Who can do what

Good news first: there is nothing new to learn. Capable Approval has no user directory of its own and no roles of its own. It reads your Confluence permissions, and adds two optional controls a space administrator can switch on.

#At a glance

You want to	You need
See a page approval status	Permission to view the page
Raise an approval	Permission to edit the page
Add or remove reviewers	Permission to edit the page
Approve, reject or comment	To be on the reviewer list
Change a space approval settings	Space administrator
Manage teams inside one space	Space administrator for that space
Manage teams for the whole site	Confluence administrator, or delegated team management
Connect Slack, reset authenticators	Confluence administrator

Being an administrator does not let you approve. Only people on the reviewer list can answer, and that is on purpose: an approval is supposed to mean a specific named person agreed to something.

If you need to answer, ask to be added. Any editor can add you without restarting the request. See Request an approval.

#Two restrictions a space can add

Both live in Space settings, and both are about the same problem: a controlled space where not just anybody should be starting approvals.

Setting	Default	What it does
Allow users to edit approvals	ON	Switch it off and only space administrators can raise or change approvals here. Everyone else can still see and respond to what they were asked about.
Restrict who can edit approvals	OFF	Name the users and groups allowed to raise approvals. Anyone else cannot, even with edit permission on the page.

The second one is the one to reach for when a controlled space should only have approvals raised by the quality team, rather than by whoever happens to be editing that afternoon.

#Handing team management to someone else

By default only Confluence administrators manage global teams, which gets old quickly if your document owners are not administrators. You can add named people or groups in Site settings, Team permissions.

Confluence administrator groups and your own account are locked into that list, so you cannot accidentally lock everybody out of team management.

Space level teams are separate and always sit with the space administrator. Manage approval teams covers both.

#What an AI assistant can do on your behalf

An assistant acting for you can look approvals up and raise one, always after checking with you first. It can never respond to an approval, and it can never see a page you cannot see, because it inherits exactly your permissions. See Rovo and AI assistants.

#A few things that catch people out

Edit permission on the page is what gates raising an approval, not any approval specific role.
Restricting who can raise approvals does not stop anyone responding to one they are on.
Site level and space level team management are different permissions. Being a space administrator does not give you the global list.
Visibility is a separate question from permission. See Who can see what.

Who can see what

Visibility rather than actions.

Space settings

Where both restrictions live.

Manage approval teams

Site level teams and delegated management.

Teams and assignment

Reviewer lists that fill themselves in.

Request an approval

Sending one, and who is allowed to.

Rovo and AI assistants

What an assistant may and may not do for you.

Your existing Confluence permissions, doing all the work.