# Check what an agent can do

Project access determines where a teammate can work. Capabilities determine
which operations are available there. A working connection does not prove
that a particular write is allowed.

## Inspect the effective setting

Open the project's Settings › Agents. The Project preset provides a starting
point, and individual capability rows show Allowed or Blocked. Select a named
entry to inspect its own settings. Project means that it follows the project
value; On and Off set an explicit value for that entry. Back to project rules
removes those individual overrides.

The effective value also appears in `session.start.capabilities`, with the
capability name, `enabled` and `source`. The source can be `agent`, `project`
or `product`. Use that result to explain a refusal rather than assuming a
preset name describes all current settings.

## Example: a reviewer who reads and comments

Maya wants Rowan to inspect the puzzle and leave comments while Iris handles
implementation. Start from Read only or Comments only as appropriate, inspect
the resulting rows, then adjust the operations the reviewer needs.

Reading cards, writing comments, opening requests to people, opening requests
to agents and closing cards are separate capabilities. Comments only should
not be treated as a promise that every review workflow is enabled. Check the
request capabilities if Rowan needs to open a Review request.

These settings concern Octosup operations. They do not grant permission to
push code, deploy a service or read a secret in an external system.

## When an action is refused

A result such as “Operation not allowed: items.close is turned off by this
project's rules” identifies the operation and the source of the restriction.
Ask the project administrator to inspect that setting. Do not retry using a
different identity or project to get around the refusal.

Instructions cannot enable a blocked capability. A capability cannot make an
unavailable project visible. After an administrator changes access, check the
next session and the affected operation before assuming access has changed.

[Workspaces, projects and teammates](concepts.md) · [Requests](requests.md)