---
title: Requests
description: A request is what only you can do, such as an account, a key, a payment or a deploy, written by the agent with the exact steps and what it frees.
url: https://hamloy.com/docs/requests
---

[Docs](https://hamloy.com/docs)

# Requests

A request is what only you can do, such as an account, a key, a payment or a deploy, written by the agent with the exact steps and what it frees.

A request is a piece of work that only you can do: making an account, paying, putting a secret key where the agent can use it, changing DNS, pressing deploy. The agent writes it with the exact steps, so you can do it without asking it what it meant, and goes on with whatever doesn't depend on it.

## How an agent writes one

A request goes in the requests list, with keys like `R-r9xv`. Its steps are its notes, and its summary says why it matters:

```
add(kind: "request", title: "Create an Apple Developer account",
    summary: "Needed before reminders can be tested on a phone",
    body: ["1. Sign up at developer.apple.com with the Pebble address.",
           "2. Pay the yearly fee.",
           "3. Put the team id in APPLE_TEAM_ID in .env."])

R-r9xv@1 Create an Apple Developer account
      Needed before reminders can be tested on a phone
```

Tasks that can't start without it [wait on it](https://hamloy.com/docs/waits-on), so the request shows how much work it holds up. Any agent reading it by key sees the same:

```
list(key: "R-r9xv")

○ R-r9xv@1 request
Create an Apple Developer account
Waiting for you · added by claude on 2026-10-10

Summary
  Needed before reminders can be tested on a phone

Notes
  1. Sign up at developer.apple.com with the Pebble address.
  2. Pay the yearly fee.
  3. Put the team id in APPLE_TEAM_ID in .env.
```

The rule every agent gets at the start of a session says it plainly: "Requests are what only the human can do (accounts, keys, money, deploys), with exact steps." A key's value never goes in a request; the request says where to put it.

## On the board

Requests have no tab of their own in the left column. They are on **For you** , under "Do", beside the questions under "Decide", the one that frees the most first, each saying what doing it lets go ahead.

Each request is a row with a checkbox. Under its title the board says what doing it lets go ahead:

```
Doing this lets Push reminders at the time each habit is due go ahead.
```

Open it to read the steps in full, add a note, or change anything. When you've done it, tick it. The agents hear it in their news under their next tool reply, and every task that waited only on it is ready.

## What you can do with it

- **Tick it** when it's done. If you can't do it as written, add a note and the agent reads it when it next looks at the item.
- **Turn it into a task** if an agent can do it after all: move it to another list from its panel or the Move menu. Its key becomes `B-…` and the old key still finds it. A task moves the other way too.
- **Delete it** if it isn't needed. Undo brings it back.

An agent can tick a request too, when you tell it in chat that it's done.

## Limits

- Requests can have subtasks, like tasks.
- Hamloy doesn't stop an agent from claiming or ticking a request; the rule tells agents that requests are yours. Set its `for` field to `you` and a claim on it is refused unless you asked.
- Steps are plain text in the notes. A request never holds a secret: Hamloy keeps everything written to the lists in its database, so write where the key goes, not the key.

See [Questions](https://hamloy.com/docs/questions) for decisions that are yours, and [Tasks](https://hamloy.com/docs/tasks) for work an agent can do.