3a - Fr8Labs Actions (FMS)

What this is

You already Ask your Fr8Labs data anything. Fr8Labs Actions is the next step: the same assistant, in the same chat, can now do something about the answer — build the quote off your live rates, create the job from the bill of lading, add a house bill — and hand it to you to approve.

Actions works on your FMS core today — jobs, quotations, rates, house bills, documents and tasks. (Accounting actions — raising invoices, reconciling vendor bills — are coming next.)

It's a separate, opt-in connector from analytics, at its own address. Asking is read-only; Actions can change something in your live system — so one unbreakable rule holds: it proposes, you approve. It never files anything on its own.

"A customer wants a rate SIN→LAX for 2×40HC — build me a quote off our live rates." → The assistant pulls your current rates, builds a costed quote with your markup, and shows you exactly what it will create. You say approve, and it's a draft quote ready to send. Nothing left your system until your yes.

Just for your power users today

Right now, Actions is designed for your trusted power users — the people you'd already trust to build a quote or create a job directly.

Here's the honest reason: we're getting the functionality right first, so Actions is not yet role-aware — it doesn't enforce per-user, per-action permissions (RBAC). Anyone you connect can propose any FMS-core action in your company. What protects you is already there: it's locked to your company's data, and every action needs a human approval. Granular role-based controls are coming — until then, enable Actions for a small group of trusted operators.

The one rule: it proposes, you approve

Every action is two steps, always:

  1. Propose. You ask. The assistant prepares the action and shows you a plain-language summary of exactly what it will do — the job, the parties, the charges.

  2. Approve. Nothing happens until you say so. You review, then approve (or tweak, or cancel). Only then does it write to your live system.

No "auto" mode, no hidden step. On money, cargo and compliance, that human "yes" isn't a limitation we're apologising for — it's the feature. The assistant does the fetching, mapping and typing; you keep the decision.

What it can do today (FMS core)

  • Build & send a quote — take an inquiry, price it off your live rate management, build the quote, draft it to the customer.

  • Create a job — from a bill of lading or booking, create the shipment (ocean or air).

  • Add house bills — build up a consolidation, house bill by house bill.

  • Nominate a vessel / update a job — set vessel, voyage and dates on an export booking.

  • Duplicate a job — clone an existing job as a starting point.

  • Handle the paperwork — print or pull a job's documents (arrival notice, delivery order, invoice PDF, house B/L), and keep task milestones moving across jobs.

Coming next: accounting actions — raise customer (AR) invoices, reconcile vendor (AP) bills, and turn a job's costing into invoices.

See it in action

fr8labs-actions-demo.mp4

Two loops, one assistant — you approve every write. (1) Pull an inquiry from your inbox → build the quote off your live rates → reply to the customer with it. (2) Read an import B/L → create the job → print the arrival notice and send it onwards.

Even better with your email

If your AI assistant is also connected to your email, Actions composes into a full loop — no copy-paste between apps:

  • Inquiry → quote → reply. Ask it to pull the latest inquiry from your inbox, build the quote off your live rates, and — once you've checked it — reply to the customer with the quote attached.

  • Booking / B/L → job → document. Point it at an import B/L, have it create the job, then print the arrival notice (or the house B/L) and send it onwards.

You approve every write — the action in Fr8Labs, and the email that leaves your inbox. (The email side is your own assistant's inbox connector; Fr8Labs never sends mail on your behalf.)

Security — your data, only yours, only on your yes

  • Walled to your company — the connection locks to your company at sign-in, enforced at the data layer. Actions can only ever touch your jobs, quotes and house bills.

  • Nothing executes without your approval — every write is proposed first, executed only on your explicit yes.

  • Everything is logged — every proposed and approved action is recorded: what was proposed, who approved it, and what it created.

  • Drafts and proposals, never a final posting on its own — the assistant gets you to the one-click finish, not past it.

  • You sign in; we never see your AI account — your own Fr8Labs login (OAuth), revocable any time; we never train models on your data.

How to connect

Actions has its own connector address, separate from analytics:

https://notification-hub.fr8labs.co/mcp-fms-actions

Add it exactly like the analytics connector — see Connect your AI to Fr8Labs for step-by-step and the note on personal vs corporate accounts. Adding Actions doesn't touch your analytics connector; they're independent.

Rolling out gradually — super-users first. Want early access? Talk to your Fr8Labs contact.

For your IT or security team

  • Separate, opt-in connector (/mcp-fms-actions) from analytics — enabling one does not enable the other.

  • Server-derived tenant scoping — the acting company is derived from your authenticated session, never from anything the AI sends.

  • Maker-checker on every write — the AI stages a proposed action; a human approval is required before any write to the live system executes.

  • Not yet role-aware (RBAC) — any connected user in your company can propose any FMS-core action; there is no per-user / per-action permission enforcement yet. Grant access to trusted operators; granular roles are on the roadmap.

  • Audit trail — every proposal and approval is persisted with actor and outcome.

  • Least privilege at the connector level — granted per-connector, revocable any time from your Fr8Labs admin.