Choosing an Autonomy Level for Your Agents
Recommend only, Ask first or Safe actions: what each level lets agents do, how to choose and change one, and how to tune single actions.
Chapter 1What the Level Decides
Every brand in Cresva has one autonomy level. It answers a single question: when an agent wants to change one of your accounts, does it make the change, ask you first, or only tell you what it would do? The level is shown next to the brand name in the header, and it is set on the Autonomy page.
| Level | Shown in the product as | In one sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Recommend only | Agents suggest, you make the change | Nothing is sent from Cresva, approved or not. A person makes every change by hand. |
| Ask first | Agents ask before every change | Every change waits in Approvals for a yes or a no. This is where every brand starts. |
| Safe actions | Safe changes run on their own | Changes that can be undone and cannot raise spend run on their own. Everything else still asks. |
There is no fourth level that lets agents act without limits. One exists in the code and is switched off until it can require a typed confirmation, check the exact target of every change before it is written, and show a track record of clean changes at Safe actions. Until then the Autonomy page shows it as not available.
Chapter 2What Each Level Does
The Actions tab on the Autonomy page shows a row for every action an agent can take on your connected accounts and a column for each level. Each cell says what that action does at that level. Grouped by kind, it reads like this:
| Kind of change | Recommend only | Ask first | Safe actions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pause a campaign, ad set, ad, keyword or email flow | Recommended, made by hand | Asks you | On its own |
| Resume something paused, or move a budget | Recommended, made by hand | Asks you | Only under a goal's daily ceiling |
| Change a bid, a bid strategy or a price; add keywords | Recommended, made by hand | Asks you | Asks you |
| Create, archive or delete; send to customers | Recommended, made by hand | Never on its own | Never on its own |
"On its own" still has conditions. A change only runs without a person when all of these hold: the brand is at Safe actions, the emergency stop is off, agents are not paused, the Limits tab allows at least one change per run (it starts at 0, which means nothing runs on its own whatever the level), and, if the change can raise spend, it sits inside a goal a person approved that sets a daily spend ceiling.
The reasoning behind each row, and the two times we got a row wrong, is in what an agent should be allowed to do in an ad account.
Chapter 3How to Choose
The question is not how good the agents are. It is what it costs you when one of them is wrong, and whether you would notice. Work through these in order.
Start at Ask first
Every brand does by default, and it is the level that teaches you the most. You see every change the agents want to make, with the reason, before anything moves.
Choose Recommend only if nothing should be sent from Cresva
For example, when another team or an agency makes the changes, or when you want to see the agents' suggestions alongside your own process without connecting them to it. Recommendations appear on the goal's page with the steps to make each change by hand.
Watch the proposals for a few weeks
Keep a note of which kinds you approve every time without changing anything. Those, and only those, are candidates for running on their own.
Check your data before you check the agents
An agent acting on a broken conversion feed acts confidently on a wrong number. If a connection needs attention, fix it before raising the level.
Move to Safe actions when the pauses you would approve are routine
At Safe actions the changes that run alone are the ones that can only lower spend and can be undone. Anything that raises spend still needs a goal with a ceiling, and everything else still asks.
Two people, not one
Why we stopped at three levels, and what we still cannot show about the third, is in the delegation gap.
Chapter 4Changing the Level
Only an Owner or Admin on the brand can change the level, from the Autonomy page or from the level menu in the header. Analysts can read it; Viewers see the level and a link to its limits.
| Change | What happens |
|---|---|
| Moving up to a level that acts on its own | You type the brand's name to confirm. The dialog says the change lets agents change your accounts without asking first, inside the limits on the page. |
| Leaving Recommend only | The dialog adds that from now on a change a person approves in Cresva is sent to the brand's accounts. Recommendations already listed stay for you to do by hand. |
| Moving down | Applies at once, without a typed confirmation. Any goal set above the new level is lowered with it. |
Every level change is recorded with the name of the person who made it, so the audit log shows who decided what agents could do and when.
Chapter 5Fine-Tuning One Action at a Time
The level sets the default for every action. On the Actions tab you can override it for any single action with one of three settings: Follows the level, Always ask me or Never. There is deliberately no setting that makes one action run on its own when the level says it should ask, and nothing that cannot be undone can ever run on its own.
Overrides are the right tool for a temporary or a specific worry. Setting discount creation to Always ask me for a sale week, or setting an action you never want touched to Never, changes one row without changing what the level means for everything else.
The level also sits under a goal's own limits. Setting a goal agents can act on covers how a goal narrows what the level allows to one outcome, a set of channels, a daily amount and an end date.
Before you raise the level
You have watched a few weeks of proposals at Ask first.
Every kind of change that would now run alone is one you approved every time.
Your connections are healthy and nothing is waiting for a reconnect.
Daily spend on their own is set on the Limits tab, or left at nothing on purpose.
Changes per run on the Limits tab is above 0. At 0, nothing runs on its own at any level.
At least two Admins check Approvals and know where Pause all agents is.
Any action you are not ready to hand over is set to Always ask me.
Every brand starts at Ask first. You can see every change the agents want to make, and why, before deciding whether any of them should run on their own.
Setting a Goal Agents Can Act On
How to set a goal Cresva's agents can work towards: the metric, the target and the date, and exactly what you authorise when you start it.
Budget Allocation Across Meta, Google, and TikTok
A framework for distributing spend based on incremental ROAS, creative fatigue, and audience overlap.