---
title: "Consent prompts and session notices"
description: "What the Outpost tray app shows when a technician asks to connect, while a remote session runs, during file transfers, and when IT sends you a password."
url: "https://support.outpostplatform.com/tray/consent-and-notifications/"
product: "tray"
type: "concept"
status: "draft"
ai_summary: "Remote support as the end user sees it in the Outpost tray app. Consent prompt Allow remote support? with Allow and Deny, denied after 120 seconds. Session banner, supervised for escorted sessions. Secure transfer code and the list of clipboard and file transfers in the card (never a pop-up). Credential card A password was sent to you with Open it and Dismiss. Linux uses desktop notifications."
availability:
  plans: ["home-lab", "essentials", "enterprise", "msp"]
  platforms: ["windows", "linux", "macos"]
  preview: false
source: "https://gitlab.com/outpostplatform/docs/-/edit/main/src/content/docs/tray/consent-and-notifications.md"
license: "CC BY 4.0"
---

# Consent prompts and session notices

When a technician connects to your computer, the Outpost tray app is how you
know, and often how you decide. This page explains each prompt and notice you
might see, what it means, and what your answer does. It also helps
administrators choose how much to show the people they support.

## What you see depends on the session type

Your IT team decides, in a profile, which kinds of remote session are allowed
on your computer. A session opens as the most permissive kind your team
allows. See [Remote access](/remote-access/).

| Session type | What you see |
| --- | --- |
| Unattended | No prompt and no banner. |
| Attended | A banner while the session runs. You cannot stop it from the tray app. |
| Consent required | A prompt asking your permission. The session starts only if you allow it. Then the banner. |
| Escorted | A banner saying the session is supervised. A second person from your IT team is present for the whole session. |

In every session type, unattended included, the tray app's card lists the
clipboard and file transfers of the session and shows the secure transfer
code. Neither pops up: you see them when you open the tray app.

## The consent prompt

When a technician asks to connect and your permission is required, the tray
app shows:

> **Allow remote support?**
> A support technician is requesting to view and control this computer.

The technician's name follows when it is known.

- Select **Allow** to let the session start.
- Select **Deny** to refuse it. The technician is told the session was denied.
- If you do not answer within 120 seconds, the request is denied.

On Windows, the card comes to the front when a request arrives, whatever you
were doing in the tray app. On Linux, the prompt is a desktop notification with
**Allow** and **Deny** buttons, so you see it even if your desktop hides tray
icons.

:::caution
Only allow a session you expected. If someone you do not know called you and
asked you to allow remote access, select **Deny** and contact your IT team
using the details in the tray app's **Support** view.
:::

On Windows, a session to the sign-in screen, before anyone has signed in, does
not ask for permission, because there is nobody to ask. Only a technician your
IT team allows to connect without asking can open one.

## The session banner

While a session runs, a banner across the top of the card reads **Outpost
remote support session in progress**, with the technician's name. In an
escorted session it reads **Outpost supervised remote support session in
progress**.

On Linux, a notification titled **A technician is connected** stays on screen
while the session runs: "A support technician is connected to this computer and
can see your screen."

## The secure transfer code

When a technician copies clipboard content or files between their computer and
yours during a session, the content is encrypted end to end. Your Outpost
passes it along but cannot read it.

To prove that the technician's browser is talking to your computer and nobody
in between, the tray app shows a six-digit code, such as **Secure transfer code
482 913**. The technician sees a code too. If they ask you to read yours out,
open the tray app and read it to them, so they can check that the two codes
match. On Windows, pointing at the Outpost icon in the notification area also
shows the code. The code never pops up on its own.

Your IT team can require that check every time someone signs in during a
session, with the `remote_access.e2e_require_verification` profile setting.
Otherwise the technician is asked to check the code only when your computer's
key changes.

## Transfers during a session

The tray app's card lists every clipboard and file transfer of the session,
newest first, with its time, so you can see what was copied to or from your
computer:

- Technician sent 3 files (18.4 MB) to this PC
- Technician copied 2 files from this PC
- Technician pasted text to this PC
- Technician copied text from this PC

The list names the computer the way its operating system does: "this PC" on
Windows, "this Mac" on macOS, and "this computer" on Linux.

Transfers never show a pop-up or a desktop notification. Open the tray app to
see the list. It clears when the session ends.

## A password sent to you

A technician can send you a password or other secret, such as a new Wi-Fi
password, to the tray app. The **Support** view then shows a card at the top:

> **A password was sent to you**

The card names what was sent, who sent it, any message, and when the link
expires.

1. Select **Open it**. The password opens on a secure page in your web
   browser, not in the tray app.
2. If the technician gave you a passphrase, they tell you it another way, such
   as by phone. Enter it on the page.

The link works once. Select **Dismiss** to put the card away. Dismissing does
not cancel the link, and the card returns the next time you open the tray app
until the link is used or expires.

For administrators: send a secret this way by choosing **To the Outpost tray
on their machine** under **Deliver it** when you share a credential. See
[Documentation](/documentation/).

## Related

- [Use the Outpost tray app](/tray/using-the-tray/)
- [The Outpost tray app](/tray/)
- [Remote access](/remote-access/)
