# How Revnu Works

> The model behind the API: a growth agent that does the work, review cards for your say-so, and approval settings that decide what ships on its own. The API steers the agent, so you get the work without rebuilding its tools.

Canonical: https://revnu.com/docs/concepts
Last updated: 2026-11-07

Revnu is a growth agent. It finds buyers, writes and sends outreach, runs ads and writes the pages that get a business found in search and AI answers. The API gives you the same controls a customer has in the dashboard: see what the agent wants to do, say yes or no, tell it what to do next, and read what happened. Lead search, enrichment and sending run inside the agent, so you steer the work instead of rebuilding it. If you are weighing Revnu against building your own agent, [what the API exposes](https://revnu.com/docs/api-cli-mcp-or-chat.md#should-you-build-your-own-growth-agent) lays it out. New to the API? Start at [Developers](https://revnu.com/docs/developers.md).

## Review cards

Anything that needs your say-so becomes a card in the review queue: an email draft, a blog post, a budget change, a question. A card has a `kind`, a `sourceType` naming the work, and a `status` of `pending` or `needs_revision`. The kinds that ask you to decide are `approval` (ship this), `question` (often with `textInput`) and `choice` (pick one of `options`). The others record the agent's own work: `review` (a judgment worth a second look), `follow_up`, `setup`, and `update` (a result with nothing to decide). Expect new kinds over time.

Each card lists the verbs it accepts right now in `actions`, and the label the dashboard would put on its main button in `primaryLabel`. Build your UI from those two fields rather than from `sourceType`, and new kinds of work render correctly without a code change. The verbs:

| Verb | Does |
|---|---|
| `approve` | Ships the work: publishes, applies, sets up, or approves. LinkedIn and gift cards list it too; approve those in the dashboard. |
| `answer` | Answers a question card |
| `choose` | Picks one option on an option card |
| `send` | Sends an email draft or reply, optionally edited |
| `request_changes` | Sends the card back to the agent with your feedback |
| `snooze` | Hides the card until a time |
| `dismiss` | Declines it; nothing ships |

## What ships on its own

Whether work waits for a person is set per kind of work in **Settings → Agent → What Needs Your Approval**. Each of six settings is **Ask Me First** or **Just Do It**: Blog Posts, Start Sequences, Emails, Invites and Messages (LinkedIn), Ad Tests and Proposed Workflows. The API follows the same settings as the dashboard.

Your first sequence always waits for your yes. After that, the settings decide what asks first. Replies to prospects, spend, budgets, booking links, new inboxes and Reddit comments always wait, whatever the settings say. Once you approve a sequence, its later email and LinkedIn steps send without asking each time, while Emails and Invites and Messages are on Just Do It, the defaults.

Blog edits and one-off emails set to Just Do It still appear as cards, with `autoResolveAt` set: the time they ship unless you act first. That is at least four hours ahead for an email and a day for a blog edit, landing at 09:00 on a weekday in your time zone. A new blog post on Just Do It publishes as soon as it passes its checks. Snoozing a card cancels its deadline.

Approval and review cards that wait seven days expire, so the queue never turns into a backlog. Questions, choices, follow-ups, setup cards and blog cards don't expire, and update cards close after two days because there is nothing to decide.

## The agent

The agent works on a schedule, the moment new mail or a reply arrives, and whenever you message it. [Send it a message](https://revnu.com/docs/agent-messages.md) the way you would in the dashboard chat, then wait for the reply inline or poll. [Agent status](https://revnu.com/docs/agent-status.md) says whether it is awake or asleep, whether it's working right now, and when it next runs.

## Workflows

A workflow is a recurring job written in plain words: a schedule such as "every weekday at 09:00 Europe/London" and a list of steps. A step can carry a gate, which makes it wait for a person before it acts. The agent reads the steps on every run, so volume ("five per day") is an instruction in a step, not a numeric field. See [Create a workflow](https://revnu.com/docs/workflow-create.md).

## Results

[Results](https://revnu.com/docs/results.md) is the scoreboard the agent reads before it works: one section per channel, each either available with numbers or unavailable with a reason. A channel that isn't connected yet says so, so a zero is always a real zero.

## Leads

A lead is a company the agent has researched, with a status, a score, contacts, your own columns, and the draft it would send. You can read leads, set their labels, and keep a block list of companies, mailboxes and LinkedIn profiles that outreach always skips.

## Frequently asked questions

### Can I use the API to send an email directly?

The API approves and sends what Revnu's agent drafted, so every send goes through the same review and trust rules as the dashboard.

### Can I create leads through the API?

Revnu finds and researches leads itself. Ask it for the companies you want in a [message](https://revnu.com/docs/agent-messages.md), and use the API to read, label and block leads.

### Can I use Revnu's lead data or sending from my own agent?

Yes, through Revnu's agent. Your agent asks Revnu for leads in a message and reads the results back. Lead search, contact lookup and sending run inside Revnu's agent, so your agent gets the results without wiring those up itself.

### What is the difference between dismiss and request changes?

Dismiss closes the card and nothing ships; the agent learns from your reason. Request changes sends it back with feedback, and a revised card returns to the queue.

### How do I know a card will ship on its own?

It has a non-null `autoResolveAt`. Snooze it to stop that, or act on it before then.

### What can ship without anyone approving it?

Whatever **Settings → Agent → What Needs Your Approval** sets to Just Do It, plus the later steps of a sequence you approved. The first sequence, replies to prospects, spend, budgets, booking links, new inboxes and Reddit comments always wait for a person.