Human Gates

A human gate is an orchestration step that pauses execution and waits for a human to provide input before continuing. This enables approval workflows, data collection, review processes, and any scenario where a human decision is required mid-pipeline.

How it works

1. The orchestration reaches a human step
2. Execution pauses — the run status becomes paused
3. The human input form is shown (in the UI or via messaging)
4. The human submits their response
5. Execution resumes from exactly where it paused

The paused state is persisted to disk, so the orchestration survives backend restarts.

Configuring a human step

{
  "id": "step-review",
  "type": "human",
  "name": "Review Draft",
  "human_prompt": "Please review the draft and provide your feedback.",
  "human_fields": [
    {
      "name": "decision",
      "type": "select",
      "label": "Decision",
      "options": "approve,reject,revise"
    },
    {
      "name": "feedback",
      "type": "text",
      "label": "Feedback"
    },
    {
      "name": "priority",
      "type": "number",
      "label": "Priority (1-5)"
    }
  ],
  "human_channel_id": "slack-channel-id",
  "human_timeout_seconds": 86400,
  "input_keys": ["draft"],
  "next_step_id": "step-process-feedback"
}

Field types

Type	Description
text	Free-form text input
number	Numeric input
email	Email address with validation
date	Date picker
phone	Phone number input
select	Dropdown — list options in the options field as comma-separated values

Messaging notification

Set human_channel_id to notify a messaging channel (Slack, Discord, Telegram, Teams, WhatsApp) when the gate is reached. The channel receives the prompt and a link to respond. The human can reply in the channel or in the UI.

human_timeout_seconds defaults to 3600 (1 hour). If the timeout expires and no response is received, the orchestration transitions to failed.

Responding via the UI

When an orchestration is paused:

1. The orchestration card shows a "Waiting for input" badge
2. Click on it to see the human prompt and fill in the form
3. Click Submit to resume

Using human responses in subsequent steps

After the human gate, the submitted fields are available in shared state. Reference them with if_else or switch:

{
  "id": "step-check-decision",
  "type": "if_else",
  "if_condition": "state.get('decision') == 'approve'",
  "if_true_step_id": "step-publish",
  "if_false_step_id": "step-revise"
}

Multiple human gates

A single orchestration can have multiple human gates. Each pause creates a checkpoint — the run_id is stable across resumes and can be stored for later retrieval.