Architecture & Patterns: Human-in-the-Loop Systems

Production Patterns

Architecture View

graph LR
  A[Agent output] --> B[Confidence gate]
  B --> C[Auto-approve]
  B --> D[Review queue]
  D --> E[Human action]
  E --> F[Resume workflow]

Common Failure Modes

Common Failure Modes

• Routing too aggressively to human review.
• Dropping queue state between process restarts.
• Missing metadata in audit logs.

Interview Q&A

Q: Interview Q: How do you choose review thresholds in a new system?

Start with conservative risk-based defaults, then tune using observed review outcomes and business impact metrics.

Q: Interview Q: What makes an audit trail actually useful?

It must capture original recommendation, final decision, actor, timestamp, and rationale so outcomes are reconstructable.