airflow-hitl
Human approval gates, form inputs, and branching in Airflow DAGs using deferrable operators.
- Four operator types:
ApprovalOperatorfor approve/reject decisions,HITLOperatorfor multi-option selection with forms,HITLBranchOperatorfor human-driven task routing, andHITLEntryOperatorfor form data collection - All operators are deferrable, releasing worker slots while awaiting human response via Airflow UI's Required Actions tab or REST API
- Supports optional features including custom notifiers, respondent restrictions by auth manager type, timeout defaults, markdown-templated body text, and standard Airflow callbacks
- Requires Airflow 3.1+; not compatible with Airflow 2.x
Airflow Human-in-the-Loop Operators
Pause a DAG until a human responds via the Airflow UI or REST API. HITL operators are deferrable — they release their worker slot while waiting.
Requires Airflow 3.1+ (
af config version).UI location: Browse → Required Actions. Respond from the task instance page's Required Actions tab.
Cross-references:
airflow-aifor AI/LLM task decorators;airflowfor registry and API discovery commands used below.
Step 1 — Pick the capability you need
| Capability | Class (verify in Step 2) |
|---|---|
| Approve or reject; downstream skips on reject | ApprovalOperator |
| Present N options and return which were chosen | HITLOperator |
| Branch to one or more downstream tasks based on a choice | HITLBranchOperator |
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