# How do you approve time off without paper forms?

> A Pachca use case. An employee fills out a form with the bot, the request lands in the managers' chat with "Approve", "Decline" and "Ask for details" buttons, and the bot tells the employee the answer in a thread.

> This is the Markdown version of https://pachca.com/en/scenarios/soglasovanie-otpuska for AI agents. The API methods named here are documented at https://dev.pachca.com/llms-en.txt — open it before calling the API. Other use cases are listed at https://pachca.com/en/llms.txt.

## What you'll get

1. The employee sends the bot `/start` and clicks "Time off request". The bot opens a form.
2. The request lands in the "Time off" chat with "Approve", "Decline" and "Ask for details" buttons.
3. A manager clicks a button. The bot replies to the employee in the thread under the message with the button and @mentions them.

The bot runs on n8n: Pachca sends the bot's events to an n8n webhook, and the ready-made workflow opens the form as the bot, posts the request and replies to the employee.

## What you need before you start

- Pachca access as the workspace owner or an administrator with the scopes `chats:create`, `chat_members:write`, `bots:write`. The setup and check steps also need `search:users`, `messages:read`. Signing in is covered in the rules below.
- n8n on your own server or in the cloud, with the Pachca node installed: https://dev.pachca.com/guides/n8n/setup.md
- The workflow file: https://pachca.com/blog/Vacation_Bot_Pachca.json

## If you're an AI agent: working rules

### Who does what

- You do everything the instructions name an API method for. Don't ask the user to create a chat, a bot or a message by hand.
- Ask the user only to sign in to Pachca and to do what is listed in "Ask the user to do by hand".
- If you have no terminal, say so right away and don't pretend you set it up. Walk the user through the steps for people on the use case page and help with the template or the handler code.

### How to talk to the user

- The user is not a developer. Write briefly and in plain words. Don't mention API methods, scopes, response codes, `id`s or CLI profiles. Say "permissions" instead of "scopes" and "the program behind the bot" instead of "handler".
- Don't report your checks. A message contains only three things: what is done, what you need from the user, what you'll do next.
- Don't ask for what you can find out through the API or what is easy to change later. Take the value from the instructions and name it.
- Take the bot's message texts from the instructions or write them yourself and carry on. Show them in your final message and offer to change them. Don't wait for approval.
- Ask the questions from "Ask the user" in the same words.

### Your first message to the user

It has three parts. The first two together take at most five lines.

1. What the user will get: one or two lines.
2. What you will create yourself: the chat, the bot and the messages, with the names from the instructions. Word anything that depends on the user's choice as a condition: "if you choose the bot, I'll also create…".
3. "What I need from you": signing in to Pachca, if the user isn't signed in yet, and the questions from "Ask the user". If the use case or one of its options needs n8n, ask here whether the user has it and ask for access right away in the words from the "n8n" section below: "if you have n8n, send me…".

If part of the result appears only after a manual step by the user, say so in one line: "you'll schedule the retro questions yourself, I'll show you how".

The user's answers are their consent to the plan. Start the setup right after them, without asking for a second confirmation.

### Access to Pachca

- The user doesn't need to issue a token or send it in the chat. Before your first message, check the login: `npx -y @pachca/cli@latest auth status`. If there is none, ask the user to run `npx -y @pachca/cli@latest auth login` in their own terminal. The CLI shows a code; the user enters it in the browser and confirms access. Write the commands with `@latest`: without it an old cached CLI version may start, and it asks to paste a token instead of signing in through the browser.
- This login has the same rights as the user's role. Compare them with the scopes in "What you need before you start" yourself: `npx -y @pachca/cli@latest api GET /oauth/token/info` shows the scopes. If something is missing, say in plain words what you won't be able to do, for example "I can't send messages". There are two ways out: add this permission to the token in Pachca, under "Automations" → "API", or sign in again as the workspace owner or an administrator.
- If `auth status` shows `scopes: null`, it doesn't mean there are no rights: look at `GET /oauth/token/info`. The checks in these rules also need `search:chats`, `bots:read` and `profile:read`.
- When the user says "me", they mean the owner of the login. `GET /profile` returns their `id` and nickname.
- Call the API with `npx -y @pachca/cli@latest api <METHOD> <path> -o json`. Write the full command in every call; don't put it into a shell variable.
- Pass query parameters as `--query key=value`, for example `--query query=Purchasing`. The CLI silently drops a parameter without a key and returns the whole list, so it's easy to conclude that the chat already exists.
- Pass the request body with `--data` or `--input`. Almost every write method wraps the body in an object: `chat` for `POST /chats`, `message` for `POST /messages`, `task` for `POST /tasks`, `group_tag` for `POST /group_tags`, `user` for `PUT /users/{id}`, `webhook` for bots. `--describe` shows the wrapper; write its path with `{id}`, not with a number. Without the wrapper, `POST /chats` creates the chat but silently adds no members.
- Don't print tokens or bots' incoming webhook URLs in the chat. A bot's token is shown only once, when it's created: save it to a file.

### n8n

- If the user has no n8n, say that it comes as the hosted n8n Cloud or can be installed on their own server, and give the link for installing the Pachca nodes: https://dev.pachca.com/guides/n8n/setup.md. These instructions don't cover installing n8n. If they have an option without n8n, suggest starting with it and coming back to the bot once n8n is there.
- If the user has n8n, ask for access in these words: "Send me your n8n address: the link you open it with in the browser. Don't send the key in the chat. In n8n, open Settings → n8n API → Create an API key and copy the key. Right after that, run the command below in your terminal exactly as it is; you don't need to put anything into it. It saves the copied key to a file and prints nothing. Then write 'key saved'." The command for macOS: `pbpaste > ~/n8n-key.txt`. For another system, pick the matching one.
- Build everything in n8n on the official Pachca nodes, `n8n-nodes-pachca`. Don't use the `HTTP Request` node for Pachca API calls.

### Setup

- Take API methods from https://dev.pachca.com/llms-en.txt, don't rely on memory. The command `npx -y @pachca/cli@latest api <METHOD> <path> --describe` shows a method's schema.
- The Pachca skills cover the call order and error handling for chats, bots and forms: `npx skills add pachca/openapi`. Install them when you need them, without asking the user.
- Before creating anything, check whether the chat and the bot already exist: `GET /search/chats`, `GET /bots`. If they do, ask whether to set them up or create new ones.
- `POST /group_tags` creates an empty tag. `PUT /users/{id}` with `list_tags` assigns it to an employee; it needs the `users:update` scope. The field replaces the whole set of tags: first read the employee's current tags with `GET /users/{id}` and send them together with the new one. While the tag has no members, mentioning it notifies no one.
- If a method returns an error, stop and tell the user in plain words what failed and what you need to continue.
- The messages you post yourself and the ones the bot sends must be easy to read on a screen, without overdoing spacing or emphasis. Make the heading bold and start the text on the next line. Write connected text as one paragraph. Put rules and steps on numbered lines one under another and separate them from the intro with a single empty line. A short message needs no other empty lines. In a card, make the field labels bold and put the fields on consecutive lines. Use bold only for the heading and the field labels. Pachca markup has no lists or tables: the numbers at the start of lines stay plain text. A sample:

  ```text
  **Retro rules**
  On the last day of the sprint a message with questions arrives here. We reply in the thread under it.

  1. Each point is a separate message.
  2. We add 👍 to what is worth discussing.
  3. The facilitator posts the outcomes in one message and pins it.
  ```
- A pin can't be checked through the API: only a successful `POST /messages/{id}/pin` response confirms it.
- If you sent service messages to a chat to check a bot, such as `/start`, delete them: `DELETE /messages/{id}`. Don't delete messages with rules and templates.
- At the end, say what was created, what is left for the user to do by hand and how to check that the use case works.
- To undo the setup: `DELETE /bots/{id}` deletes the bot, `PUT /chats/{id}/archive` sends the chat to the archive.

## How to set up the use case with the user

### 1. Ask the user

Ask these questions in these words:

1. Do you have n8n? The time-off bot runs there.
2. Who approves time off: which managers and who from HR? Send me the names and I'll add them to the "Time off" chat.

Use the names "Time off" and "Time Off Bot" as they are unless the user asks for others.

### 2. Do it yourself through the Pachca API

1. Find the approvers' `id`s: `GET /search/users` or `GET /users`.
2. Create the chat: `POST /chats` with `name: "Time off"` and the approvers' `member_ids`. Take the chat's `id` from the response, you'll need it in n8n.
3. Create the bot: `POST /bots` with `name: "Time Off Bot"`, a nickname ending in `_bot`, `trigger_on: "commands"`, `commands: ["/start"]` and `events: ["message_new", "button_click"]`. From the response, save the bot's `id` (also its `user_id`) and `access_token`: the token is shown only once.
4. Add the bot to the chat: `POST /chats/{id}/members` with the bot's `id` in `member_ids`. Without this, the bot can't post requests.

### 3. Set up n8n

If the user gave you an n8n API key, import the workflow through the n8n public API (`POST /api/v1/workflows`). If not, ask them to paste the file's contents into a new workflow.

Then in n8n, yourself or by the user's hands:

1. Create a Pachca credential: Access Token is the bot's token, Base URL stays at its default, `https://api.pachca.com/api/shared/v1`. Select this credential in every Pachca node.
2. In the `Send to HR Chat` node, enter the "Time off" chat's `id` in Entity ID.
3. In the `Webhook` node, set your own Path, activate the workflow and copy the Production URL. The Test URL won't work.

### 4. Connect the bot to n8n

Put the Production URL in the bot's outgoing webhook: `PUT /bots/{id}` with `outgoing_url` using a personal token, or `PUT /bot/webhook` using the bot's token.

### 5. Ask the user to do by hand

- Make the bot public in its settings, so employees can find it in search and message it directly. The `POST /bots` method has no field for this.
- Send a test request: message the bot `/start`, click "Time off request", fill out the form, then click "Approve" under the request in the "Time off" chat.

### 6. Check

- The request appeared in the "Time off" chat: `GET /messages` for that chat.
- After "Approve" is clicked, the chat with the bot has a reply in the thread under the message with the button. The user confirms this: your token can't see the employee's direct messages with the bot.

## What the use case can't do

- After a button is clicked, the request card in the chat doesn't change and the bot doesn't say who responded. Mark handled requests with a ✅ reaction.
- The bot can't set an "On vacation" status: the `PUT /users/{user_id}/status` method is only available to the workspace owner and administrators. Set the status in a separate workflow step using an administrator token.

## Troubleshooting

- The bot doesn't respond to `/start`. The workflow in n8n is off, or the outgoing webhook has the Test URL instead of the Production URL.
- The "Time off request" button doesn't open the form. The bot's `events` don't include `button_click`.
- The request doesn't show up in the chat. The bot isn't added to the "Time off" chat, or the `Send to HR Chat` node has a different chat's `id`.

## Links

- The use case page with the demo and the instructions for people: https://pachca.com/en/scenarios/soglasovanie-otpuska
- How the workflow works: https://pachca.com/en/blog/avtomatizaciya-pachka-n8n-zayavki-na-otpusk
- Buttons in bot messages: https://dev.pachca.com/guides/buttons.md
- Forms: https://dev.pachca.com/guides/forms/overview.md
- Outgoing webhooks and event types: https://dev.pachca.com/guides/webhook/events.md