> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.dagraph.app/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Add human approval gates to your dagraph workflows > Pause a dagraph workflow so a human can inspect artifacts, approve or reject the result, then resume execution — with full CLI commands for each step. Not every workflow should run end-to-end without a human checkpoint. You might need a content reviewer to approve a draft before it gets published, a manager to sign off on an automated decision, or a developer to verify a generated migration script before it runs. dagraph provides two node types for human-in-the-loop control: `approval_gate` pauses the run until someone explicitly approves or rejects, and `user_input` pauses to collect a free-form response. This guide covers both. ## The `approval_gate` node An `approval_gate` node pauses the entire run at that point. The workflow writes all upstream artifacts, then exits with status `paused`. No downstream nodes execute until a human approves (or rejects) the gate via the CLI. Here is the complete `approval_flow.yaml` example — an AI drafts an announcement, a human reviews it, and a second agent condenses it into a social post only after approval: ```yaml theme={null} name: draft_with_human_review description: | Generate a short announcement, pause for human approval, then produce a social-media-ready summary once approved. budget: max_tokens: 10000 max_usd: 1.00 nodes: - id: draft type: agent model: claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 max_output_tokens: 600 prompt: | Write a short internal announcement (3–4 sentences) about the launch of a feature called "{{ feature }}". Tone: clear, non-hype. - id: review type: approval_gate depends_on: [draft] timeout_seconds: 86400 # gate expires after 24 hours if not acted on prompt_to_human: | Review the draft announcement above in the artifact store. Inspect it with: agentgraph inspect --node draft Approve with: agentgraph approve review Reject with: agentgraph approve review --reject --comment "why" - id: social_post type: agent model: claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 max_output_tokens: 400 depends_on: [draft, review] # needs both the draft text and the approval record prompt: | The following draft was approved for external publication: {{ draft }} Condense it into a single social-media post (≤280 characters). Keep the key information, drop internal jargon. ``` ## Full approval walkthrough Run the workflow with your input. The DAG executes the `draft` node, then pauses at `review`. ```bash theme={null} agentgraph run approval_flow.yaml --input feature="Dark mode" ``` The CLI prints the run ID and exits, noting the gate is awaiting approval: ``` Run abc123def456 paused — 1 approval gate(s) awaiting human decision. • review since 2026-04-26T10:00:00Z Approve: agentgraph approve abc123def456 review Reject: agentgraph approve abc123def456 review --reject --comment "" Resume: agentgraph run approval_flow.yaml --run-id abc123def456 ``` Read the upstream artifact before deciding: ```bash theme={null} agentgraph inspect abc123def456 --node draft ``` This prints the full text of the `draft` node's output so you can review it before approving. To approve the draft: ```bash theme={null} agentgraph approve abc123def456 review ``` To reject with a reason: ```bash theme={null} agentgraph approve abc123def456 review --reject --comment "needs a stronger CTA" ``` A rejection sets the `review` node to `failed`, which also fails any downstream nodes that depend on it — including `social_post`. The run ends at that point. Fix and re-run with a new run ID to start fresh. Once approved, resume execution from where it paused. dagraph skips all already-completed nodes and picks up at `social_post`: ```bash theme={null} agentgraph run approval_flow.yaml --run-id abc123def456 ``` You can also use the shorthand `resume` command: ```bash theme={null} agentgraph resume approval_flow.yaml abc123def456 ``` ## Approval decision as a template variable When a gate is approved, dagraph writes a JSON artifact to the `review` node containing the decision metadata. Downstream nodes can reference this via `{{ review }}`: ```json theme={null} { "decision": "approve", "approver": "alice", "timestamp": "2026-04-26T10:15:30Z", "comment": "", "awaiting_since": "2026-04-26T10:00:00Z" } ``` Use this in a downstream prompt to include reviewer context: ```yaml theme={null} - id: final_post type: agent depends_on: [draft, review] prompt: | Approved by {{ review | fromjson | attr('approver') }} at {{ review | fromjson | attr('timestamp') }}. Draft: {{ draft }} Produce the final version. ``` ## Gate timeouts Set `timeout_seconds` on any `approval_gate` to automatically fail the gate if it hasn't been acted on within the window. This prevents workflows from sitting paused indefinitely in production: ```yaml theme={null} - id: review type: approval_gate depends_on: [draft] timeout_seconds: 3600 # fail if not approved within 1 hour ``` When the scheduler resumes a run and discovers the gate has expired, it marks the gate as `failed` and the run ends. ## Collecting free-form input with `user_input` Use a `user_input` node when you want to inject a human-provided value into the DAG rather than a binary approve/reject decision. The workflow pauses until someone responds via the CLI. ```yaml theme={null} nodes: - id: ask_audience type: user_input prompt_to_human: "Which target audience should the post address?" input_type: select options: [developers, executives, general-public] timeout_seconds: 7200 - id: write_post type: agent depends_on: [ask_audience] model: claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 prompt: | Write a product announcement for {{ ask_audience }}. ``` `input_type` accepts three values: | Type | Description | | --------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | | `text` | Any string | | `select` | One of the values in `options` | | `confirm` | A yes/no boolean (`yes`, `no`, `true`, `false`, `y`, `n`) | Respond to a paused `user_input` node: ```bash theme={null} # For a select or text node agentgraph respond abc123def456 ask_audience developers # Pass --dag to validate the value against the declared options agentgraph respond abc123def456 ask_audience developers --dag approval_flow.yaml ``` Then resume the run as normal: ```bash theme={null} agentgraph run approval_flow.yaml --run-id abc123def456 ``` Build fan-out/fan-in DAGs that run multiple agents simultaneously. Trigger approval-gated workflows on a schedule or via HTTP webhook.