HumanLayer made its name as a human-in-the-loop API: an SDK that let AI agents require human approval before sensitive tool calls and contact humans for answers over Slack and email. In 2026 the product changed direction: humanlayer.dev now sells an AI coding IDE built around a phased development workflow, and the approvals API is no longer on the site. If you came to HumanLayer for human-in-the-loop and not for an IDE, you need a tool that still does that job. For coding agents, that is exactly what Orako does: your agent asks a question, the teammates who own that domain get it where they already work, and their replies land back in the agent.
Key takeaways
- HumanLayer today is an AI coding IDE ($100/user/month, free up to 3 members). Its site no longer offers the human-in-the-loop approvals API it was known for.
- Orako covers the ask-a-human job for coding agents: search first, route by domain, collect answers in Slack, Discord or the dashboard, and return them to the agent over MCP.
- Resolved conversations become searchable team history with their authors and context, reducing repeat questions.
- Orako is $12/seat/month with a 14-day free trial. You pay only for the people who answer, not for agents or questions.
What changed at HumanLayer
The original HumanLayer (the one most “human-in-the-loop API” articles still describe) offered approval decorators around tool calls, routing to individuals or teams, escalations and timeouts, and human contact across Slack and email; you brought your own LLM and framework. The current humanlayer.dev instead sells a team IDE where engineers and agents collaborate through six phases (Questions, Research, Design, Structure, Plan, Implement), with pricing at $100/user/month and a free tier capped at 3 members and 200 sessions/month. That is a real product, but it is a different product.
HumanLayer’s original features, mapped to Orako
HumanLayer v1 human-in-the-loop features mapped to Orako equivalents
| Job to be done | HumanLayer (original API) | Orako |
|---|---|---|
| Agent asks a human | contact-human-as-a-tool via SDK (Python/TypeScript) | ask-a-human tool over MCP; works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and any MCP client, no SDK code |
| Who gets asked | Routing to a named individual or team you configure | Dispatch to everyone who owns the domain (auth, payments, infra…); every reply stays in one durable conversation |
| Where humans answer | Slack and email | Slack, Discord, or the dashboard inbox; reply in the thread, no new tool |
| Escalation | Configurable escalations and timeouts | Follow-ups and reminders stay attached to the same durable conversation |
| Reusing answers | Learning / auto-approvals from prior decisions | Searchable resolved conversations and curated team entries with authors and context |
| Pricing | Discontinued (current product: IDE at $100/user/month) | $12/seat/month, 14-day free trial, no credit card; self-hosted Enterprise |
If what you actually want in 2026 is an AI coding IDE with a structured spec-first workflow, today’s HumanLayer is that product and worth evaluating on its own terms. This page is for teams that needed the human-in-the-loop layer it used to be.
Why domain pools beat named-person routing
HumanLayer’s API routed each approval to a person or channel you wired up front. That works until the person is on holiday, in a meeting, or gone. Orako doesn’t guess availability and doesn’t track presence: the question goes to every owner of the domain at once. Whoever is available can reply, and every contribution stays attributed in the same conversation. That removes the named person as a single point of failure without hiding useful second opinions.
Fair point
When HumanLayer is the right callIf your team wants an AI coding IDE with a structured, spec-first workflow rather than a way to reach humans from any agent, today’s HumanLayer is built for exactly that. Evaluate it on those terms. Orako isn’t an IDE, and it isn’t trying to be one.