---
title: "Assisted and Full"
description: "The two automation modes, what each one does unattended, and why Full is not a way around review."
updated: "2026-08-31"
verifiedAgainst:
  - packages/shared/src/autopilot.ts
  - packages/shared/src/strategy.ts
  - apps/web/lib/autopilot-settings.ts
  - apps/web/lib/onboarding-autopilot-defaults.ts
  - apps/web/app/app/onboarding/autopilot/page.tsx
  - apps/web/app/app/settings/autopilot/page.tsx
---

Autopilot has two automation modes. The difference is where a run stops.

| | Assisted | Full |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Selects Topics | Yes | Yes |
| Researches and drafts | Yes | Yes |
| Places images and internal links | Yes | Yes |
| Leaves posts for review | Yes, always | Where the Direction requires it |
| Schedules posts | No | Yes |
| Publishes posts | No | Where the Direction allows it |
| Replenishes its own Topic supply | No | Yes, on by default for a new setup |

## Assisted

Assisted prepares work and stops. Every post it produces waits for a person,
regardless of what the Content Direction says.

This is the mode for a blog where you want the writing done but the judgement
kept. It is also the right mode for the first few weeks of any Project, because
it shows you what the pipeline produces before anything is public.

## Full

Full can carry a post all the way to your public blog, **but only where the
Content Direction allows it**.

<Callout variant="warning" title="Review the Full defaults before you activate">
  On a Project with no saved Autopilot configuration, onboarding recommends Full
  and preselects publication past configured review holds. It also preselects
  the exceptions for unverified facts, missing sources and failed image
  generation. The fabricated-link-or-quotation exception stays off.

  These are visible form defaults, not an active Autopilot. Nothing runs until
  an owner or admin chooses the activation action and confirms the exact set of
  exceptions being enabled. The server records that acknowledgement against the
  workspace and Project. A Project with a saved configuration keeps its existing
  choices rather than receiving these defaults later.
</Callout>

## What that consent covers

With it on, Full may publish past five holds: the Direction's own review
requirement, a quality review, a risk review, an unacknowledged risky automatic
lane, and an image review.

Four narrower consents sit underneath it and apply only while it is on:
publishing when facts could not be verified, when sources are missing, when a
detector says part of the article is invented, and when image generation failed.
For a new Full onboarding setup, facts, sources and image failure start on while
the fabricated-content exception starts off. Each remains separately visible and
can be changed before activation. Turning the parent consent off takes every
nested exception with it.

## What it never covers

Some holds cannot be consented away:

- `FOUNDER_APPROVAL_REQUIRED`, so a Direction on the legacy founder policy always
  waits for a person.
- `CONTENT_CHANGED`, where the article moved after it was approved.
- `IMAGE_GENERATION_PENDING`, and any malformed approval, quality, image or risk
  state.

So the real question is not "which mode" but "which Directions do I trust to
publish without me, and have I turned that consent on".

## Topic supply

Full mode can additionally replenish its own Topic supply, so a Project does not
run dry between reviews. Blogged writes new Topics from your approved Content
Directions and works through them without asking you to approve each one.

<Callout variant="warning" title="A new Full setup starts with refill on">
  Choosing Full on a Project that has never saved an Autopilot configuration turns
  automatic refill on by default. Those Topics spend the Project's post allowance,
  so a Full Project left at its defaults will write articles you did not queue up
  yourself. The control is on the same screen, and setting it back to existing
  approved Topics only before you save is one click.
</Callout>

It is still authorised separately from drafting, and it is still Full only. A
Project that has already saved a configuration keeps whatever it stored rather
than being moved onto the new default, and an older or malformed stored value
resolves to off. Switching a Project to Assisted turns refill off with it.

The alternative, existing approved Topics only, means exactly that: planning
waits when no eligible Topic remains, which is the right setting when you want to
decide what gets written.

## Switching modes

Switching applies to work from that point on. Posts already waiting at a gate
stay where they are.