Are you an LLM? Read llms.txt for a summary of the docs, or llms-full.txt for the full context.
Skip to content

What Happens When You're Away

Many procedures involve waiting — for an approval, a deadline, or someone else's input. Here's what Gateway does while you're offline.

The Basics

When you start a procedure and it reaches a step that says "wait 48 hours" or "wait for approval", Gateway parks the run and you go on with your day. You don't need to keep your editor open or stay online.

Behind the scenes, Gateway periodically checks on all parked runs. When a wait condition is met — deadline passed, approval received, response collected — it picks up where you left off and executes the next step automatically.

How Approvals Work

The most common wait is an approval. Here's what the full cycle looks like:

1. You kick things off 
You: "Expense my Denver conference trip — $2,400 total"
2. Gateway runs the procedure steps and reaches the approval step

The procedure knows $2,400 requires COO approval, so it posts in the right Slack channel:

Gateway [BOT]
💰 Expense approval needed
Mike submitted $2,400 for "Denver conference trip"
React ✅ to approve, ❌ to reject
3. Gateway waits

The run is parked. You get a DM confirming it's been submitted and who needs to approve.

4. Someone approves

The COO reacts with ✅ on the Slack message. Within the next check cycle (roughly 30–60 minutes), Gateway detects the reaction and resumes the run.

5. Gateway finishes the job

It follows the procedure's "on approved" path — maybe posting a confirmation in #finance, updating a tracker, and DM'ing you that your expense was approved.

You might not even be at your desk when this all resolves. You'll just see the DM later: "Your $2,400 expense was approved by Sarah."

How Timeouts Work

Procedures can define what happens if nobody responds in time.

Wait: 48h for approval
On timeout: Ping the approver again, CC their manager.

If 48 hours pass with no reaction, Gateway automatically sends a nudge. Some procedures escalate — pinging a backup approver or a manager. Others just close the run with a note.

What Gateway Can Do Autonomously

When executing steps on its own, Gateway is sandboxed. It can only access what the procedure explicitly declares:

  • Send Slack messages — post in specific channels, DM specific people
  • Create Linear issues — in the teams the procedure is allowed to touch
  • Export data to Notion — write to the procedure's own database

It cannot browse your Notion, read your Slack DMs, or access anything outside the procedure's scope.

Where Your Data Lives During Execution

While a run is in progress, all the data — submissions, log entries, who's assigned — lives in Gateway's internal database. It doesn't appear in Notion yet.

Why? Privacy. If the data were in Notion during execution, anyone with Notion access to that workspace could see in-flight expense reports, pending evaluations, or other sensitive submissions. By keeping it internal, Gateway enforces that only authorized people (you, admins, and people assigned to your run) can see the data.

Once the run completes, the data exports to a Notion database under the procedure page — visible to admins and the people involved.

Checking on Your Runs

You don't need to wait for a run to finish. Ask your AI anytime:

"What's the status of my expense report?"
"Show me my open runs"
"Did the COO approve my Denver trip yet?"

Gateway will check your runs and give you the latest status, including which step it's on and what it's waiting for.

What Happens if Something Goes Wrong

If a step fails during autonomous execution — say a Slack channel was archived or a token expired — Gateway stops the run and marks it as failed. It doesn't retry or guess. Admins get notified and can investigate.

If a procedure was updated while your run was parked:

  • Small changes (wording tweaks, minor additions) — Gateway adapts and keeps going
  • Big changes (steps removed, logic restructured) — the run is flagged for admin review before continuing