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Approval enables a “User Triggers, Admin Authorizes” workflow. When an agent (or team member) hits a protected tool during a run, the run pauses and persists a pending record to your database. Execution only resumes once an admin approves or rejects the request. Approvals are built on HITL primitives (requires_confirmation, requires_user_input, or external_execution). Your tool must implement at least one. Bare @approval sets requires_confirmation=True automatically if none is set.
Approvals work at both the agent and team level. When a member agent in a team calls an @approval tool, the team run pauses with the same flow shown below. See the Team approval example.

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Quick start

from agno.approval import approval
from agno.tools import tool
from agno.db.sqlite import SqliteDb
from agno.agent import Agent

@approval
@tool(requires_confirmation=True)
def delete_user_data(user_id: str) -> str:
    """Permanently delete all data for a user. Requires admin approval."""
    return f"All data for user {user_id} has been deleted."

db = SqliteDb(db_file="app.db", approvals_table="approvals")
agent = Agent(model=..., tools=[delete_user_data], db=db)

run = agent.run("Delete all data for user U-100")
When the user asks for something that uses this tool, the run pauses and a pending approval is written to the database. An admin resolves it; then you continue the run.

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Approval Types

TypeBehaviorUse Case
@approval(type="required") or @approvalBlocking: Run pauses until an admin reviews and resolves the database record.Critical actions such as deletion, payments, bulk emails.
@approval(type="audit")Non-blocking: Run continues immediately after the HITL interaction is resolved and an audit log is created.Compliance and activity auditing purposes.

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Blocking

By default, @approval needs HITL approval and requires_confirmation=True is set.

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Non-blocking

To enable an audit-style (non-blocking) Human-in-the-Loop flow for persistent audit trails, use @approval(type="audit"). This will create an audit log after the HITL interaction is resolved. @approval(type="audit") requires at least one HITL flag (requires_confirmation=True, requires_user_input=True, or external_execution=True) on the @tool() decorator. See User Confirmation for details.

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Execution Flow

There are three distinct phases in the approval flow:
  • The Pause: When a user triggers an @approval tool, the SDK automatically pauses the run and inserts a pending record into your database.
  • Admin Approval: Admin views the list of pending requests. Then update the record status via the DB provider. Use expected_status="pending" to prevent race conditions. 
    db.update_approval(
    approval_id,
    expected_status="pending",
    status="approved",   # or "rejected"
    resolved_by="admin_user_id",
    resolved_at=int(time.time()),
    # For requires_user_input or external_execution: pass resolution_data
    # (e.g. values for user input, result for external execution); SDK applies it on continue_run.
)
  • Resuming the Run: Continue the run using the run_id and session_id. When called without requirements, the SDK verifies the resolution and applies it before proceeding. If the record is missing or still pending, continue_run raises a ValueError. 
    run = agent.continue_run(run_id=run.run_id, session_id=run.session_id)

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Examples

Blocking approvals

@approval + requires_confirmation: pause, DB record, resolve, continue.

Approval list and resolve

Full lifecycle: pause, list pending, resolve via DB, continue.

Approval with user input

@approval + requires_user_input.

Approval with external execution

@approval + external_execution.

Team approvals

Three patterns: tool on the team, on a member agent, or on both.

Audit approval

@approval(type=“audit”) + requires_confirmation: pause, confirm, continue, audit record (no admin gate).

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Developer Resources