> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.surgecardano.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.surgecardano.com/core-concepts/signing-and-approvals.md). # Signing and approvals Every automated trade passes an automatic **transaction guard** in your browser before a strategy wallet signs it, rejecting anything outside the strategy's budget. By default that is the only gate — **Automate signing is on**, so strategies trade without you clicking anything. Turn it off and a **Signing Approval** window waits for your click on every trade instead. ### The Signing Approval window With Automate signing **off**, whenever a strategy wants to sign a transaction a window appears showing: * which strategy and wallet is asking (a context badge); * the **full** signing address and recipient address — deliberately not shortened, because a look-alike address only needs to match the visible ends; * the maximum ADA the transaction can spend; * any extra details for that transaction type and a warning strip. Choose **Approve**, **Decline**, **Decline all** (clears the whole queue) or **Minimize**. Requests queue up if several arrive; a pill in the header shows how many are waiting and reopens a minimized window. Declining is safe — nothing is signed. What happens next: a rule-based level is re-armed after 2 minutes; a Cadence order is released and retried; an arbitrage opportunity is left for you to skip or sign later, and expires 2 minutes after detection; a declined grid rung stays "pending sign" until your tab next reconnects to the strategy, which resets it to armed (reload the strategy page). ### Automate signing Settings → General → **Automate signing**. On by default: strategy transactions that pass the transaction guard are signed immediately with no prompt, so a strategy runs unattended as long as the tab stays open. Manual swaps and sends from your browser wallet are unaffected — the extension still prompts. Turn it off if you want to see and approve every trade — useful while you are learning what a strategy does. The setting is reset to its default whenever you disconnect your wallet, so the next wallet never inherits a previous choice. ### The transaction guard Before any strategy wallet key is touched, Surge decodes the transaction it was asked to sign and refuses it if it: * spends more ADA to outside addresses than the strategy's spend cap (the trade size plus a 10 ADA allowance for fees and deposits); * moves any token out of the wallet that the strategy did not declare it would sell — tokens are **deny by default**; * contains staking or delegation changes; * withdraws staking rewards; * mints or burns anything; * has a fee of zero or an implausibly large fee; * returns no change to the signing wallet. Transfers between your own strategy wallets count as change, not spend, so the Cadence strategy's wallet rotation passes. A refused transaction is never signed; the strategy logs the refusal and the trade is skipped. The spend cap is derived from the strategy's own settings: the rung budget for a grid, the level size for a rule-based plan, the maximum trade size for Cadence, and the trade size for DCA. `[VERIFY: how the cap is derived for arbitrage legs.]` Order cancels are capped at the locked value plus 10 ADA. ### What the guard does not do It does not judge whether a trade is a good idea, and it does not check the price. Those are the strategy's job. It also cannot protect keys from a compromised browser — see [Wallets in Surge](/core-concepts/wallets-in-surge.md#security-summary). ### Where else you sign | Action | Signer | Prompt | | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Login | Browser wallet | Extension's "sign data" prompt (a message, not a transaction) | | Fund a strategy wallet | Browser wallet | Extension prompt | | Manual swap from browser wallet | Browser wallet | Extension prompt | | Manual swap from a strategy wallet | Strategy wallet | Transaction guard only — no approval window, because you initiated it | | Send from a strategy wallet | Strategy wallet | Transaction guard only | | Cancel a stuck order | The wallet that owns the order | Extension prompt or transaction guard, depending on the wallet | | Strategy trade | Strategy wallet | Transaction guard; Signing Approval only if you turned Automate signing off | | Register a new strategy wallet | The new strategy wallet | None — it signs an ownership challenge, not a transaction | --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. 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