Stopping it
Pausing Scout at once, revoking its delegation, sending what is left back to Bitcoin SV Wallet, and what Scout tells Anna about the task it was in the middle of.
There are three ways to stop Scout, and they do different things. Pause stops all spending now and can be undone. Revoke ends the delegation for good. Sending the rest back moves whatever is left in Scout's wallet to Bitcoin SV Wallet. Anna can pause in one tap from anywhere Scout appears; the other two follow once she has decided.
Keeping them apart matters because they serve different moments. Pausing is for "something looks wrong", and it has to be instant. Revoking and sending money back are for "I'm done", and each can take a screen.
Pause now
Pause Scout sits beside the status strip in Scout, on the daily summary, on every approval screen and on any payment Anna has flagged. One tap, no confirmation, as Letting an agent spend asks. Scout's wallet refuses every payment from that moment, whatever the assistant is doing.
The status strip changes to "Paused at 14
tip
Do
Show the exact time spending stopped, and whether a payment was already on its way at that moment: "The last payment, 20 sats to The Satoshi Vision at 14
tip
Do
Make pausing take effect in Scout's wallet, not in the assistant. Spending stops even if the assistant is still running or has not noticed.
Don't
Ask "Are you sure?" before pausing. Pausing costs nothing and can be undone; a question in front of it only slows down the person who is worried.
What Scout says about the task
Stopping the spending does not make the task vanish. Scout's task view shows one plain message about where things stand: "Paused while comparing prices. I had read 4 of 9 sources. I won't buy anything else until you resume. Your answer on Example Reports is still waiting."
That covers what the pattern asks a stop to explain: no further payments, what happens to work in progress, and where the money is. The rest of what Scout can do without spending, such as summarising what it already bought, stays available.
Do
Say how far the task got and what was already bought, so Anna can decide between resuming, finishing with what there is, and ending.
Do
Say what happened to any approval that was waiting: still waiting while paused, cancelled when revoked.
Don't
Let Scout's stop message argue for resuming. "I was nearly there" turns a safety control into a negotiation with the thing being stopped.
Revoke
Revoking ends the delegation. Scout's wallet will never pay again under these limits, pending approvals are cancelled, and the job cannot be resumed; a new task starts a new setup. Reaching the end date does the same thing on its own, and Anna is told when it happens.
The screen says this in three lines, shows what is still in Scout's wallet, and has one button, End job. It takes effect at once, in the way a revoke does in Permissions and allowances.
Do
Say on the revoke screen that the money left in Scout's wallet stays there until Anna sends it back, and show the amount.
Don't
Bundle revoking with deleting Scout's activity. Anna may end the job precisely because she wants to look at what happened.
Sending the rest back
After revoking, Scout offers Send 6,120 sats back to Bitcoin SV Wallet. The review shows the amount, about £3, and one destination: the Bitcoin SV Wallet that funded Scout. There is no field to type another. This is Anna moving her money, so unlike pausing it gets a review and her confirmation.
In Wallet setups, money flows from the everyday wallet to the agent by a human action. This is the same flow in reverse, and Anna starts it too.
Do
Offer only the wallet that funded Scout as the destination for what is left. A payee chosen at the end of a delegation is a payee nobody vetted.
In Bitcoin SV Wallet the return arrives as an ordinary received payment, named "Returned from Scout's wallet", with the job it closes. Scout's own view ends on one line: "Job ended. 3,880 sats spent, 6,120 sats returned to Bitcoin SV Wallet."
Do
Close the job with the three numbers Anna will want to reconcile: what she sent, what Scout spent, and what came back.
Open questions
- Should revoking send the rest back automatically, since the destination is fixed, or is a separate confirmation worth the extra step?
- If Anna pauses and never resumes, when should Scout remind her that money is still sitting in its wallet?
- Do people understand pause and revoke as different things, or would a single stop that always pauses first be clearer?
- How often is the stop control pressed in practice, and what happened just before? See Measuring a product.
Related
Written from: /guide/patterns/letting-an-agent-spend/, /guide/patterns/permissions-and-allowances/, /guide/patterns/charging-per-use/, /guide/how-it-works/wallet-setups/, /guide/patterns/errors-and-failed-payments/.
Checklist
The rules on this page, in a form you can work through.
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