Introduction
As AI agents become more capable, the question isn't whether to automate everything, but how to design systems that gracefully handle the continuum between full automation and human oversight. This post explores how resumable finite state machines enable this flexibility.
The Autonomy Continuum
Not all tasks should be fully automated. Some require:
- Full Automation: Simple, well-defined tasks
- Supervised Autonomy: AI proposes, human approves
- Collaborative: Human and AI work together
- Human-Driven: AI assists, human decides
The Challenge
Traditional workflow systems struggle with:
- State Persistence: Losing context when workflows pause
- Resumability: Difficulty restarting from exact point of interruption
- Transparency: Unclear what happened and why
- Flexibility: Hard to adjust autonomy levels dynamically
The Solution: Resumable FSMs
Resumable Finite State Machines provide:
- Persistent State: Every state transition is recorded immutably
- Checkpointing: Can resume from any previous state
- Transparency: Complete history of state transitions
- Flexibility: Can adjust autonomy levels per state
Key Features
State Persistence: All state is stored on-chain, ensuring it survives interruptions.
Resumability: Workflows can be paused and resumed at any point without losing context.
Auditability: Complete history of all state transitions, decisions, and actions.
Human-in-the-Loop: Seamless integration points for human review and intervention.
Technical Implementation
The system leverages Weilchain for:
- State Storage: Immutable state machine state
- Transition Logging: Every state change recorded
- Event Handling: Asynchronous event processing
- Policy Enforcement: Rules encoded as verifiable applets
Benefits
- Reliability: Workflows survive failures and interruptions
- Transparency: Complete visibility into workflow execution
- Flexibility: Easy to adjust autonomy levels
- Trust: Verifiable execution builds confidence
Conclusion
Resumable finite state machines on Weilchain enable a new paradigm of human-AI collaboration, where autonomy levels can be adjusted dynamically while maintaining complete transparency and auditability.