Human in the Loop

A design in which a human reviews, approves or corrects an agent's actions at defined checkpoints rather than letting it run fully autonomously.

As agents gain the power to transact on the agentic web, human-in-the-loop checkpoints are the practical control that keeps delegated autonomy safe.

term
Human in the Loop
category
core
short_def
A design in which a human reviews, approves or corrects an agent's actions at defined checkpoints rather than letting it run fully autonomously.
long_def
Human-in-the-loop (HITL) inserts a person into the agent's decision cycle — to confirm a high-stakes action (a payment, a delete), label an ambiguous case, or catch an error before it propagates. It trades some autonomy for safety and accountability, and is common where mistakes are costly.
see_also
delegation ai-agent agent-as-buyer
etymology_origin
— verify-against-primary-at-build ↗ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-in-the-loop — established in control systems and ML long before LLM agents
related_to
delegation ai-agent agentic-commerce
contrast_with
Unlike a fully autonomous agent that acts without asking, a human-in-the-loop agent pauses at defined checkpoints for a person to approve or reject.
example
An agent authorized to spend money might draft the purchase and require a human's one-click confirmation before the payment is actually sent.
source
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-in-the-loop
status
active
why_it_matters
As agents gain the power to transact on the agentic web, human-in-the-loop checkpoints are the practical control that keeps delegated autonomy safe.
sameAs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-in-the-loop
bridge_entity
delegation
last_verified
2026-07-06
md_twin
/glossary/human-in-the-loop.md

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