Every change is a card
Cards cover dashboards, widgets, workflows, runs, agents, schedules, watchlists, notes, backtests, archives and deletes. A strategy arrives as a workflow card. Asking Chat to run a saved agent is different: the run starts at once and Chat reports it in the reply, with no card.
The header names the kind, such as PROPOSED WORKFLOW, and the body shows what you are approving. A widget card renders a live preview. A workflow card shows the proposed graph and what an edit would change. An agent card prints the full instructions. A schedule card shows the cadence and the projected credits per week. A run or backtest card shows the usage estimate before anything is spent.
Apply, discard or revert a card
A pending card offers Apply and Discard. A workflow run or backtest card offers Run and Cancel instead.
Read the card
Check the thresholds, sources and names Chat chose, and any warnings it lists.
Click Apply
Orbital re-checks the proposal against the current state of your workspace and your role, then applies it. The card reads ✓ APPLIED with the time.
Open the result
The applied card links to what it made, such as View workflow → or View on dashboard →. An applied backtest card links to View run →.
Discard dismisses a card you do not want, and nothing is written.
Revert works on an applied card that created a dashboard, added a widget or edited one.
Click Revert on the applied card
Confirm
In Revert this change?, click Revert. Orbital restores the snapshot taken before the apply.
To bring back a dashboard Chat deleted, restore it from Trash within 30 days. See Restore an item.
Workflow cards have no Revert, but the versions you save of a workflow stay in its Versions list. See Versions.
Applying a workflow edit replaces the whole definition. If the edit removes anything, a dialog lists what is Lost on Apply and asks you to confirm with Overwrite.
Stale cards
If the target changed after the card was proposed, Apply is refused. The card turns PROPOSAL STALE with the reason, for example The workflow definition changed after this was proposed. Click Re-propose to have Chat build it again against the current state.
A pending card copied into a new conversation by Fork or Branch is stale. Apply it in the original thread, or re-propose it in the fork.
When a change applies in the same turn
Three routine changes apply at once and leave an applied card:
- an agent you asked Chat to create
- an edit you asked for to the agent the conversation is open on
- a schedule you asked for on a recurring cadence
The card that finishes a new agent's setup interview waits for Apply unless you tell Chat to go ahead. A schedule for a workflow Chat is still proposing waits for that workflow's card. A schedule starts enabled unless you ask to keep it paused.
Everything else waits for your click unless your message tells Chat to go ahead. "Go ahead and create a dashboard for NVDA" and "create and apply the dashboard" apply in the same turn. So does "run it" while the conversation is open on a workflow. Review wording wins: "show me a proposal first", "let me review it" or "don't apply yet" keeps the card pending, even for a routine change.
A backtest card never runs in the turn that proposes it, even if you said "run it". Click Run on the card to start it. Chat never applies a card that changes what an agent may do on its own, however the request is worded.
A short follow-up such as "Apply", "apply it" or "approve" applies the pending card in Chat's latest answer that has one. "Go ahead" and "do it" work only right after the answer that showed the card. When that answer holds more than one card, Chat asks which one.
Steering what applies now and what waits
Who can apply a card
Anyone in the project except a viewer can apply a card. Only the person whose message produced a card, or whoever applied it, can discard it. See Project roles.
A card that changes what an agent may do on its own shows the permission, its mode and the exact sentence being granted. Only a workspace owner or admin can apply it, and Chat can propose only Build and test strategies. See Give a permission from Chat.
Cards do not expire
A chat card stays open until someone applies or discards it. A request an agent raises during a run is answered in Agents instead, and lapses after seven days. See Permissions and approvals.
The audit trail
Orbital stores every card with what was proposed and when, and an applied card also records when it was applied and by whom. A discarded or reverted card collapses to one line but stays in place. Regenerating a reply deletes the reply's unapplied cards, and a reply that already applied a change cannot be regenerated.