How to add a human-in-the-loop for tools

There are certain tools that we don't trust a model to execute on its own. One thing we can do in such situations is require human approval before the tool is invoked.

Setup

We'll need to install the following packages:

%pip install --upgrade --quiet langchain

And set these environment variables:

import getpass
import os

# If you'd like to use LangSmith, uncomment the below:
# os.environ["LANGCHAIN_TRACING_V2"] = "true"
# os.environ["LANGCHAIN_API_KEY"] = getpass.getpass()

Chain

Suppose we have the following (dummy) tools and tool-calling chain:

pip install -qU langchain-openai

import getpass
import os

os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"] = getpass.getpass()

from langchain_openai import ChatOpenAI

llm = ChatOpenAI(model="gpt-3.5-turbo-0125")

pip install -qU langchain-anthropic

import getpass
import os

os.environ["ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"] = getpass.getpass()

from langchain_anthropic import ChatAnthropic

llm = ChatAnthropic(model="claude-3-sonnet-20240229")

pip install -qU langchain-google-vertexai

import getpass
import os

os.environ["GOOGLE_API_KEY"] = getpass.getpass()

from langchain_google_vertexai import ChatVertexAI

llm = ChatVertexAI(model="gemini-pro")

pip install -qU langchain-cohere

import getpass
import os

os.environ["COHERE_API_KEY"] = getpass.getpass()

from langchain_cohere import ChatCohere

llm = ChatCohere(model="command-r")

pip install -qU langchain-fireworks

import getpass
import os

os.environ["FIREWORKS_API_KEY"] = getpass.getpass()

from langchain_fireworks import ChatFireworks

llm = ChatFireworks(model="accounts/fireworks/models/mixtral-8x7b-instruct")

pip install -qU langchain-mistralai

import getpass
import os

os.environ["MISTRAL_API_KEY"] = getpass.getpass()

from langchain_mistralai import ChatMistralAI

llm = ChatMistralAI(model="mistral-large-latest")

pip install -qU langchain-openai

import getpass
import os

os.environ["TOGETHER_API_KEY"] = getpass.getpass()

from langchain_openai import ChatOpenAI

llm = ChatOpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.together.xyz/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["TOGETHER_API_KEY"],
    model="mistralai/Mixtral-8x7B-Instruct-v0.1",)

# | echo: false
# | outout: false

from langchain_anthropic import ChatAnthropic

llm = ChatAnthropic(model="claude-3-sonnet-20240229", temperature=0)

from operator import itemgetter
from typing import Dict, List

from langchain_core.messages import AIMessage
from langchain_core.runnables import Runnable, RunnablePassthrough
from langchain_core.tools import tool


@tool
def count_emails(last_n_days: int) -> int:
    """Multiply two integers together."""
    return last_n_days * 2


@tool
def send_email(message: str, recipient: str) -> str:
    "Add two integers."
    return f"Successfully sent email to {recipient}."


tools = [count_emails, send_email]
llm_with_tools = llm.bind_tools(tools)


def call_tools(msg: AIMessage) -> List[Dict]:
    """Simple sequential tool calling helper."""
    tool_map = {tool.name: tool for tool in tools}
    tool_calls = msg.tool_calls.copy()
    for tool_call in tool_calls:
        tool_call["output"] = tool_map[tool_call["name"]].invoke(tool_call["args"])
    return tool_calls


chain = llm_with_tools | call_tools
chain.invoke("how many emails did i get in the last 5 days?")

[{'name': 'count_emails',
  'args': {'last_n_days': 5},
  'id': 'toolu_012VHuh7vk5dVNct5SgZj3gh',
  'output': 10}]

Adding human approval

We can add a simple human approval step to our tool_chain function:

import json


def human_approval(msg: AIMessage) -> Runnable:
    tool_strs = "\n\n".join(
        json.dumps(tool_call, indent=2) for tool_call in msg.tool_calls
    )
    input_msg = (
        f"Do you approve of the following tool invocations\n\n{tool_strs}\n\n"
        "Anything except 'Y'/'Yes' (case-insensitive) will be treated as a no."
    )
    resp = input(input_msg)
    if resp.lower() not in ("yes", "y"):
        raise ValueError(f"Tool invocations not approved:\n\n{tool_strs}")
    return msg

chain = llm_with_tools | human_approval | call_tools
chain.invoke("how many emails did i get in the last 5 days?")

Do you approve of the following tool invocations

{
  "name": "count_emails",
  "args": {
    "last_n_days": 5
  },
  "id": "toolu_01LCpjpFxrRspygDscnHYyPm"
}

Anything except 'Y'/'Yes' (case-insensitive) will be treated as a no. yes

[{'name': 'count_emails',
  'args': {'last_n_days': 5},
  'id': 'toolu_01LCpjpFxrRspygDscnHYyPm',
  'output': 10}]

chain.invoke("Send sally@gmail.com an email saying 'What's up homie'")

Do you approve of the following tool invocations

{
  "name": "send_email",
  "args": {
    "message": "What's up homie",
    "recipient": "sally@gmail.com"
  },
  "id": "toolu_0158qJVd1AL32Y1xxYUAtNEy"
}

Anything except 'Y'/'Yes' (case-insensitive) will be treated as a no. no

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
``````output
ValueError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
``````output
Cell In[11], line 1
----> 1 chain.invoke("Send sally@gmail.com an email saying 'What's up homie'")
``````output
File ~/langchain/libs/core/langchain_core/runnables/base.py:2499, in RunnableSequence.invoke(self, input, config)
   2497 try:
   2498     for i, step in enumerate(self.steps):
-> 2499         input = step.invoke(
   2500             input,
   2501             # mark each step as a child run
   2502             patch_config(
   2503                 config, callbacks=run_manager.get_child(f"seq:step:{i+1}")
   2504             ),
   2505         )
   2506 # finish the root run
   2507 except BaseException as e:
``````output
File ~/langchain/libs/core/langchain_core/runnables/base.py:3961, in RunnableLambda.invoke(self, input, config, **kwargs)
   3959 """Invoke this runnable synchronously."""
   3960 if hasattr(self, "func"):
-> 3961     return self._call_with_config(
   3962         self._invoke,
   3963         input,
   3964         self._config(config, self.func),
   3965         **kwargs,
   3966     )
   3967 else:
   3968     raise TypeError(
   3969         "Cannot invoke a coroutine function synchronously."
   3970         "Use `ainvoke` instead."
   3971     )
``````output
File ~/langchain/libs/core/langchain_core/runnables/base.py:1625, in Runnable._call_with_config(self, func, input, config, run_type, **kwargs)
   1621     context = copy_context()
   1622     context.run(var_child_runnable_config.set, child_config)
   1623     output = cast(
   1624         Output,
-> 1625         context.run(
   1626             call_func_with_variable_args,  # type: ignore[arg-type]
   1627             func,  # type: ignore[arg-type]
   1628             input,  # type: ignore[arg-type]
   1629             config,
   1630             run_manager,
   1631             **kwargs,
   1632         ),
   1633     )
   1634 except BaseException as e:
   1635     run_manager.on_chain_error(e)
``````output
File ~/langchain/libs/core/langchain_core/runnables/config.py:347, in call_func_with_variable_args(func, input, config, run_manager, **kwargs)
    345 if run_manager is not None and accepts_run_manager(func):
    346     kwargs["run_manager"] = run_manager
--> 347 return func(input, **kwargs)
``````output
File ~/langchain/libs/core/langchain_core/runnables/base.py:3835, in RunnableLambda._invoke(self, input, run_manager, config, **kwargs)
   3833                 output = chunk
   3834 else:
-> 3835     output = call_func_with_variable_args(
   3836         self.func, input, config, run_manager, **kwargs
   3837     )
   3838 # If the output is a runnable, invoke it
   3839 if isinstance(output, Runnable):
``````output
File ~/langchain/libs/core/langchain_core/runnables/config.py:347, in call_func_with_variable_args(func, input, config, run_manager, **kwargs)
    345 if run_manager is not None and accepts_run_manager(func):
    346     kwargs["run_manager"] = run_manager
--> 347 return func(input, **kwargs)
``````output
Cell In[9], line 14, in human_approval(msg)
     12 resp = input(input_msg)
     13 if resp.lower() not in ("yes", "y"):
---> 14     raise ValueError(f"Tool invocations not approved:\n\n{tool_strs}")
     15 return msg
``````output
ValueError: Tool invocations not approved:

{
  "name": "send_email",
  "args": {
    "message": "What's up homie",
    "recipient": "sally@gmail.com"
  },
  "id": "toolu_0158qJVd1AL32Y1xxYUAtNEy"
}

How to add a human-in-the-loop for tools

Setup​

Chain​

Adding human approval​

Help us out by providing feedback on this documentation page:

Setup

Chain

Adding human approval