Wait for Approval

Pauses the run until a human approves or rejects, then routes the input (plus the decision) out the matching port.

Finding it in the library

Search the builder's node library for Wait for Approval (it lives under Logic). A single click opens the in-editor docs panel shown here — description, ports, and every property, without leaving the canvas. Double-click (or drag) to add it to the workflow.

Library capture pending — regenerate with npm run shots:nodes.

Wired up in the builder

Wait for Approval in a real, runnable flow — captured live from the Studio editor, exactly as it looks on your canvas. This is the same workflow used for the example input & output below.

Canvas capture pending — regenerate with npm run shots:nodes.

How it’s configured

The node’s Configure panel as it opens in the builder when you select the step — every setting laid out with real values. Click any field to edit it.

Config capture pending — regenerate with npm run shots:nodes. See the full property reference below.

Ports

Ports are the node’s contract with its neighbours. In the editor a port label renders bold when wired and italic when optional; ◈ ports accept attachment carriers rather than data wires.

How data flows through it

Wait for Approval consumes the content of the incoming envelope — when it is fed directly by a trigger, the trigger’s wrapper is unwrapped at the node boundary so the node sees the actual data, not the metadata shell. Its output becomes the payload for the next node, while the envelope (trace ids, correlation, binary refs) rides along untouched. In the Runs view you always see the whole envelope for both sides of this node.

Expressions in the config

String-typed properties accept {{ }} expressions evaluated against the incoming item at run time — e.g. {{ $json.customer.email }}. On this node that’s title, description. JSON- and code-typed fields never interpolate — they are passed through literally.

Build it with AI

Every node in this reference is reachable through Flowdrome’s AI Copilot and the MCP tools — say what you want, and the graph surgery happens server-side. Node types resolve fuzzily, so the catalog label (Wait for Approval) works as well as the exact type id (logic.approval).

In the Copilot panel (or any connected AI):

add a wait for approval node after the trigger

As a step in a create_chain_workflow call:

{"type":"Wait for Approval","config":{}}

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:48170/mcp -H "content-type: application/json" -d '{ "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": "1", "method": "tools/call", "params": { "name": "add_node", "arguments": { "workflowId": "<id>", "type": "Wait for Approval" } } }'

Example input & output

Captured from a real test run of the workflow above — this is what you see in the run data panel after pressing Test workflow.

This example run parked at the gate and was approved via the approvals API — the output rides the approval decision on the envelope.

On this run the node emitted on port approved.

{
  "kind": "json",
  "contentType": "application/json",
  "payload": {
    "req": 1
  },
  "body": {
    "req": 1
  }
}

{
  "kind": "json",
  "contentType": "application/json",
  "payload": {
    "req": 1
  },
  "body": {
    "req": 1
  },
  "approval": {
    "decision": "approved",
    "note": "docs example",
    "decidedBy": "admin",
    "decidedAt": "2026-07-17T04:29:29.2708395+00:00",
    "waitedMs": 166
  }
}

Property reference

Every setting, with its type and default — the same fields shown configured in the panel above.

Using it

Gate an order behind a human decision (the shipped demo)

The capture at the top of this page is the pattern: data arrives, parks at the gate, and the run continues on approved or rejected — two separate wires, so the two outcomes are two visibly different paths on the canvas. In the shipped Approval Gate demo those wires end in HTTP Response nodes answering the original webhook caller with 202 or 403.

Configure it entirely from the properties panel:

1. Set Title and Description — these are shown verbatim on the approval card. Write them for the person deciding (“Approve order ORD-2041 — $1,840.50, 3 items?”), not for the developer.
2. Leave Timeout at 0 to wait indefinitely, or set a deadline.
3. Pick what a timeout means: On timeout = approve, reject, or error.

Auto-approve quiet hours

A timeout of one hour with On timeout = approve means: if nobody objects within the hour, the run proceeds. Choosing error instead routes expiry into the workflow’s recovery lane.

Tips

• Where decisions happen: the fleet-wide inbox in the Nucleus header (every pending gate on every authorized host), the host dashboard’s pending-approvals panel, or inline in Studio for test runs. The decider’s name and optional note are recorded.
• In a Studio test run the canvas pauses at the gate and an Approve/Reject panel appears right in the editor — the approvals guide shows the full loop with screenshots.
• Deciding requires the executor role; viewers see the inbox read-only.
• Pending gates live in the app’s process and don’t survive an app restart — see the approvals guide.

Related nodes

The rest of the Logic group — the same folder you’d scan in the editor’s library.

• Filter / Condition Evaluates a condition against input and returns the pass/fail decision.
• IF Routes input to a true or false output based on a typed condition.
• Switch Routes input to one or more named outputs based on ordered conditions.
• Merge Combine the items of multiple inputs — append, combine by matching fields / position / all combinations, or ch
• Rate Limit Multi-tenant rate limiting: identifies the caller by a tenant GUID header, enforces per-second/minute/hour/day
• Loop Over Items Iterate a list: run the inside body once per batch of items, then emit everything on done.
• Thread Pool Queue-fed concurrency frame: consume from the input queue, run the inside body on a pool of threads, publish e
• Wait Pauses the flow for a duration or until a timestamp, then passes the input through unchanged

This page is generated from the node registry by gen-node-docs.mjs on every site build — ports, properties, defaults and visibility rules cannot drift from the code. The screenshots and example data are captured from a live Flowdrome by npm run shots:nodes and npm run gen:examples. The hand-authored notes above are merged in.