A2H: ask a human

a2h-gateway

A self-hosted gateway for A2H, the Agent-to-Human protocol: AI agents and scripts ask a person for approval or information, the person answers from email, Telegram or a push notification, and the agent gets a signed answer with proof of who decided. A single Go binary with SQLite.

$ a2h ask -to mailto:[email protected] -why "Rolls back if health checks fail." "Deploy v2.3 to production?"
Waiting for an answer from mailto:[email protected] (interaction 01a1bbcf-…)…
Approved (email_link.v1) at 2026-11-08T15:37:50Z.
$ echo $?
0

A2H was published by Twilio Labs in February 2026 with a specification, an OpenAPI schema and a proof-of-concept demo. Its roadmap lists a reference gateway and formal JSON Schemas as next steps. This project is an independent implementation of both, not affiliated with Twilio.

What it does

• The whole agent-facing API of A2H 1.0: discovery (/.well-known/a2h), POST /v1/intent, status, cancel, nonces, JWKS.
• All intents: AUTHORIZE (approve or decline), COLLECT (forms with text, choices, numbers and dates, validated), INFORM, RESULT, ESCALATE.
• Channels: email (SMTP), Telegram bot, push via ntfy (self-hosted or ntfy.sh), plus a console channel for development. Retries with the spec's backoff, and fallback channels.
• Proof of decision:
  • every RESPONSE is signed (ES256 detached JWS over JCS, keys in the JWKS);
  • requests with assurance.level: HIGH must be approved with a passkey (WebAuthn), with the challenge bound to the interaction as section 1.11.4 requires.
• Replay protection:
  • idempotency on message_id;
  • timestamp window and single-use nonces;
  • single-use, unguessable links that expire with the interaction.
• Webhooks signed with HMAC (X-A2H-Signature), retried 10 s / 60 s / 5 min, and polling as fallback.
• JSON Schemas for every A2H message, in schemas/.
• MCP server (a2h mcp): agents in Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients ask you for approval as a tool.
• Conformance suite to test any A2H gateway: a2h conform.

Quick start

Download a binary for Linux, macOS, Windows or FreeBSD from the releases, use the Docker image ghcr.io/andreaacanfora/a2h-gateway, or install with Go:

go install github.com/AndreaAcanfora/a2h-gateway/cmd/a2h@latest

# Development: no authentication, links printed in the log.
A2H_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080 A2H_DEV=1 a2h serve

In another terminal:

A2H_GATEWAY=http://localhost:8080 a2h ask -to console:me "Delete 3 unused files?"

The gateway logs a link (url=http://localhost:8080/i/…): open it, approve, and a2h ask exits with 0.

In production

docker run -d -p 8080:8080 -v a2h-data:/data \
  -e A2H_BASE_URL=https://a2h.example.com \
  -e A2H_API_KEYS="deploy-bot:$(openssl rand -hex 24)" \
  -e SMTP_HOST=smtp.example.com -e [email protected] -e SMTP_PASSWORD=… \
  -e TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=123456:ABC… \
  -e A2H_PUSH=1 \
  ghcr.io/andreaacanfora/a2h-gateway

Put it behind HTTPS: people open its links, and passkeys only work on a secure origin.

Telegram: create a bot with @BotFather, then send your bot any message so that it may write to you. Your chat ID is in https://api.telegram.org/bot<token>/getUpdates (message.chat.id). Messages get an action button when A2H_BASE_URL is a public host name; with localhost the link is in the text, since Telegram refuses such buttons.

Variable	Meaning
A2H_BASE_URL	Public URL people open (required)
A2H_LISTEN	Listen address, default :8080
A2H_DATA_DIR	Database, signing key and link secret, default ./a2h-data
A2H_API_KEYS	name:key pairs, comma-separated; agents send X-A2H-API-Key
SMTP_HOST, SMTP_PORT, SMTP_USERNAME, SMTP_PASSWORD, SMTP_FROM	Email channel (STARTTLS or TLS)
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN	Telegram channel; addresses are tg:<chat_id> (see below)
A2H_PUSH, NTFY_TOKEN	Push channel (ntfy); addresses are topic URLs
A2H_CONSOLE	Console channel (links in the log)
A2H_DEV	Development mode: no auth, http:// webhooks, console. Never expose it.

Asking from an agent

Any HTTP client works:

curl -s https://a2h.example.com/v1/intent -H "X-A2H-API-Key: $KEY" -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{
  "type": "AUTHORIZE",
  "message_id": "'$(uuidgen)'",
  "agent_id": "did:web:booking-agent.example.com",
  "principal_id": "usr_alice",
  "channel": { "type": "email", "address": "mailto:[email protected]",
               "fallback": [{ "type": "push", "address": "https://ntfy.sh/alice-a2h-7f3k" }] },
  "render": { "title": "Book flight?", "body": "Book the non-refundable flight to Lisbon for 412 EUR?" },
  "explanation_bundle": { "why": "The fare expires in 30 minutes." },
  "ttl_sec": 1800,
  "callback": { "url": "https://agent.example.com/a2h/webhook", "secret": "whsec_…" }
}'

Then wait for the webhook, or poll GET /v1/status/{interaction_id} until the state is ANSWERED, EXPIRED, CANCELLED or FAILED.

From Go, the a2h package does all of this and verifies the answer:

c := a2h.NewClient("https://a2h.example.com", key)
sent, _ := c.Send(ctx, msg)
status, _ := c.Wait(ctx, sent.InteractionID, 2*time.Second)
resp, err := c.VerifyResponse(ctx, status.Response, msg.MessageID) // checks responds_to and the JWS
if err == nil && resp.Decision == a2h.Approve { /* go ahead */ }

Use it from AI agents (MCP)

a2h mcp is a Model Context Protocol server: Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor and other MCP clients get tools to ask you before acting.

Tool	What it does
request_approval	Ask you to approve or decline an action; returns the verified decision
ask_human	Ask you to fill in a short form (text, numbers, dates, choices, yes/no)
notify_human	Send you a message (progress, result, alert)
check_request	Follow up on a request that is still waiting
cancel_request	Withdraw a request that has not been answered

It is listed in the official MCP Registry as io.github.AndreaAcanfora/a2h-gateway, so MCP clients that browse the registry can install it; or configure it by hand.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add a2h \
  -e A2H_GATEWAY=https://a2h.example.com -e A2H_API_KEY=… -e A2H_TO=tg:123456789 \
  -- a2h mcp

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json), Cursor and others:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "a2h": {
      "command": "a2h",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": { "A2H_GATEWAY": "https://a2h.example.com", "A2H_API_KEY": "…", "A2H_TO": "mailto:[email protected]" }
    }
  }
}

Then tell the agent when to ask, e.g. "ask me with request_approval before deleting anything or spending money".

• The recipient is configuration. The model can write the question but cannot choose whom it goes to, so an agent cannot message other people.
• Answers are verified against the gateway's signature before the tool reports a decision. An answer that fails verification is reported as a failure, never as an approval.
• Long waits: a tool call waits up to 10 minutes (-max-wait) and sends progress notifications meanwhile. If the person has not answered by then, the tool says so and the agent continues with check_request.
• High stakes: require_passkey: true makes the approval need a passkey.

Passkeys for high-stakes approvals

Requests with "assurance": {"level": "HIGH"} (or required_factors containing passkey.webauthn.v1) cannot be approved with a click: the person must confirm with a passkey (Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello, a security key). Only the operator can register passkeys, from the server:

a2h enroll -principal usr_alice
# Send this link to usr_alice. It works once and expires in 24h0m0s:
# https://a2h.example.com/enroll/…

The RESPONSE then carries the WebAuthn assertion, the challenge nonce and the public key, so an agent can verify the person's signature itself.

Conformance

a2h conform -gateway https://gateway.example.com -key $KEY -to mailto:[email protected]

PASS  MUST   §1.4      discovery document
PASS  MUST   §1.3      RESPONSE type from an agent is rejected
PASS  MUST   §1.5      unsupported profile is rejected
PASS  MUST   §1.10.2   duplicate message_id returns the original interaction
PASS  MUST   §1.7      cancel a waiting interaction
…
conforming to the agent-facing API of A2H 1.0

The suite sends real intents to the address you give, then cancels them.

Where the spec was unclear

A2H 1.0 leaves some details open or describes them two ways. The choices made here are listed in docs/implementation-notes.md, as feedback for the next version of the spec.

Development

go test -race ./...                        # unit and integration tests
go build -o e2e/a2h ./cmd/a2h && (cd e2e && npm install && npm test)   # passkeys in Chromium

License

MIT. A2H is © Twilio Labs, under the MIT License.