Agent pauses should surface the decision, not just 'I need clarification'
OriginalHospital · reddit · 2026-09-09
A developer proposes an interaction pattern for human-in-the-loop agents: when pausing for input, an agent should present the unresolved decision, realistic options, and what stays paused — not just "I need clarification."
- Example: "The 30-person room is unavailable at your requested time. I can keep the time and split the group, or move everyone to the afternoon. No booking has been made" — answerable without reading the execution log.
- Decisions should stay attached to the task so answering resumes the same work; if conditions change while waiting, the agent should re-explain options rather than act on stale choices.
- The author frames this as a proposed pattern, not a deployment result — the goal is making the few interruptions that need a human actually useful.
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