Agent workflows become safer when approval gates are designed as part of the graph, not added as an afterthought. Any action involving customers, money, data integrity, compliance, or external side effects should have an explicit review path.
Useful gates are specific. They check the action type, user role, data sensitivity, confidence, policy fit, tool permissions, and whether the agent can explain the evidence behind the recommendation.
The human-in-the-loop design should also define what happens after approval, rejection, timeout, or escalation. That is where an agent workflow becomes operational software instead of a brittle automation demo.