approval-executor

name	approval-executor
description	Process approved actions from vault/Approved/ and execute them. Reads each APPROVAL_*.md file, identifies the action type (send_email, send_linkedin_post), dispatches to the correct sender skill, logs the result, and moves files to vault/Done/. Use when the user has moved approval files to /Approved and wants them executed, or when running as part of the autonomous action loop.

Approval Executor

Dispatch and execute all approved actions from vault/Approved/.

This skill is the final link in the HITL chain:

Watcher → Needs_Action → Planning Engine → Pending_Approval
                                                    ↓ (human approves)
                                               Approved/
                                                    ↓ (this skill)
                                         Action Executed → Done/

When to Use

• Manually: when the user says "execute approved actions" or "process approvals"
• In the Ralph Wiggum loop: after checking for new items in /Approved
• Scheduled: via cron every N minutes to run the action loop

Workflow

1. Scan for Approved Actions

ls vault/Approved/APPROVAL_*.md 2>/dev/null | head -20

For each file found, read its action frontmatter field to determine what to execute.

2. Action Routing Table

action value	Skill to use	Script
send_email	gmail-sender	.claude/skills/gmail-sender/scripts/send_email.py
send_linkedin_post	linkedin-poster	.claude/skills/linkedin-poster/scripts/create_post.py

3. Parse the Approval File

For each vault/Approved/APPROVAL_*.md:

Extract these fields:

action:       → determines which script to call
Target:       → recipient (name or email)
Subject/Title: → email subject or post title
Message/Content section → body / post text

Example parse for email:

# Frontmatter
action: send_email

# From body
- **Target:** Sarah Chen <[e-mail]>
- **Subject / Title:** Re: Pricing inquiry

## Message / Content
  Dear Sarah,
  [body text with 2-space indent — strip the indent]

4. Execute Each Action

Email:

python .claude/skills/gmail-sender/scripts/send_email.py \
  --to "Sarah Chen <[e-mail]>" \
  --subject "Re: Pricing inquiry" \
  --body "Dear Sarah, ..."

LinkedIn Post:

python .claude/skills/linkedin-poster/scripts/create_post.py \
  --content "Post text here..."

5. Update the Vault After Each Action

Success:

# Move approval file to Done
mv "vault/Approved/APPROVAL_*.md" "vault/Done/"

# Update source plan status to "done"
# (find via source_plan field in approval frontmatter)

# Write audit log
echo '{"timestamp":"...","event":"action_executed","action":"send_email","to":"...","result":"success"}' \
  >> vault/Logs/$(date +%Y-%m-%d).jsonl

Failure:

• Edit the approval file: set status: failed, add error: <message>
• Move to vault/Done/ (never leave failures in Approved/)
• Write error audit log entry
• Note the failure in Dashboard.md

6. Update Dashboard

After all actions are processed:

• Re-run orchestrator/planning_engine.py --vault ./vault --once to refresh counts
• OR manually update vault/Dashboard.md with the new Done count

Batch Execution Script

Use execute.py to process all approved files in one pass:

python .claude/skills/approval-executor/scripts/execute.py \
  --vault ./vault \
  --dry-run          # preview without executing

python .claude/skills/approval-executor/scripts/execute.py \
  --vault ./vault    # execute all pending approvals

Output per action:

[SEND_EMAIL        ] Sarah Chen <[e-mail]> → sent ✓  (msg_id: 18e4bc...)
[SEND_LINKEDIN_POST] Post published ✓  (url: https://linkedin.com/...)

Error Recovery

Situation	Recovery
Script exits non-zero	Log error, mark file status: failed, move to Done
Session expired	Halt execution, alert user, write requires_reauth: true to failed file
Contact not found	Mark status: failed_contact_not_found, move to Done, log
Rate limit hit	Pause 60 s, retry once, then halt and alert
Network error	Retry 3× with exponential backoff

Rules (non-negotiable)

• Never execute an action from Pending_Approval/ — only from Approved/
• Never re-execute an action whose file has status: sent or status: failed
• Always log every execution attempt to vault/Logs/
• Always move the approval file to vault/Done/ after execution (success or fail)
• Max 20 actions per hour across all action types combined
• Always read Company_Handbook.md if unsure whether an action is permitted

Quick Status Check

# Count pending approvals
ls vault/Approved/ | grep -c "APPROVAL_"

# Show what types are pending
grep -h "^action:" vault/Approved/APPROVAL_*.md 2>/dev/null | sort | uniq -c