Request approval to keep your workflow running with Human in the Loop

Written by Owner

Updated at August 20th, 2025

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Table of Contents

Pre-requisites 1. Add a Human in the Loop action 2. Configure your Request Approval action Action configuration section Notification section Email Slack Trigger a Zap Reviewer section 3. Test your step Additional info Limitations Next steps

Human in the Loop is a built-in tool that lets you pause a Zap at a certain step so a human can review before your workflow continues. Its Request Approval action pauses your Zap run and requests one or more reviewers to approve, decline, or change data you submit for review before continuing the Zap. You can send review notifications to your email, Slack account, or to another Zap so you can receive notifications via any other app available on Zapier.

Available on plans:

Free

Professional

Team

Enterprise

Pre-requisites

A paid Zapier account. Human in the Loop is a premium app on Zapier.
You must share this Zap with your designated reviewers so they have access to this Zap.
The Trigger a Zap notification method requires a second Zap that uses the Human in the Loop New Approval Requested trigger.

1. Add a Human in the Loop action

Start by adding a Request Approval action to your Zap.

In the Zap outline, select the Action step or click the plus sign + to add a new action. A dialog box will open.
In the search box, search for and select Human in the Loop. The right sidebar will open to the Setup tab.
Click the Action event field to open the dropdown menu.
Select Request Approval.
Click Continue. This will open the Configure tab.

2. Configure your Request Approval action

Action configuration section

In this section, you can define what content you want approved.

In the Approval request message field, enter a message to explain your request to the reviewer.
The Content to review field lets you send specific data to reviewers. There are two columns:
- In the first column, enter a name for the content field.
- In the second column, enter a value or map a field from a previous step.
- (Optional) Click + Add value set and repeat the process for each additional input field you want to add.
In the Approve button label field, enter a label that reviewers will see during review.
- The default label is “Approve”.
In the Decline button label field, enter a label that reviewers will see during review.
- The default label is “Decline”.
In the Action if reviewer declines field, click the dropdown menu to expand it, then select an option:
- Continue run: if the reviewer declines, the Zap will continue running.
- Stop run: if the reviewer declines, the Zap will stop running.
In the Let Reviewer edit content? field:
- Select Yes to let a reviewer edit the content in an approval request.
- Select No to make the content of an approval request read-only.

Note

Approval and decline labels:

Can have a maximum of 75 characters.
May be cut off by an ellipsis if the name is long.

Action configuration fields displayed in the Request Approval action

You can map fields from your Request Approval action configuration section to later steps in your Zap.

Your Content to review fields will appear as “Content to be reviewed {field name}”, where “{field name}” is the name of the fields you created in the Content to review field.
- For example, if you have a field called "Timestamp", it will appear as "Submitted Content Timestamp" when you map it.
- If the reviewer edits the data, it will appear as new fields called “Edited Content {field name}”, where “{field name}” is the original name of your content fields.
By default, the Request Approval action will include an optional Additional notes field.
- Reviewers can add notes using this field.
- In the results of the Zap step, this will appear as the field “Reviewer Note”.

Notification section

In this section, you can define how your reviewer is notified of a data collection request.

Click the arrow icon to expand the Notification section.
In the Send to field, click to open the dropdown menu, then select an option:
- Email.
- Slack.
- Trigger a Zap.
Additional fields specific to each option will appear.

Email Slack Trigger a Zap

Email

In the Email recipients field, enter an email address.
- This is the email address that Human in the Loop will send the notification to.
- Each time you finish entering an email address, a new input box will appear. Use it to add more recipients, if needed.
In the Send Preview field, you will see the email address associated with your Zapier account.
- Click Send a preview to send a preview email to yourself.
- You cannot change this value.

Email notification fields displayed in the Collect Data action

Slack

In the Account field, select a Slack app connection or connect a new Slack account.
In the Message Type dropdown menu, select either:
- Channel: notify a specific Slack channel. The Channel field will appear.
  - Click to open the dropdown menu.
  - Select a Slack channel.
- User: notify a specific Slack user. The Slack recipient field will appear.
  - Click to open the dropdown menu.
  - Select a Slack user.
- Each time you finish entering a channel or user, a new input box will appear. Use it to add more, if needed.

Slack notification configuration fields displayed in the Collect Data action

Trigger a Zap

If you want to trigger another app for notification, you can use the Trigger a Zap option. You must first create that second Zap, then complete its trigger app and event setup and configure the trigger step. Once that’s done, return to your Request approval step and:

Click the Triggered Zap field to open the dropdown menu.
Select a Zap that uses the New Approval Requested trigger.
(Optional) In the Additional data field, there will be new fields corresponding to the Input fields fields in your second Zap that triggers from this action step. Each has two columns:
- The first column is the name of the field. It corresponds with the values in the Input fields fields in your second Zap that triggers from this action step.
- In the second column, enter a value.
- This is the data this first Zap will send when it triggers the second Zap. This becomes a field that you can map to later steps in the second Zap.
(Optional) Click + Add Triggered Zap to add more Zaps that will trigger when this action step runs.

Trigger a Zap notification configuration fields displayed in the Collect Data action

Tip

When you use the Trigger a Zap notification option:

Include enough information about the Zap run, like the Zap URL, so reviewers can easily find the right notification to review.
You can pair the trigger with any app on Zapier to receive the notification. Some examples of how to collect notifications:
- In a table using Zapier Tables. Create a new row with each new notification. Users can review one or more notifications at their own pace.
- In a project management tool like Jira. Users can triage tickets during their existing development processes.
- In a customer relationship management app like HubSpot. Users can review from within a customer’s deal.

Reviewer section

In this section, select who will review the Zap run and what to do if the reviewer does not respond in time.

Click the arrow icon to expand the Reviewer section.
In the Reviewers field, click to open the dropdown menu.
Select a Zapier user from your account.
- Each time you finish selecting a user, a new input box will appear so you can add more reviewers, if needed. Only one user can complete a review.
In the On timeout field, click to open the dropdown menu and select an option:
- Skip and continue: if the user does not review in time, the Zap will continue running without a response.
- End run: if the user does not review in time, the Zap will stop running.
In the Timeout value field, enter a number.
- This is the numerical value for how long the Zap will pause at the Human in the Loop step while waiting for the reviewer to take action.
- The minimum value is 1.
In the Timeout unit field, click to open the dropdown menu, then select an option.
- Minutes.
- Hours.
- Days.
- Weeks.
- This is the unit of time for how long the Zap will pause at the Human in the Loop step while waiting for the reviewer to take action.
In the Send reminder field, select either:
- Yes. Two more fields will appear.
- No.
If you selected Yes:
- In the Reminder Value field, enter a number.
  - This is the numerical value for how long the step will wait to send a reminder after the initial notification.
- In the Reminder Time Unit field, click to open the dropdown menu, then select an option:
  - Minutes.
  - Hours.
  - Days.
  - Weeks.
  - This is the unit of time for how long the step will wait to send a reminder after the initial notification.
Click Continue. This will open the Test tab.

3. Test your step

Click Test step.

Testing this step will not send a notification to reviewers. It will create sample fields and values that you can review and map to later steps in your Zap. If you want a preview notification, use the send preview feature in the Configure tab to send yourself an example notification. If you prefer a live test with real data, you can test the run end to end instead.

Additional info

Only successful Human in the Loop actions will count toward your task usage.
- Previews and notifications sent by the action do not count as separate tasks.
A Human in the Loop action can be the last step in a Zap, but Zapier recommends adding action steps afterwards to use its data.
You can trigger the same Zap from multiple Human in the Loop actions. They will have the same fields in the Additional data field in the action step as well as in the Input fields field in the trigger step.
Human in the Loop actions may display step run statuses specific to the review process.
You can review Human in the Loop activities in the audit log.
You can use Paths to set up an alternative workflow if a reviewer skips a request.

Limitations

Reviewers must have a Zapier account.
You must share this Zap with your designated reviewers so they have access to this Zap.
If you're on a Pro account, you can only send requests to yourself.
If you’re in a Team or Enterprise account, while you can send a notification to any email address, the reviewer(s) must be logged in as one of the Zapier users you select in the Notification section.
You cannot add a Human in the Loop action within or after a Looping step.

Next steps

Once the Zap is published, when a Request Approval action runs, the reviewers you select will receive a request notification. It will include a link to the step that needs review. They must log into their Zapier account to review the request.

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