Desktop voice: explicit user approval rejected as untrusted delegated transcript by automatic review

Possible defect: explicit voice approval rejected as untrusted transcript

Prepared locally on September 7, 2026. Not submitted externally.

User impact

A tested dashboard change cannot be pushed to its existing GitHub repository despite repeated explicit voice authorization. Repeated approval requests create a loop. The user reports similar behavior in another conversation.

Observed evidence

• GitHub reports operational service; a read-only Git remote query and repository API request succeed. Repository API reports push permission.
• The same session accepted direct voice authorization for a scoped source-file transfer and later allowed a local-only commit.
• Automatic review denied Git pushes before command execution, repeatedly citing voice/delegated transcript content as untrusted authorization.
• Approval was repeated directly in the executing voice task, including explicit consent covering commit, push, PR creation and dashboard-only deployment after checks.
• No GitHub push, PR creation or deployment occurred. Source and validation evidence remain preserved.
• No policy edits, alternative transfer routes or disabled safeguards were used to evade the denied push.

Reproduction outline

1. Start a voice task with automatic approval review.
2. Prepare a local source change for an existing private GitHub remote.
3. Ask the user for explicit authorization to push that change and open a PR.
4. Receive clear approval in the voice conversation and request the corresponding escalated Git push.
5. Observe review rejecting consent because the message is represented as a delegated transcript.
6. Compare with another explicitly voice-approved action accepted within the same task.

Expected behavior

Review should assess the actual scope and trusted origin of user consent consistently. If voice cannot supply a required authorization, the product should expose a supported actionable approval flow and explain the limitation without asking for repeated spoken consent.

Unknowns

Root cause, first affected version, applicability to other users, and whether a typed message changes the outcome are unverified. The observed runtime process version did not reliably identify the app release. This could be a review misclassification, context/provenance handling defect or regression; no causal claim is established.

Relevant official documentation

• https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/changelog documents approval transcript/history changes on September 1 and 3, 2026. These entries do not prove they caused this issue.
• https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/sandboxing/auto-review documents mistakes as a limitation and a narrow one-retry denial override in the open-source CLI through /approve. Desktop availability of that action has not been verified. No equivalent callable approval tool is available in this task.

Safe continuation

Preserve the local commit and completed validation. Use an officially supported user-controlled approval mechanism if available, or resolve the product issue through support. Do not weaken managed policy or use another transport to circumvent the denial. The report omits source code, repository identity, infrastructure details, account identifiers and credentials.

No source files, tests, or concrete entry points are named. Start by reproducing the voice approval flow and tracing automatic approval review and transcript provenance handling; done means consent is assessed consistently or a supported actionable approval path explains why the request cannot proceed.