---
title: "Approvals"
description: "This page covers approval.json: how deepgym qa --approve records that an environment folder passed, what the file holds, and how deepgym check tells when the folder has changed since."
slug: authoring/approvals
---

```bash
deepgym qa ./word_stats --mutants --mode docker --approve --by "Jane Doe"
deepgym check ./word_stats   # fails once the files no longer match the approval
```

## When it is written

`--approve --by NAME` writes `approval.json` once QA passes with at least one rerun and
every check you asked for (`--mutants`, `--model`) passed. Checks that didn't run are
listed with it, never counted as passed.

QA runs on a private copy of the folder, so the hashes describe exactly the files it
tested. The folder must be self-contained: no symlinks, and no support files outside it.

## What it holds

- The full QA report.
- A sha256 and the permission bits of every file in the folder, and the permission bits
  of every directory, hidden ones too, so even a `.DS_Store` Finder adds makes it stale.
  `approval.json` itself and the folder's top-level `.git` are left out.
- The deepgym version and the time.
- The lint warnings from `deepgym check`, under `lint` and marked `"advisory": true`:
  information for the reader, never evidence that the verifier isolates the solution.

It is written once, read-only. Delete it to approve again.

## Checking an approved folder

`deepgym check` fails when the files no longer match the approval, Harbor task folders
included. `approval.json` is unsigned: it records what was tested, and `check` confirms
the files still match that record, not who wrote it.