How approvals work
When your laptop or an AI wants something, it asks your phone. You see exactly what it wants, and you say yes or no. Nothing happens until you do.
The ask card
Each ask arrives as a notification and waits in your Inbox. Open it and the card shows, from the top:
- Who is asking, and from which device: “Claude Code”, “your laptop”.
- What it wants, in a few words: Wants a password, Wants to run a command, Fill on your laptop?
- How long it has. A badge like “8 min left”.
- The details: the command and its folder, the login, which secret it means (you pick if there is more than one).
- Why this needs you: the reason, the thing’s lock (“Needs Just me · …”), and what kind of yes this is. For a secret it says This reveals the secret. Ending access later can’t take it back.
- Deny and the approve button, side by side and the same size. The approve button names what happens: Give (a secret), Run, Fill, Send (an email), Pay.
Your phone checks the ask before it shows it. If what the server sent doesn’t match what your phone can check, you see Nothing was signed instead.
The steps: what you’ll need
After you tap the approve button, your phone asks for the thing’s lock, one step at a time:
| Level | You’ll need |
|---|---|
| Easy | Nothing more while your vault is open; otherwise your phone’s unlock |
| Just me | Your phone’s unlock: fingerprint, face or PIN |
| Two devices | Your phone’s unlock, then a yes on your other phone |
| Fort Knox | Your fingerprint or face (not the PIN), then your security key |
If you cancel a step, you are back on the card, and Deny still works.
coming One screen before the steps that lists everything you’ll need (“You’ll need: your fingerprint, then your security key”) with a Continue button, so you know what is coming before the first prompt. Some screens already show it; approvals don’t yet.
Fort Knox: your fingerprint and your key
Fort Knox needs two things from two places. First your fingerprint or face. Not the PIN: someone who knows your PIN could add their own finger, so the PIN doesn’t count here. Then your security key: hold it to the back of your phone, or plug it in, when the phone says it is listening. If the phone didn’t feel the key, it says so and you try again. If you have more than one security key, any one of yours works.
Expired asks
Every ask has a time limit, shown on the card. If nobody answers in time, it runs out. The card then says Expired and when it ran out: Nothing happened. Nothing was sent or run. The laptop or the AI has to ask again.
Two other endings look similar:
- Withdrawn: the asker took it back, or was disconnected. Nothing happened.
- Already handled: you answered it on another of your devices.
For Claude Code, a request for a secret waits about 45 seconds, then Claude is told to check again later. The ask stays on your phone until it runs out, so you can still answer it.
What Deny does
- Nothing is sent or run. The asker is told no.
- You can say why, or not: I didn’t ask for this, Wrong details, Not now, Looks like a scam, and for a secret None of these. Or tap Just deny. The asker sees the reason. Wrong details lets you write what was wrong, so it can try again properly.
- For an AI, you can then pause it for an hour, or disconnect it. Three denies in a row pause it by itself, until you resume it.
- Deny works without a connection. It is sent when you are back online. Approving needs a connection.
Receipts
Every answer is signed on your phone, over exactly what you saw. The receipt records who asked, for what, who answered on which phone, and what was handed over. The Claude Code guard and the laptop extension check your phone’s signature themselves, so a server that lies can’t make up a yes. You can find every answer in History.
Last verified