> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://reyda.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Questions and approvals

> How Emma asks for your input, how approval cards work, and which decisions always stay with you.

Emma does the research and preparation herself. She comes to you in two cases: for **decisions** she can't make from the evidence, and for **approval** before actions that reach outside your workspace or are hard to undo.

## When Emma asks a question

Emma checks the tender documents, your profile, past projects, the Library and, where relevant, the buyer's portal before she asks you anything. She asks when the answer depends on your judgment or a fact only your team has, for example:

* whether to bid as prime contractor or with a partner;
* which of two plausible readings of a requirement to follow;
* your price position, or the staff you will commit;
* a company fact that isn't in Reyda.

## Answer a Needs input card

Questions appear as a **Needs input** card in the chat.

* Emma may ask a few questions at once, with the most consequential first.
* Each question has concrete options. Emma recommends one and explains what each choice changes.
* Pick an option, or choose **Other** and type your own answer. Then click **Continue**.
* Choose **Skip for now** if you don't want to decide yet. Emma keeps those details open and carries on with the rest of the work.

You can also simply reply in the chat. Emma reads a typed answer the same way as a click.

> [!TIP]
>
> **Emma keeps working while she waits.** When a question only affects part of the work, Emma asks it and carries on with everything else.
> Once you answer, she picks up the work that was waiting on it. An unanswered question also shows
> as **Needs input** in the Bid Room activity feed and in the **Routines** status filter. Click it
> to jump back to the question.

Emma also records open decisions in the working documents they affect, such as the response plan, marked **\[Needs input]**. The marker stays until the answer is incorporated.

## When Emma asks for approval

Some actions show an approval card before they run. The card says what Emma wants to do, for example **Allow this action?**, with **Yes** and **No**.

* Choose **Yes** to let the action run.
* Choose **No** to cancel it. Use the field **Tell Reyda what to do instead** to redirect her.

Approval cards appear for actions such as:

* creating a Bid Room;
* creating, changing or deleting a routine (**Create routine** then **Confirm**);
* deleting a saved search, or dismissing a compliance item;
* sending or replying to an email from Emma's mailbox, where you can edit the recipient, subject and text before you approve;
* web access, when your workspace is set to ask first (**Search the web?** or **Open this page?**);
* mailbox settings that widen who can reach Emma or let her send without asking.

In Slack, approvals appear as **Approve** and **Reject** buttons. Only the person who made the request can answer them.

## What always needs you

Some decisions are never Emma's to make, however much evidence she has:

* **Whether to bid.** Emma recommends pursue, hold, monitor or decline. You make the call, including marking a pipeline item **No bid**.
* **Pricing.** Emma can model options and fill pricing schedules from your rates. The price you commit to is your decision.
* **Submission.** Emma prepares and checks the package. You upload it to the buyer's portal.
* **Signatures, declarations and attestations.** Emma fills in the facts she can support and leaves signatures and statutory declarations for an authorised person.
* **Contacting the buyer.** Emma drafts clarification questions and emails, but she doesn't send anything to a buyer without your approval. The one exception: an admin can choose **Emma can send** in the mailbox settings. See [Mailbox](https://reyda.mintlify.site/automation/mailbox.md).
* **Commitments.** Accepting contract terms, forming a consortium or naming partners.

If you tell Emma to use her own judgment on something, such as "pick the best two case studies", she will decide and tell you what she assumed.

## Example

Ask Emma

Draft the remaining quality answers. Where you'd need a decision from me, ask all the questions in
one go and carry on with the rest.

## Related

> [card] [Goals and work](https://reyda.mintlify.site/emma/goals-and-work.md)
>
> How Emma tracks longer work and keeps going while she waits.

> [card] [Trust and limits](https://reyda.mintlify.site/emma/trust-and-limits.md)
>
> What Emma won't do.


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