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Manage Workspace

The Manage Workspace ability lets a workflow assistant hand a workspace-management goal to the Workspace Manager. The assistant stays in the conversation as coordinator: it starts the work, relays questions or blockers back to the member, and reports the result. The Manager is a normal manager chat owned by the current member — it does not become a separate agent.

Use this when a workflow needs to create or update workspace configuration (workflows, members, forms, and similar) without giving the conversation agent those tools directly.

Settings​

SettingDescription
ScopesWorkspace permissions the Manager may use. Leave empty if the Manager only needs to coordinate in its own chat. The Manager still cannot exceed the current member's own role.
Allow member-specific informationOff by default. Reveals scopes such as members:read, files:read, and export:*. Workspace-scoped records:* stay in the ordinary list — member-owned records also need members:read. Turn this on only when the conversation is a private or controlled surface.

Nothing is granted unless you check it — including reads. Scopes you grant are intersected with the member's live permissions each time the Manager runs. Granting a scope the member does not hold has no effect.

The Manager cannot rewrite workflows or automations (workflows:write, workflows:admin, automations:write, automations:admin), even if the member has those permissions. That stops a delegated Manager from changing the running assignment's behaviour.

Granting agents:write does not let the Manager spawn ordinary sub-agent tasks. Nested spawn_agent_task is rejected so a descendant cannot run outside the scopes you granted. Use ask_manage_workspace_coordinator when the Manager needs a decision. Goals are limited to 4000 characters.

How It Works​

When the ability is attached, the workflow assistant can start a Manage Workspace task with a clear goal. That opens a Workspace Manager chat owned by the signed-in member. The Manager works toward the goal using its normal tools, limited to the granted scopes.

The Manager will not start from a shared Slack, Discord, or Teams channel, from an unattested DM on those hosts, or from an inbound patient channel (SMS, voice, email). Use the Gravity Rail app, or a private DM after a workspace admin attests that those DMs are treated as confidential.

If the Manager needs a decision, missing information, or approval it cannot obtain itself, it asks the workflow assistant. The assistant should relay that question to the member and send the answer back. When the goal is done — or if you cancel — the assistant reports the outcome in the original conversation.

The Manager always acts as the current member. It does not gain extra permissions from the ability, and it does not run as a different identity.

Adding Manage Workspace​

Manage Workspace can be added at either the workflow or task level:

  1. Open your workflow or task
  2. Go to the Abilities tab
  3. Click Add Ability and select Manage Workspace
  4. Choose the scopes the Manager will need. Leave member-specific scopes off unless this conversation is private.
  5. Save

Task-level abilities override workflow-level abilities of the same type.

Tips​

  • Grant the smallest set that covers the planned operations. Empty grants are valid when the Manager only needs to coordinate. Do not grant member-specific scopes in a shared Slack room.
  • Write a specific goal. Describe the outcome, constraints, and what to report back so the Manager does not wander.
  • Stay the coordinator. When the Manager asks a question, answer it in the workflow conversation rather than opening the Manager chat yourself unless you want to follow the work in detail.

Conditional Activation​

You can restrict when Manage Workspace is available using CEL expressions in the ability's Conditions field. For example, you might only enable it for workspace admins:

"admin" in member.labels

See Abilities for more on conditional abilities.

  • Abilities — Overview of all AI abilities
  • Workflows — Build the conversation flows that abilities extend
  • Workspace Manager — The same Manager used for interactive workspace setup
  • Roles — How member scopes limit what the Manager can do