Human-in-the-Loop: Approval Flows

In enterprise AI, some actions are "Irreversible."

• Sending a $10,000 refund.
• Deleting a production database.
• Sending an email to 1 million users.

For these, you cannot give the AI 100% autonomy. You need Human-in-the-Loop (HITL).

1. How HITL Works with Agents

The Agent identifies a "High-risk" tool and Pauses its execution. It returns a "Pending" status to the UI.

• Agent: "I want to send this refund. Please approve."
• Human: (Clicks 'Approve' in Dashboard).
• Agent: (Resumes execution and calls the tool).

2. Implementing the "Pause"

In your Lambda function (Action Group), if certain criteria are met, instead of executing the tool, you return a message:

if amount > 1000:
    return {
        "status": "AWAITING_APPROVAL",
        "message": "Refund exceeds threshold. Waiting for human."
    }

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3. Visualizing the Approval Loop

graph TD
    A[Agent: I want to refund $5k] --> C{Amount > $1k?}
    C -->|Yes| P[Pause: State Saved]
    P --> U[UI: Admin Approval Required]
    U -->|Human: Approved| R[Resume: Call Tool]
    R --> Final[Goal Met]

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💡 Guidance for Learners

HITL is the "Seatbelt" of the AI world. It allows you to build powerful agents with Confidence. You don't have to worry about a "Billion Token Hallucination" because a human is the final gatekeeper for the most expensive actions.

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Summary

• HITL is mandatory for high-risk autonomous actions.
• The agent identifies the risk and pauses the flow.
• Status messages communicate the need for approval to the frontend.
• Approval acts as the "resume" signal for the agent brain.