# Approval cards: approve, decline or rewind a write

In NeuralVault 2.0 the assistant pauses on a card before it writes, and nothing changes until you press Approve; an approved write can be rewound afterwards.

*https://perpetualtechnologies.co.uk/support/approval-cards — last checked 2026-09-30*

## Steps

1. When the assistant wants to write, append, move or add something, a card appears above the message box. It starts "Cortex wants to" followed by the action, lists the files it touches, and has an "Exactly what it asked for" section you can expand.
2. Press "Approve" to let it go ahead. The card then reads "Approved. It went ahead."
3. Press "Decline" to refuse. Type a few words into the reason box first if you want, and the assistant reads them. The card then reads "Declined" and gives your reason.
4. If you do not answer, the card waits for the stated number of minutes and then the action is not done: "No answer in time, so it was not done."
5. After an approved write, press "Rewind this write" to put the touched files back to how they were before that turn. The card reports "Restored" and how many files.

## How to tell it worked

After Approve the note or file exists with the change. After Rewind this write it is back as it was.

## If it does not work

**You want it to stop asking for a kind of change in this chat.**

Some cards offer "Approve, and do not ask again for edits in this chat" or "for this command in this chat". Undo that later with "Ask again" in the Workspace menu.

**Rewind this write restored files but the conversation still shows the write.**

A rewind restores files, not the conversation. The transcript keeps saying what was written.

**The assistant says it cannot delete a note.**

Deletions are always refused, with no exception. Every turn runs in a mode that asks before it changes anything and refuses what cannot be undone.

**There is no Rewind this write button.**

It only appears on an approved card that has a checkpoint. A declined or timed-out card has nothing to rewind.

## Related guides

- [Ask the assistant to remember something, and where it is kept](https://perpetualtechnologies.co.uk/support/remember-that-and-cortex-md)
- [Give the assistant a folder to work in](https://perpetualtechnologies.co.uk/support/attach-a-working-folder)
- [See what an agent is allowed to do](https://perpetualtechnologies.co.uk/support/what-an-agent-is-allowed-to-do)

## Still stuck

Bug reports belong in the app, in Settings, About. Those carry no contact details, so they
get fixed rather than answered. To get a reply, email us instead: that route targets two
business days. https://perpetualtechnologies.co.uk/contact