Tool calls
How workflows invoke tools during a run.
An automation doesn't run a fixed script of steps- it runs a real agent session with your prompt, and the agent decides which tools to call and when, exactly like it would in a chat you're driving by hand.
The same tools as any session
Inside an automation's session, the agent has access to:
- Built-in tools- reading and editing files, running shell commands, git operations, whatever the harness ships with.
- Plugins- any plugin enabled for the workspace, which can add MCP-backed tools for things like Slack, Linear, GitHub, Sentry, or PostHog.
Nothing about being scheduled changes the tool surface. If a manual chat in that workspace can call a tool, so can the automation.
Permission mode decides what needs approval
Every harness has some form of permission or mode control (Codex's Full Access / Auto / Read Only, Claude's default / plan / bypass-permissions, and so on), and you set it as part of the automation's agent configuration.
Because nobody is watching an automation run live, a mode that pauses for approval on risky tool calls will just stall- there's no one there to click approve. Most unattended automations use a mode that doesn't require interactive approval, and save the stricter, ask-before-acting modes for sessions you're actively driving.
Agent and mode picker in the workflow editor
The workflow editor's agent/model control open, showing the mode (permission level) and reasoning effort options for the selected harness.
Reviewing what the tools actually did
Every tool call an automation makes lands in that run's session, the same way it would in a chat: file edits, commands, and MCP calls all show up in the transcript and the workspace diff. Open a run from its workflow's run history and you're looking at a normal workspace- review it the same way you'd review any other session before trusting the result.
Automation run opened as a workspace
A workflow run opened from its run history, showing the full tool-call transcript and diff in the normal workspace view.