for correction, or ask the agent a question and see the answer arrive on the page.
Told, not polled
Name a callback URL and the decision is posted there, signed and retried. In development mode the SDK runs the whole loop on your machine, with no key.
The record, kept
Every request, question and decision is written to an audit trail that refuses edits, and a job's steps export as one timeline in JSON, CSV or PDF.
Working together
Keep your table, if you have one.
Give each Deliverd request your own reference and look it up by that reference, so your records and ours never disagree about which request is which. Deliverd handles reaching the person and keeping the record; your system keeps what it already knows.
Compared with building it yourself
An approve button is an afternoon. The rest is not.
Putting a decision in front of a person sounds like one form. It is the page, the notifications, the identity of whoever answers, the rule about who may, the record that survives an audit and the code that waits — and every piece of it is the part your agent is not for.
- Built yourself
- A form in your admin app, which nobody opens on a phone
- Deliverd
- A page that works on a phone, with approve, approve with changes, reject and a question back
- Built yourself
- An email, then a Slack message, then a reminder cron
- Deliverd
- Email, push, Slack and Teams cards, reminders, escalation and expiry, all from the one request
- Built yourself
- A shared link, or your own sign-in bolted onto the form
- Deliverd
- Your SAML or OpenID Connect provider, SCIM, and a one-time code for guests
- Built yourself
- A hard-coded list, and an agent that could edit it
- Deliverd
- Standing rules by agent, action and risk — two approvers, a named set, or refuse — that an agent cannot reach
- Built yourself
- A table somebody can update
- Deliverd
- An insert-only table that rejects updates and deletes, exported as one evidence pack
- Built yourself
- A polling loop, and a process held open for a day
- Deliverd
- The SDK waits for you, or a signed callback wakes a function when the answer lands
| The piece | Built yourself | Deliverd |
|---|---|---|
| The approval page | A form in your admin app, which nobody opens on a phone | A page that works on a phone, with approve, approve with changes, reject and a question back |
| The notifications | An email, then a Slack message, then a reminder cron | Email, push, Slack and Teams cards, reminders, escalation and expiry, all from the one request |
| Identity | A shared link, or your own sign-in bolted onto the form | Your SAML or OpenID Connect provider, SCIM, and a one-time code for guests |
| Who may decide | A hard-coded list, and an agent that could edit it | Standing rules by agent, action and risk — two approvers, a named set, or refuse — that an agent cannot reach |
| The audit trail | A table somebody can update | An insert-only table that rejects updates and deletes, exported as one evidence pack |
| The waiting | A polling loop, and a process held open for a day | The SDK waits for you, or a signed callback wakes a function when the answer lands |
All of it on every plan, for everyone in your organisation. You pay for the people who create and manage work, never for the people who are asked. See what that costs.
Questions.
Can we start with our own and move later?
Yes. Each request can carry your own reference and be found by it, so moving one kind of request at a time works.
Do approvers need a seat?
No. Being asked — an approval, a review, a question — never needs a seat, on any plan.
Can we try it without connecting anything?
Yes. The SDK's development mode runs the whole loop on your machine, with no key and no network, so the agent's code is written before anyone signs up.
Is this a workflow engine?
No. Deliverd does not run your agent or draw your process. The agent asks, a person answers, and the agent carries on with the answer.
Ask the right person before the agent acts.
Approvals, reviews and requests from any agent, with the record kept. Free to start. No credit card.