Beside works in the background all day, and you decide how much of it happens without you. There are two controls, and they do different jobs.

Autonomy sets how much Beside can handle on its own, for each part of your business.
The requests on your Beside Agent page are the individual things it needs from you right now.

Set your autonomy

Open Autonomy from the button at the top of your Beside Agent page. You set a level for each of four parts of your business, not one setting for everything - so you can let Beside run freely on your reviews while keeping a hand on your ads.

The three levels

Level	What it means
Ask first	Every action lands in your approval queue. Nothing goes out until you say so.
Routine	Beside handles the low-risk work itself and still asks you about the sensitive ones.
Auto	Beside gets the most freedom allowed for that part of your business, and acts on your behalf wherever it is permitted to.

The four areas, and what each costs

Area	What it covers	Credits when work ships
Customer messages	Texts, emails, follow-ups, nurture, and booking confirmations	20
Reviews & Google profile	Review replies, local posts, and profile updates	50
Ads	Campaign builds, optimizations, and account changes	50 to 2,500
Website	Page edits, new pages, and full site builds	25 to 1,500

✅ Ads launches always ask you, whatever your level:

A launch that spends money comes to you for approval even on Auto. Raising your autonomy on Ads lets Beside handle the optimization work, never the decision to start spending.

Drafts and approvals are free. Credits are only used when completed work actually ships, so a higher autonomy level does not cost you more by itself - it changes who presses the button, not the price. 📖 Understand your plan and credits

💡 A good starting point:

Leave Customer messages on Ask first or Routine while you get a feel for how Beside writes - it is the one that talks to your customers in your name. Reviews & Google profile is usually the first area people move to Auto, because an unanswered review costs more than an imperfect reply.

What Beside asks you for

Whatever your autonomy, some things still come to you. They appear on your Beside Agent page under Live, each marked Waiting on you, with Skip and Approve buttons on the right.

There are three sorts:

What it says	What it is
Connect Google Business Profile	A tool Beside needs plugged in before it can work on that part of your business.
Beside wants to use Ads	Permission to work with a connected tool.
Beside wants to run this plan	A specific piece of work, ready to go. Each one is tagged with the part of Beside it belongs to - Website, Ads, Beside Phone.

Open any of them before deciding: a plan shows you what Beside noticed, what it would change, and how it will know the job is done. Where it has proposed a particular value, you can revise it rather than approving or skipping outright.

📖 See what Beside did for you

💡 You can always check afterwards: Every finished task records Who approved it, and says plainly whether you approved it or Beside acted under the autonomy you granted. Nothing Beside does is untraceable.

Connecting a tool is not the same as allowing it

Connecting lets Beside read a tool. Acting with it is asked separately, and your autonomy level then decides how much of that acting happens without you.

You can see everything you have connected, and connect more, from Connectors under Workspace in the left menu. 📖 Connect your tools to Beside Agentic

📌 Not the same as your work mode: The Part-time or Full-time label at the top of the left menu is your work mode, which sets the hours Beside works. Autonomy sets what it is allowed to do during those hours. 📖 Understand your plan and credits

FAQ

Can I change my autonomy later?

Yes, at any time, from the same Autonomy panel - in either direction. Nothing about the choice is permanent, and you can narrow one area while widening another.

Does a higher autonomy level cost me more credits?

Not by itself. Credits are only spent when completed work ships, and a shipped deliverable costs the same whether you approved it or Beside sent it under Auto. What changes is how much gets done - if you were leaving approvals unanswered, more work will now go out.

I have not answered a request. Is Beside blocked?

No. Beside keeps doing everything it is already allowed to do. Only the work that depends on that specific answer waits, and it stays under Live, marked Waiting on you, until you deal with it.

Can Beside spend my money on its own?

Beside spends credits, never money. It pauses new work when your credits reach zero rather than billing you for more. The one place real money is involved is your ad spend - and an ads launch always asks you first, at every autonomy level. 📖 Understand your plan and credits

Will Beside tell me when it acts?

Everything Beside did, is doing, and has planned is listed on your Beside Agent page, each item with its own record of what happened and who approved it. If you would rather be told on your phone, your agent can text you what needs an answer. 📖 Get your agent's updates by text

Choose what Beside can do on its own