HANDOFFice Docs
/
Docs / Get started

Getting started

Most teams hand off their first queue in an afternoon. This guide takes you from a new workspace to your first overnight report.

6 min readUpdated 6 Oct 2026

01Create your workspace

Sign up with your work email. Your workspace name appears on every approval receipt, so use your company's registered name.

02Connect your tools

HANDOFFice connects to your shared inbox, calendar, helpdesk and file storage. Every connection starts read-only, and HANDOFFice spends its first seven days watching how your team works before it suggests anything.

Read-only means read-only. HANDOFFice can't send, book or edit anything until you turn on a queue.

03Choose a queue to hand off

Start with something repetitive and well documented: delivery queries, appointment changes, password resets. HANDOFFice drafts replies for your review first, then works on its own once you're happy with them.

$ handoffice queue enable support/delivery-queries --mode draft ✓ Watching support/delivery-queries (draft mode) ✓ First drafts ready for review in about 2 hours

Switch to --mode live when the drafts stop needing edits. Most teams switch within a fortnight.

04Set your approver

Every production change waits for a named approver: a person on your team who signs off before HANDOFFice changes anything in your systems. Pick someone senior who reads their email.

# handoffice.yml approvals: approver: [email protected] window: 4h on_timeout: wait # or: delegate (Enterprise)
People go on holiday. If your approver doesn't respond within the approval window, Enterprise workspaces can keep work moving with approver delegation. See Human approval.

05Read your first overnight report

Each morning you'll get a short report of what HANDOFFice did and anything that needs you. After the first month, most teams find there's nothing that needs them.

Next steps

Human approval
How sign-off works, and who can give it.
Delegated identity
Reply as named staff. Enterprise.
API reference
Queues, approvals and reports.
Was this page helpful?
Last updated 6 Oct 2026 by The HANDOFFice Team