# Human-in-the-loop tasks (Preview)

> Human-in-the-loop tasks that suspend automations for human approval, enrichment, or exception handling in Action Center across UiPath process surfaces.

A human-in-the-loop (HITL) step suspends an automation and presents a task to a human reviewer in Action Center. When the reviewer submits the task, the automation continues on the chosen outcome.

HITL steps work across all UiPath process surfaces: **Maestro BPMN**, **Case Management**, **Flow**, and **Agents**.

## Quick Form tasks

Quick Form tasks are the fastest way to add a human step. You define the form inline in the process node — no app to build, no deployment, no additional cost. The schema is packaged with the process and versioned alongside it.

The form editor supports:

- **Input fields** — read-only context shown to the reviewer, pre-populated from workflow variables or expressions.
- **Output fields** — values the reviewer fills in, written back to the process on submission.
- **InOut fields** — pre-filled values the reviewer can read and edit.
- **Multiple outcomes** — labeled actions (such as **Approve** and **Reject**) that route the process to different branches.

After the reviewer submits, output and inOut values are available downstream in the process. For example, if the node ID is `quickForm1` and the field ID is `approvalNote`, the value is at `vars.quickForm1.output.approvalNote`.

For the full Quick Form reference — field types, multi-column layout, conditional rules, and inline debug — see [Quick Form tasks](https://docs.uipath.com/action-center/automation-cloud/latest/user-guide/quick-form-tasks).

## The skill behind it

This work is powered by the `uipath-human-in-the-loop` skill, which recognizes approval patterns in your description, designs the task schema through conversation, and wires the HITL node into your automation. You can see it in the [Skills catalog](skills-catalog.md).

The skill handles the full node configuration: binding workflow variables to input fields, declaring output fields and the variables they write to, and wiring the node's outcome ports to downstream branches.

## When to add a human step

The coding agent can recognize human-review patterns from a description and suggest inserting a HITL step before you ask for one. Common patterns include:

- **Approval gates** — invoice approval, offer letter sign-off, compliance review.
- **Exception escalation** — an agent is uncertain; a human decides.
- **Write-back validation** — a human reviews AI-generated output before it is posted to a production system.
- **Data enrichment** — a human fills in fields the automation could not resolve.

## A typical starting prompt

"Add an approval step after the risk score is calculated. The reviewer should see the vendor name, risk tier, and confidence score, and can either approve or reject with a reason."

The agent will propose a schema — which fields go in, which come out, what the outcomes are — and confirm before writing anything.

## More prompts to try

- "Add a human review before the agent's drafted reply is sent to the customer."
- "Insert an exception handling step: if Intelligent Document Processing (IXP) confidence is below 80%, route to a human for correction."
- "Add a four-eyes check before the payment record is updated in SAP."
- "Wire the approval outcome to different branches: approved goes to the posting step, rejected goes to the notification step."

## Go deeper

- [Quick Form tasks](https://docs.uipath.com/action-center/automation-cloud/latest/user-guide/quick-form-tasks) — full form editor reference, field directions, inline debug.
- [Skills catalog](skills-catalog.md) — all available skills, including `uipath-human-in-the-loop`.
- [Maestro Flows](build-maestro-flows.md) — building the orchestration layer that HITL steps live inside.