# Reviews and approvals

> The review queue, the approve and reject decisions, and how multi-step workflows advance.

**Dashboard → Reviews** is the queue. It holds content submitted for approval
because a [policy](/foliums/blueprintr-user-guide/teams/policies) or a
[workflow](/foliums/blueprintr-user-guide/teams/workflows) requires it.

Acting on it needs `blueprint.review`.

## What an approver sees

The content as readers would see it, plus what changed since the last published
version. On a first publish there is no previous version, so all of it is the
change.

## Decisions

| Decision | Effect |
| --- | --- |
| Approve | Publishes, or advances to the next workflow step |
| Reject | Returns to the author with your comment, to edit and resubmit |

## Multi-step workflows

A workflow is an ordered list of steps, and a run sits on exactly one of them
at a time. Approving advances it; the run is only finished when the last step
approves.

Each step names its approvers two ways, and either is enough:

> [!FIELDS]
>
> > [!FIELD Named people|user ids|optional]
> >
> > Specific approvers for that step.
>
> > [!FIELD Roles|role ids|optional]
> >
> > Anyone holding one of these roles. Survives people joining and leaving, so
> > prefer it over naming individuals.

Only the **current** step's approvers can act. Being an approver on step three
does not let you approve step one.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> A workflow accepts runs only when it is **active** and has **at least one
> step**. An active workflow with no steps takes nothing. If authors report
> that submitting does nothing, check the step list first.

## Change requests are different

A [change request](/foliums/blueprintr-user-guide/blueprints/discussion-and-change-requests)
is a proposal from someone *without* edit rights. A review is a gate on someone
who *has* them. An author can withdraw their own change request, where only an
approver can resolve a review.

Documentation has its own version of this: a folium with
`requirePublishApproval` files a change request instead of publishing when a
non-admin publishes a version, and the
[REST API](/foliums/blueprintr-user-guide/developers/rest-api) answers
**202 Accepted** rather than an error.