The Human Is an Async API — Melanie Warrick, Temporal
Temporal enables human-in-the-loop approval flows in multi-agent systems without crashing the workflow
“sometimes we need to bring a human into the process”
Melanie Warrick demos a multi-agent ice cream delivery system integrating Google's ADK with Temporal, showing how durable workflow orchestration handles human approval steps without halting the broader system. The core insight is framing the human as an asynchronous API endpoint—one agent suspends waiting for human input while all others continue processing. This pattern addresses a real production pain point in agentic architectures where mid-flight state changes or approvals otherwise destabilize running workflows.