# Autopilot and auto-approve

> Autopilot drafts your calendar posts as they come due. Auto-approve, off by default, lets an owner pass autopilot's own drafts that have zero blockers.

Source: https://wavefront.adwave.com/help/strategy-and-planning/autopilot-and-auto-approve (updated 2026-10-14)

Workspace autopilot drafts every active strategy's calendar posts as they come due, so you only review. Auto-approve is a separate switch, off by default, that lets autopilot approve its own calendar drafts when every check passes. Only an owner can turn either on.

## Turn on autopilot

1. Open **Settings → Limits and autopilot**. Settings is visible to owners only.
2. Under **Workspace autopilot**, check **Draft posts automatically as they come due**.
3. Set **Days ahead**: how many days before its date a post is drafted (1 to 30).
4. Set **Posts per run**: the most drafts one run starts (1 to 10). Each draft is charged as usual.
5. Choose **Save autopilot**.

Autopilot runs every 30 minutes. It covers every active strategy and skips paused ones. The same switch appears as **Workspace autopilot (all active strategies)** on the Strategy calendar and the Overview.

## Fill open dates from the backlog

Check **Fill the calendar from each strategy's idea backlog**, then set **Posts per day** and the **Days** to fill. Open slots from today through the days ahead get the best open idea for that date. See [the calendar and the idea backlog](/help/strategy-and-planning/calendar-and-backlog) and [editorial mix](/help/strategy-and-planning/editorial-mix).

## Publish approved posts on their date

Check **Publish approved posts on their calendar date**, pick **Publish to** (a destination) and **Time on the date**. Only versions a person approved, or that auto-approve passed, are scheduled, and the approval is checked again at the time. Times are in the workspace's time zone. The destination's default decides whether the post is created as a draft there or published.

## Auto-approve: what it does

Under **Autopilot approval**, an owner signed in to the web app can turn on:

- **Approve autopilot's calendar drafts when every check passes.** Wavefront asks you to confirm, and every owner gets an email when it's turned on.
- **Revise a draft with blockers once, automatically.** Autopilot asks for one revision with the blockers as feedback. It's charged like any revision. If the revision still has blockers, it waits for a person and owners are told.

Auto-approve applies only when all of these are true:

- The draft is autopilot's own calendar draft, or the one revision autopilot asked for.
- It has zero blockers. Warnings don't block; they're listed on the approval.
- The calendar post was written or last changed by a person in the web app, or came from an idea a person added.
- Any questions were answered by a person in the web app.
- No document the draft read was changed or removed by an agent, an API key or an import since auto-approve was turned on.
- The owner who turned it on is still an owner.

Anything else waits for a person. Work people start or revise never auto-approves.

## When a document changes

Turning auto-approve on accepts your documents as they are at that moment: the workspace profile, voice, rules and guides, strategy files and writing rules. If an agent, an API key or an import later changes one, drafts that read it wait for a person, and owners are told which document changed. A person's own edit in the web app doesn't stop anything.

To accept such changes, check the documents, then choose **Accept documents**. If a document changed again in the meantime, you're asked to look again.

## What an approval by autopilot looks like

The draft's review shows **Approved by autopilot**, with the owner who turned it on, and the timeline says autopilot approved it. Owners can still withdraw a published post, and owners and editors can still request changes.

## What agents and keys can and can't do

An owner's agent over MCP, or an API key with the `autopilot` scope, can turn autopilot on, set days ahead, posts per run and the backlog cadence. Nothing outside the web app can change auto-approve or auto-revise. Posts and ideas an agent adds are recorded as the agent's and never auto-approve.

## If something goes wrong

- **Autopilot stopped drafting.** Check that a plan or trial is active and credits remain. If a renewal payment failed, autopilot keeps running for 7 days, then pauses until the payment goes through. Drafting by hand still works while credits last.
- **A draft says autopilot couldn't approve it.** It had a blocker or didn't qualify. Review it like any other.
- **Drafts wait with "needs review" and a document name.** A document changed outside the web app. Check it, then choose **Accept documents**.
- **Drafting stops at the daily limit.** Raise **Daily spend (credits)** under **Spend and concurrency** on the same tab.

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