Human-in-the-Loop (HITL)

Sire is built for high-stakes automation. Some tasks---like sending a large payment, deleting a production database, or publishing a public blog post---should never happen without a human "sanity check."

That's why we built Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) directly into the Sire engine.

How HITL Works

A workflow can be configured to suspend its execution at any step. When this happens:

1. Engine Pause: Sire stops the execution and persists the current state to the database.
2. Notification: An email or Slack notification is sent to the designated approver.
3. Review Mode: The workflow in Mission Control changes its status to Suspended.

Designing for Approvals

You can add HITL to your workflows in two ways:

1. Manual Step Configuration

In the Editor, you can click any step and toggle the "Requires Approval" switch. This step will always pause until a user clicks "Approve."

2. Logic-Based Suspension

You can use the sire:local/logic.if or sire:local/logic.switch tools to only trigger an approval if certain conditions are met.

• Example: If the total_amount is greater than $1,000, branch to a "Suspend" step.

The Approval Interface

When you click on a suspended step, Mission Control provides everything you need to make a decision:

• Input Review: See the exact data that was passed into the step.
• Upstream Context: Review the outputs of all previous steps to understand why the workflow reached this point.
• Action Buttons:
  • Approve: Resume the workflow from this step.
  • Reject: Terminate the execution and mark it as failed.
  • Request Info (Optional): Add a comment that will be logged with the execution history.

Benefits of HITL

1. Safety First

Reduce the risk of "runaway automation." You can automate 90% of a process and still keep the critical 10% under human control.

2. Compliance and Auditing

Every approval (and rejection) is logged with the user's ID and timestamp. This creates a perfect audit trail for internal or external compliance requirements.

3. Iterative Feedback

If you see the AI-generated parameters are slightly off during an approval, you can edit them before clicking "Approve," effectively "teaching" the system your preferences.

Best Practices

• Detailed Messages: Always include a descriptive "Approver Message" so your teammates know exactly what they are reviewing.
• Multiple Approvers: In team settings, multiple users can be notified of a suspension to ensure that someone is always available to keep the process moving.
• Timeouts: Configure automatic rejection or escalation if a step remains suspended for too long.