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A bot works while you are elsewhere, and a bot that needs something stops and waits. The inbox is where that waiting collects. It is the Bot home page, the one you land on before you open any single bot, and it lists every bot you own that is mid-job or that wants a decision, so you can work through the pile in one place instead of opening bots one by one. This page covers the three lists Cortex keeps and which to reach for, the four filters over the inbox, the three kinds of row and what each offers, read state, and the other places the same pending work shows up.

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Three lists, and which one to use

Use the inbox to triage. Use Approvals and tool policy when you want to work through parked tools specifically, or to see which Always rules are in force.

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The four filters

One list, four views. The header counts what is waiting, {count} need you, and reads Quiet, for now when nothing is. All is the filter you start on, and the choice is remembered in your browser, so the view you left is the view you come back to. A Working row is not a request: it is a bot getting on with something, marked On a job, and its footer reminds you that the desktop lives in the cloud and that you open a direct message to look at it. See Computer. If the list itself fails to arrive you get Inbox didn’t load rather than an empty inbox. Retry, and if it keeps happening, quote the req_id {id} the rows carry when you report it.

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What a row can be

Three things can put a bot in the list, and each row offers only the actions that fit it. When the tool’s name is not available the row falls back to a parked action. A question blocks the bot’s composer until you answer it, which is why answering in the thread is the whole of that row’s job. See Talking to a bot.
The inbox row is a shortcut, not the full picture. The bot’s reason for wanting a tool and the exact arguments it intends to use are shown in the conversation, on the approval widget itself. Open the bot when the decision is not obvious from the tool’s name.
Secret requests behave the same wherever you settle them: the value goes to the sealed vault and never appears in the thread. See Connected apps and secrets.

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Work through the list

1

Open the Bot home page

The header tells you how many rows need you.
2

Pick a filter

Pending first if you want to unblock bots, Working if you want to see what is in flight.
3

Settle what you can from the row

Approve, Edit first or Deny on a parked tool. Save to vault or Not now on a secret request.
4

Open the bot for anything else

Questions are answered in the thread, and so is anything you want to read in full before deciding.
5

Clear the read state

Mark read on a row, Mark unread to put it back, or Mark all read for the lot.

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Read state

Mark read, Mark unread and Mark all read control the unread list you see. Marking a row read does not settle it: a parked tool that you mark read is still parked, and still waiting. Clearing unread is bookkeeping for you, deciding is the Approve or Deny.

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Where the same work shows up elsewhere

The inbox is not the only signal, and the others are deliberately quieter.
  • The sidebar. A bot with a parked tool replaces its status word with a small amber marker and the label Pending approval. That marker is the sign to open the bot.
  • The command palette. A Waiting on you group lists pending approvals, each annotated needs a decision. Selecting one takes you to it. The palette navigates, it does not decide.
  • Notifications. Cortex raises bot needs you when a bot wants a decision, and computer could not start when its computer failed to wake. See Notifications.
  • The desktop app. The Bot desktop app has its own inbox in its rail, built around the same approvals, secret requests and questions. See Bot desktop app.
Companion, the phone-width column that would list approvals and pushes for the bots you own, is drawn in the interface but is not available yet. Nothing is served behind it, and it says so when you open it.