--- title: Build an agent approval flow that survives a restart description: This tutorial builds a local approval queue for AI agent actions that survives process restarts and crashes. It uses Node's built-in node:sqlite module to... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/build-an-agent-approval-flow-that-survives-a-restart-vobmkr0vl twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Build an agent approval flow that survives a restart | daily.dev og:description: This tutorial builds a local approval queue for AI agent actions that survives process restarts and crashes. It uses Node's built-in node:sqlite module to... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/build-an-agent-approval-flow-that-survives-a-restart-vobmkr0vl og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/VoBmkr0vl.png og:image:alt: Build an agent approval flow that survives a restart og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Build an agent approval flow that survives a restart **[Flavio Copes](https://daily.dev/sources/flaviocopes)** · 8 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary This tutorial builds a local approval queue for AI agent actions that survives process restarts and crashes. It uses Node's built-in node:sqlite module to store an immutable email proposal, identified by a SHA-256 digest of its exact content. A fake provider table models an email send without network calls. On resuming after a simulated crash (process.exit(23)), the program checks for an existing receipt before checking approval expiry, and refuses to guess whether a retry is safe if a proposal is stuck 'executing' with no receipt. Rejected or cancelled proposals and expired approvals block execution while pending or approved. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I make sure an AI agent can't send an email after I approved a different version of it? Hash the exact serialized proposal (recipient, subject, body) with SHA-256 and require that digest as part of the approval command. The proposal is stored as immutable, so any change to the message requires a brand new operation ID and a new decision, preventing the agent from rewriting content after approval. _Developers wiring approval gates into agent tool calls compare patterns like this one on daily.dev._ ### How can I recover an agent task safely after it crashes mid-execution without double-sending? Check for an existing receipt before checking whether the approval window expired. In this Node.js example using node:sqlite, a crash is simulated with process.exit(23) after a fake provider 'accepts' the message but before the local state is marked completed; on restart, the program finds the existing receipt and marks it completed without re-sending, keeping the accepted-message count at one. _Anyone building durable agent workflows can track crash-recovery patterns like this on daily.dev._ ### What's node:sqlite in Node.js used for? It's a built-in SQLite module in a current Node LTS release, used here via the DatabaseSync class to store proposals and accepted-message records without any external database dependency, including transactions via db.exec('BEGIN IMMEDIATE') for atomic state claims. _Developers evaluating Node's native sqlite support follow practical examples like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [How to build agents that survive crashes with Pi Durable](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-build-agents-that-survive-crashes-with-pi-durable-zt8jcyleg) · Flavio Copes · 8 upvotes · 0 comments - [Building a ‘Human-in-the-Loop’ Approval Gate for Autonomous Agents](https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-human-in-the-loop-approval-gate-for-autonomous-agents-krdljp98i) · Machine Learning Mastery · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Designing a Production-Ready Agent Harness With Persistence and Checkpointing](https://daily.dev/posts/designing-a-production-ready-agent-harness-with-persistence-and-checkpointing-4ygffqjsx) · SitePoint · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Build Long-running AI agents that pause, resume, and never lose context with ADK](https://daily.dev/posts/build-long-running-ai-agents-that-pause-resume-and-never-lose-context-with-adk-qcg6wprzb) · Google Developers · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [One Agent Workflow That Keeps Human Review in the Loop](https://daily.dev/posts/one-agent-workflow-that-keeps-human-review-in-the-loop-idljoj6z9) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#nodejs](https://daily.dev/tags/nodejs), [#sqlite](https://daily.dev/tags/sqlite) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/build-an-agent-approval-flow-that-survives-a-restart-vobmkr0vl) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Build an agent approval flow that survives a restart","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/build-an-agent-approval-flow-that-survives-a-restart-vobmkr0vl","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/build-an-agent-approval-flow-that-survives-a-restart-vobmkr0vl"},"datePublished":"2026-10-30T08:11:01.707Z","dateModified":"2026-10-30T08:11:30.709Z","description":"This tutorial builds a local approval queue for AI agent actions that survives process restarts and crashes. 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