An approval expired before it was used

Why expiry exists

Because an approval is a judgement made at a moment, about a state of the site at that moment. An approval granted on Monday and claimed on Friday would execute against a site nobody reviewed.

Both pending requests and approved-but-unclaimed approvals expire automatically, so neither can sit around waiting to be useful to something you did not anticipate.

What you see

• The agent reports the request as refused, with retry guidance.
• The activity record shows the request expired without executing.
• Nothing in WordPress changed.

If it happens on every run

That is a workflow mismatch, not a bug. Something is systematically slower than the review window:

• The agent runs on a schedule and nobody is watching. A nightly job that requires approval will expire every night. Either move it to a time when someone reviews, or reconsider whether the Ability should be on allow.
• Nobody knows a request is waiting. The queue only works if someone opens it.
• The agent does not retry. Approval authorizes a retry; it does not perform one. If the agent gave up after the first 403, it will never claim the approval.

The right answer is usually a permission change

Related guides

• ApprovalApproval not found

  The agent retried but no approval matched. Almost always the inputs changed, the approval expired, or the retry came from a different identity.

• ApprovalKeep the approval queue meaningful

  A queue that is always approved has stopped being a control. How to tell the difference between real review and rubber-stamping, and what to change.

• ApprovalHow an approval works

  Approvals are input-bound, single-use and time-limited. Why an approval is a decision about one request rather than a standing permission.