Human Input

Lesson 9 of 10 · 3 minutes

Some steps need a person: a decision, or a review before the run goes on. action: human.task pauses the run and asks for it in a form. The run shows Waiting until someone completes the task.

Watch it run

tutorial-09-human-inputSucceeded3.9s / 3.9s

Select a step to see its log

deployrunSucceeded · 35ms

Deploying 1.4.0 to production

In this recording, the person picked production, so deploy printed Deploying 1.4.0 to production.

The workflow

Create a workflow named tutorial-09-human-input and paste this YAML into it (how).

# Dagu tutorial, lesson 9: https://docs.dagu.sh/tutorial/human-input

steps:
  - id: build
    run: echo "Built release 1.4.0"

  - id: choose_target
    action: human.task
    with:
      prompt: Check the build, then choose where release 1.4.0 goes
      form:
        type: object
        properties:
          environment:
            type: string
            enum: [staging, production]
        required: [environment]
    depends: build

  - id: deploy
    run: echo "Deploying 1.4.0 to ${steps.choose_target.outputs.environment}"
    depends: choose_target

prompt is the text the person sees. Human tasks are also how a person reviews work before a run continues: put the review instructions in the prompt.

form describes the fields as a JSON schema; here environment must be staging or production. Every form field becomes an output of the task, so ${steps.choose_target.outputs.environment} reads the answer. deploy depends on choose_target.

Run it yourself

1. Select Start at the top right, then select Start in the dialog. build runs, then the run shows Waiting.
2. Select Open actions on the canvas, or open Activity → Actions.
3. Pick an environment and select Complete task.
4. deploy runs and prints the environment you picked.

A waiting run holds no process or worker slot, so it can wait as long as the person needs.

Try it

1. Start a run and leave it Waiting. Stop dagu start-all with Ctrl+C, start it again, and open the run. What state is it in?
2. Add a boolean form field notify with default true and print it in deploy.

Answers

1. It is still Waiting. Complete the task and the run continues.
2. Add notify under properties and reference it in deploy:

steps:
  - id: build
    run: echo "Built release 1.4.0"

  - id: choose_target
    action: human.task
    with:
      prompt: Check the build, then choose where release 1.4.0 goes
      form:
        type: object
        properties:
          environment:
            type: string
            enum: [staging, production]
          notify:
            type: boolean
            default: true
        required: [environment]
    depends: build

  - id: deploy
    run: echo "Deploying 1.4.0 to ${steps.choose_target.outputs.environment}, notify=${steps.choose_target.outputs.notify}"
    depends: choose_target

Go deeper: Human tasks →