Why Nod Is An Approval Layer, Not A Workflow Engine

One of the biggest decisions we made while building Nod was what not to build.

Nod is not a workflow engine.

It does not:

• Run customer code
• Store workflow steps
• Resume execution cursors
• Hold customer infrastructure credentials

Instead, Nod does one thing well: it handles the human decision.

Your app stays in control of the workflow. Nod only answers the question:

Did a human approve this action?

The developer experience looks like this:

const approval = await nod.approvals.create({
  idempotencyKey: `deploy:${commitSha}`,
  policyId: "prod_deploy",
  title: "Deploy to production?",
  data: {
    repo: "justnod/web",
    commitSha,
    diffUrl,
  },
});

After a human approves or rejects, Nod sends a signed webhook:

const event = nod.webhooks.verify({
  rawBody,
  headers: request.headers,
  secret: process.env.NOD_WEBHOOK_SECRET!,
});

if (event.type === "approval.approved") {
  await deployToProduction(event.data);
}

This separation keeps Nod simple and useful.

The customer owns:

• The agent
• The workflow
• The business logic
• The final side effect

Nod owns:

• The approval request
• The policy
• The human decision
• The audit trail
• The signed callback

That boundary made the product much cleaner. Developers do not need to move their whole system into Nod. They only add one approval checkpoint where risk begins.