# Best human approval and handoff for AI agents (slim)

> Temporal (BB), Trigger.dev (BB) and Restate (BB) lead the 10 ranked human approval and handoff. Picks by need, strengths, weaknesses and prices from the Anchor benchmark.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/human-in-the-loop/index.md (~5,550 tokens) · this version ~1,430 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/human-in-the-loop/index.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/human-in-the-loop/
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

All 10 ranked human approval and handoff on the Anchor benchmark, with a pick for each need and where each one falls short. Scores come from public evidence, re-checked as vendors change.

- Ranked: 10 · agent-ready (BB or better): 3 · accept x402: 0 · hosted endpoints: 8
- Full ranked table: https://www.anchorterminal.com/categories/human-in-the-loop.md
- Head-to-head comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/human-in-the-loop/index.md (45)
- Methodology: https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/index.md

## The shortlist

| # | Tool | Grade | Score | Best for | Price | Where |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/temporal.md) | BB | 77.2 | A team that already runs, or wants to run, agents as durable workflows with strict guarantees and an audit trail per run. | $0.05 / 1k calls | local |
| 2 | [Trigger.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/trigger-dev.md) | BB | 74.7 | A TypeScript team that wants an approval pause inside background jobs or AI chat agents, with the reviewer UI built in their own app. | Freemium | hosted and local |
| 3 | [Restate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/restate.md) | BB | 73.3 | A team that already writes agent steps as durable handlers and wants a long, cheap wait for a human answer in TypeScript, Python, Java, Go or Rust, with the option to self-host. | $75 / mo | local |
| 4 | [Hatchet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hatchet.md) | B | 68.3 | It suits a team already running background jobs or agent loops on Hatchet that wants an approval pause inside the same durable task, in Python, TypeScript, Go or Ruby. | $0.03 / 1k calls | hosted and local |
| 5 | [Inngest](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inngest.md) | B | 66 | A TypeScript, Python or Go team that already runs agent steps as durable functions and wants a cheap, long wait for a human answer. | $99 / mo | hosted |
| 6 | [Permit MCP Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/permit-mcp-gateway.md) | C | 54.1 | A security team that wants approvals and per-user limits on MCP tools across many clients without touching agent code. | Paid | hosted |
| 7 | [Orkes Conductor Human tasks](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orkes-conductor.md) | C | 54 | Teams that already orchestrate agents as Conductor workflows and need formal routing, per-assignee deadlines and escalation without writing them. | Paid | hosted and local |
| 8 | [withHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/withhuman.md) | D | 51.8 | Teams that want tool calls from coding agents or their own agents held for approval by rules, with escalation and an audit log, and no review UI to build. | $20 / seat-mo | hosted |
| 9 | [Pushary](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pushary.md) | D | 51.4 | One developer running coding agents unattended who wants questions and approvals on a phone. | $9.99 / mo | hosted |
| 10 | [gotoHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gotohuman.md) | E | 43.6 | A team that wants a ready reviewer inbox where people edit AI output before it ships, without building a UI. | $99 / mo | hosted and local |

## Picks by need

- Highest score overall: [Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/temporal.md), BB, 77.2/100 on the benchmark. Also [Trigger.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/trigger-dev.md), BB, 74.7/100.
- Reliability: [Restate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/restate.md), 91/100 on reliability, against 85 for the overall leader.
- Maintenance & community: [Restate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/restate.md), 92/100 on maintenance & community, against 90 for the overall leader.
- Transparency & trust: [Trigger.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/trigger-dev.md), 73/100 on transparency & trust, against 70 for the overall leader.
- Lowest paid price per 1,000 calls: [Hatchet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hatchet.md), $0.005 per 1,000 calls, the lowest of the 4 listings here with a paid price in this unit (free allowances aside). Also [Restate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/restate.md), $0.025 per 1,000 calls.
- A hosted MCP endpoint: [Inngest](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inngest.md), remote MCP server, nothing to install.

## How to choose

- Channels the approver can reach: Check which channels, such as chat, email or a web inbox, the approver can answer from, since an approval the person cannot reach in time stalls the whole run.
- Timeout behaviour on no answer: Check what happens when nobody answers, whether the request times out, escalates or is denied by default, because a silent default can approve an action nobody saw.
- How the answer reaches the agent: Check how a decision returns to the agent and whether it resumes with the same state, since an answer arriving after a restart can be lost or applied twice.
- What each decision logs: Check what each decision logs, including who was asked, what they saw and any timeout, and whether the log can be exported.

- How the benchmark tests this category: An agent asks for approval of a risky action over two channels and gets one approval, one rejection and one timeout. We check the routing, what the approver sees, how the answer reaches the agent and what is logged.

Each listing's verdict, strengths and weaknesses: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/human-in-the-loop/index.md