Seal vs. generic workflow automation tools
General workflow tools can add a manual approval step, but they aren't built for autonomous agents doing irreversible things: they rarely fail closed, don't produce a tamper-evident audit trail, and aren't designed to be dropped into an agent loop as a single call. Seal is purpose-built for gating risky agent actions with security guarantees as the default.
| Dimension | Seal | Generic workflow automation |
|---|---|---|
| Built for AI agents | Yes — SDK-first | No — general automation |
| Fail-closed default | Yes | Rarely |
| Tamper-evident audit | Yes | Basic logs at best |
| Drops into an agent loop | One call | External workflow hop |
| Hostile-input handling | Bounded, schema-parsed | Not a focus |
Use a workflow tool for business process automation. Use Seal when an autonomous agent is about to do something you can't undo.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Zapier or n8n for AI agent approvals?+
You can bolt on a manual approval node, but general workflow tools rarely fail closed, don't hash-chain their logs, and add an external workflow hop rather than living inside the agent loop. Seal is a single in-process SDK call with fail-closed and tamper-evident audit as defaults.
What is the difference between workflow automation and an approval gate?+
Workflow automation orchestrates a business process across steps. An approval gate is a security control: it pauses one specific risky action until a human decides, enforces the verdict, and records it verifiably. Seal is the latter.