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An Approval node parks a run until a human answers. It is the workflow way to put a person in the loop — distinct from the runtime autonomy gate that governs an agent’s tool calls.

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How it behaves

  1. The run reaches the node and suspends.
  2. Someone answers it through the Management API: POST /v1/workflows/{workflow_id}/runs/{run_id}/approval with {"approved": true} or {"approved": false}. An optional comment and data ride along.
  3. The run resumes.
There is no timeout. The node waits indefinitely. Nothing auto-approves, nothing auto-rejects, and no reminder is sent.
Design for that. A workflow with an Approval node that nobody watches will sit suspended forever, holding whatever it was doing.

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Two different things can park a run

Do not confuse the authored Approval node with an autonomy gate raised by a capability call inside the run. They are separate mechanisms and are answered in different places. GET /v1/workflow-runs/{run_id}/gates/pending lists the second kind. Workflow gates have no thread, so they are addressed by run rather than by thread.

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Who can answer an autonomy gate on a run

An agent cannot approve its own run’s gate. That is enforced in the resolve transaction, not just in the UI.

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Only two answers

Approve and deny. The broadening answers available in agent chat — “allow for this thread”, “allow always” — are rejected on a workflow run, because there is no thread and no user to broaden over.

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Why a workflow step does not raise its own approval

Workflow steps are allowed inside the autonomy policy stage without consulting level or allowlists, precisely because a workflow is an authored plan — human review belongs in the graph. The hardline floor and the account denylist still apply.

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Designing with it

  • Put the Approval node before the irreversible step, not after.
  • Label the node for the decision it asks for. “Approve?” tells whoever inherits the graph nothing.
  • A denial ends the run as failed; there is no deny branch to route down. If a rejection needs its own handling, model it before the Approval node.
  • If the decision needs to time out, model it explicitly with a parallel path, since the node itself will not.

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