Comparison
Escape hatchvsHuman in the loop
Escape hatch
the automation was doing the wrong thing at 2am and there was no supported way to turn it off.
A supported way to bypass the system when the system is wrong. Every automation needs one, because automation fails in ways its authors did not model, and the alternative is somebody editing the database by hand during an incident. Designing it deliberately — audited, obvious, documented in the runbook — is the difference between a controlled override and an unrecorded one.
Full entry →Human in the loop
you make the run stop and wait for someone to approve before it sends the email, writes to the database, or spends the money.
Checkpoints where a person reviews or approves before the agent proceeds, standard for irreversible or high-stakes actions: sending messages, spending money, deleting data. The autonomy dial, not an on-off switch.
Full entry →