Human in the loop

What it is

Human in the loop describes a workflow stage that's gated on a person's decision rather than an automated check. A task can require a specific person's approval before it merges, or before it moves to the next stage at all, so the agent's work waits on a human sign-off instead of shipping straight through. Which stage carries that gate, and who's allowed to clear it, is a choice a workspace makes on purpose. It is never a fixed default, the same for every task.

Why it matters to you

This is the answer to "but what if the agent gets it wrong?" A workflow with no human checkpoint ships whatever the last agent produced. A workflow with a real approval gate means a person looks at the actual diff, the actual reasoning, before it goes anywhere, which matters most for the work you'd least want to find out about after the fact. For a founder without an engineering background, this is also the point where a human's own judgment decides whether something is ready, with no agent's call standing in for it.

How it works in CodeHerder

CodeHerder's approval gates are enforced server-side: a task can require a named person or role to approve before it advances, and that requirement can't be skipped by an agent moving fast, or by an impatient teammate clicking through it. What's shipped today, including per-stage required fields and checklist gates, is laid out on the verification page, and how approvals work day to day, including who gets notified and what they're shown, is in the approvals doc.

• Verification →
• Approvals →

What people get wrong

"Human in the loop" sounds like it means a person has to babysit every keystroke an agent makes. It doesn't. It means a person is required at specific, chosen checkpoints, so most of the work still runs unattended and only the decisions you actually care about wait on a human. Put the gate in the wrong place, though, like requiring approval on a stage nobody reads carefully, and it becomes exactly the rubber stamp it was meant to prevent.