# MCP use case: a manager in the loop > Some decisions belong to someone who is not in the chat. Goodwill store credit in the shop waits for a manager: the call is parked with a handle, the manager approves or rejects it from the command line, and when Claude asks again it gets the decision, never a second request. In the field test, all 8 runs of the two manager cases were correct, approvals and rejections alike. **Cargo feature:** [`ai`](../build-features.md) · **Example:** [`examples/agents/mcp-shop`](https://github.com/pmsudhi/cameleer/tree/main/examples/agents/mcp-shop) · **Part of:** [Cameleer MCP](../mcp.md) ## What people ask, and what happens | request | what happened | |---|---| | Order 1002 is outside the refund window. Give Marco Rossi 20 in store credit as a goodwill gesture instead. | Claude asked for the credit and said it was waiting for a manager. *The manager approved.* Asked "Did the credit go through?", Claude called again and reported SC-1, approved by manager.jo | | Give Hana Sato 50 store credit for the trouble with her boots. | the credit waited for a manager. *The manager rejected it.* Asked "Any news on Hana's credit?", Claude reported the rejection and the manager's reason, and did not try another way | ## A recorded conversation **User:** Order 1002 is outside the refund window. Give Marco Rossi 20 in store credit as a goodwill gesture instead. Claude checked the order and the customer, then called `issue_store_credit`. The call did not run; the result carried a handle, and Claude said: > I've asked for the £20 store credit for Marco Rossi, but it hasn't gone through yet. Every > store credit needs a manager to approve it, and this one is waiting for that sign-off > (approval handle `approval-169-15625474038170fb`). A manager, outside the chat: ```bash cameleer tool approvals ``` ```bash cameleer tool approve approval-169-15625474038170fb --by manager.jo ``` **User:** The manager has just approved it. Did the credit go through? Claude called `issue_store_credit` again with the same arguments and got the outcome of the approved call: > Yes, the £20 store credit went through. It's been added to Marco Rossi's account > (customer 2). Credit reference: SC-1. Approved by: manager.jo. In the rejected case the second call returned: > The call to issue_store_credit was rejected by manager.jo: Goodwill credit is not justified > for this order. It did not run, and nothing was changed. ## How it is built `approval: always` with an `approvalEndpoint` parks every call and tells the endpoint about it. Here the endpoint is a route that writes the request to a manager's queue table; in practice it could post to Slack or open a ticket. The approved call runs with `CamelAiToolApprovedBy` set, so the route records who approved it: ```yaml - route: id: issue-store-credit from: uri: ai-tool:issue_store_credit parameters: title: Give store credit description: >- Give a customer store credit (a goodwill gesture, or instead of a refund outside the policy). Every credit needs a manager's approval: the call waits until a manager approves or rejects it in the back office, which can take a while. If it is still waiting, call again later with exactly the same arguments to get the outcome. tags: acme parameter.customerId: integer parameter.customerId.description: The customer id from search_customers parameter.customerId.required: true parameter.amount: number parameter.amount.description: Amount of credit, at most 200 parameter.amount.required: true parameter.reason: string parameter.reason.description: Why the credit is given parameter.reason.required: true approval: always approvalEndpoint: direct:manager-queue approvalTimeout: 1h steps: - choice: when: - simple: "${header.amount} <= 0 || ${header.amount} > 200" steps: - setHeader: name: CamelAiToolIsError constant: true - setBody: constant: "Store credit must be more than 0 and at most 200." otherwise: steps: - to: "sql:insert into store_credits (customer_id, amount, reason, approved_by, created) values (:#customerId, :#amount, :#reason, :#CamelAiToolApprovedBy, '{{acme.today}}') returning id?dataSource=jdbc:rustsql:mem:acme&outputType=SelectOne" - setBody: simple: '{"storeCredit": "SC-${body}", "customerId": ${header.customerId}, "amount": ${header.amount}, "approvedBy": "${header.CamelAiToolApprovedBy}", "status": "credited"}' ``` ```yaml - route: id: manager-queue from: uri: direct:manager-queue steps: - to: "sql:insert into manager_queue values (:#CamelAiToolApprovalHandle, :#CamelAiToolName, :#customerId, :#amount, :#reason, '{{acme.today}}')?dataSource=jdbc:rustsql:mem:acme" ``` - **Asking again is safe.** A call with the same arguments in the same conversation returns "still waiting" with the same handle, or the decision once there is one. The manager is asked once. - **The description tells the model what to expect.** "The call waits until a manager approves or rejects it [...] call again later with exactly the same arguments" is what made Claude check back instead of giving up or retrying with other arguments. - **The route still checks its rules after approval.** A credit over 200 is refused even if a manager approves it. - **Decisions are audited** with the approver's name, in the same hash-chained log as every call. Operators can also decide from a program (`AiRegistry::approve` and `deny`), from another route (`ai-tool:x?operation=approve`), and inside a container with `docker exec`; see [MCP server: approvals](../mcp-server.md#approvals). ## Try it ```bash cd examples/agents/mcp-shop cameleer run shop.camel.yaml --properties application.properties ``` Ask a connected client for goodwill credit, then run `cameleer tool approvals` and `cameleer tool approve --by ` in another terminal (or `cameleer tool deny --reason `). `shop_use_cases` in `crates/cameleer-main/tests/mcp_shop.rs` approves one credit, rejects another and checks what the next call returns. ## Related - [Actions guarded by approvals](approvals.md): the user approves in the client instead - [The tool asks the user](the-tool-asks-the-user.md) ## Found a problem? If something on this page doesn't match what Cameleer does, please [open an issue](https://github.com/pmsudhi/cameleer/issues/new), or fork the repository, fix it, add a test, run `cargo test --workspace` and open a pull request.