Human-in-the-Loop Design

Right checkpoints

Approving every step makes people click "yes" without reading. Approving nothing is risky. Put human checkpoints at irreversible or external actions, when confidence is low or the goal is ambiguous, and at the end for important outputs. Make review easy: show the proposed action, the reason and a one-click edit or reject.

Track approval rates

If people approve 99% of a prompt unchanged, it may be safe to automate or narrow. If they often reject it, fix the tool or prompt behind it. The data tells you where review is earning its keep.

Quick check: Why not require approval for every single step?

• Approvals are illegal
• People start approving without reading
• Agents cannot be paused
• It makes tools faster