Human Feedback

Human Feedback Recovery Case

In real business scenarios, human intervention is often encountered. Different human operations will affect different workflow paths.

The following implements a simple case that includes three nodes: expansion node, human node, and translation node.

Expansion node: AI model streams the expansion output based on the question
Human node: Decides whether to end directly or continue to execute the translation node based on user feedback
Translation node: Translates the question into English

The practical code can be found at: spring-ai-alibaba-examples under the graph directory. This chapter’s code is in the human-node module.

pom.xml

Here we use version 1.0.0.3-SNAPSHOT. There are some changes in StateGraph definition compared to 1.0.0.2

<properties>
    <spring-ai-alibaba.version>1.0.0.3-SNAPSHOT</spring-ai-alibaba.version>
</properties>

<dependencies>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.ai</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-ai-autoconfigure-model-openai</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.ai</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-ai-autoconfigure-model-chat-client</artifactId>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.alibaba.cloud.ai</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-ai-alibaba-graph-core</artifactId>
        <version>${spring-ai-alibaba.version}</version>
    </dependency>

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

application.yml

server:
  port: 8080
spring:
  application:
    name: human-node
  ai:
    openai:
      api-key: ${AIDASHSCOPEAPIKEY}
      base-url: https://dashscope.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode
      chat:
        options:
          model: qwen-max

config

Fields stored in OverAllState:

query: user’s question
expandernumber: number of expansions
expandercontent: expansion content
feedback: human feedback content
humannextnode: next node after human feedback
translatelanguage: target language for translation, default is English
translatecontent: translated content

Define ExpanderNode, with edges connecting:

START -> expander -> humanfeedback
humanfeedback -> translate
humanfeedback -> END
translate -> END

package com.spring.ai.tutorial.graph.human.config;

import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.GraphRepresentation;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.KeyStrategy;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.KeyStrategyFactory;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.StateGraph;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.action.AsyncEdgeAction;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.exception.GraphStateException;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.state.strategy.ReplaceStrategy;
import com.spring.ai.tutorial.graph.human.dispatcher.HumanFeedbackDispatcher;
import com.spring.ai.tutorial.graph.human.node.ExpanderNode;
import com.spring.ai.tutorial.graph.human.node.HumanFeedbackNode;
import com.spring.ai.tutorial.graph.human.node.TranslateNode;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.springframework.ai.chat.client.ChatClient;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

import static com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.action.AsyncNodeAction.nodeasync;

/**
 * @author yingzi
 * @since 2025/6/13
 */
@Configuration
public class GraphHumanConfiguration {

    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(GraphHumanConfiguration.class);

    @Bean
    public StateGraph humanGraph(ChatClient.Builder chatClientBuilder) throws GraphStateException {
        KeyStrategyFactory keyStrategyFactory = () -> {
            HashMap<String, KeyStrategy> keyStrategyHashMap = new HashMap<>();
            // User input
            keyStrategyHashMap.put("query", new ReplaceStrategy());
            keyStrategyHashMap.put("threadid", new ReplaceStrategy());

            keyStrategyHashMap.put("expandernumber", new ReplaceStrategy());
            keyStrategyHashMap.put("expandercontent", new ReplaceStrategy());

            // Human feedback
            keyStrategyHashMap.put("feedback", new ReplaceStrategy());
            keyStrategyHashMap.put("humannextnode", new ReplaceStrategy());

            // Whether translation is needed
            keyStrategyHashMap.put("translatelanguage", new ReplaceStrategy());
            keyStrategyHashMap.put("translatecontent", new ReplaceStrategy());
            return keyStrategyHashMap;
        };

        StateGraph stateGraph = new StateGraph(keyStrategyFactory)
                .addNode("expander", nodeasync(new ExpanderNode(chatClientBuilder)))
                .addNode("translate", nodeasync(new TranslateNode(chatClientBuilder)))
                .addNode("humanfeedback", nodeasync(new HumanFeedbackNode()))

                .addEdge(StateGraph.START, "expander")
                .addEdge("expander", "humanfeedback")
                .addConditionalEdges("humanfeedback", AsyncEdgeAction.edgeasync((new HumanFeedbackDispatcher())), Map.of(
                        "translate", "translate", StateGraph.END, StateGraph.END))
                .addEdge("translate", StateGraph.END);

        // Add PlantUML printing
        GraphRepresentation representation = stateGraph.getGraph(GraphRepresentation.Type.PLANTUML,
                "human flow");
        logger.info("\n=== expander UML Flow ===");
        logger.info(representation.content());
        logger.info("==================================\n");

        return stateGraph;
    }
}

node

ExpanderNode

package com.spring.ai.tutorial.graph.human.node;

import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.NodeOutput;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.OverAllState;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.action.NodeAction;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.async.AsyncGenerator;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.streaming.StreamingChatGenerator;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.springframework.ai.chat.client.ChatClient;
import org.springframework.ai.chat.model.ChatResponse;
import org.springframework.ai.chat.prompt.PromptTemplate;
import reactor.core.publisher.Flux;

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

/**
 * @author yingzi
 * @since 2025/6/13
 */

public class ExpanderNode implements NodeAction {

    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ExpanderNode.class);

    private static final PromptTemplate DEFAULTPROMPTTEMPLATE = new PromptTemplate("You are an expert at information retrieval and search optimization.\nYour task is to generate {number} different versions of the given query.\n\nEach variant must cover different perspectives or aspects of the topic,\nwhile maintaining the core intent of the original query. The goal is to\nexpand the search space and improve the chances of finding relevant information.\n\nDo not explain your choices or add any other text.\nProvide the query variants separated by newlines.\n\nOriginal query: {query}\n\nQuery variants:\n");

    private final ChatClient chatClient;

    private final Integer NUMBER = 3;

    public ExpanderNode(ChatClient.Builder chatClientBuilder) {
        this.chatClient = chatClientBuilder.build();
    }

    @Override
    public Map<String, Object> apply(OverAllState state) {
        logger.info("expander node is running.");

        String query = state.value("query", "");
        Integer expanderNumber = state.value("expandernumber", this.NUMBER);

        Flux<ChatResponse> chatResponseFlux = this.chatClient.prompt().user((user) -> user.text(DEFAULTPROMPTTEMPLATE.getTemplate()).param("number", expanderNumber).param("query", query)).stream().chatResponse();

        AsyncGenerator<? extends NodeOutput> generator = StreamingChatGenerator.builder()
                .startingNode("expanderllmstream")
                .startingState(state)
                .mapResult(response -> {
                    String text = response.getResult().getOutput().getText();
                    List<String> queryVariants = Arrays.asList(text.split("\n"));
                    return Map.of("expandercontent", queryVariants);
                }).build(chatResponseFlux);
        return Map.of("expandercontent", generator);
    }

}

HumanFeedbackNode

package com.spring.ai.tutorial.graph.human.node;

import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.OverAllState;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.StateGraph;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.action.NodeAction;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

/**
 * @author yingzi
 * @since 2025/6/19
 */

public class HumanFeedbackNode implements NodeAction {

    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(HumanFeedbackNode.class);

    @Override
    public Map<String, Object> apply(OverAllState state) {
        logger.info("humanfeedback node is running.");
        HashMap<String, Object> resultMap = new HashMap<>();
        String nextStep = StateGraph.END;

        Map<String, Object> feedBackData = state.humanFeedback().data();
        boolean feedback = (boolean) feedBackData.getOrDefault("feedback", true);
        if (feedback) {
            nextStep = "translate";
        }

        resultMap.put("humannextnode", nextStep);
        logger.info("humanfeedback node -> {} node", nextStep);
        return resultMap;
    }
}

TranslateNode

package com.spring.ai.tutorial.graph.human.node;

import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.NodeOutput;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.OverAllState;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.action.NodeAction;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.async.AsyncGenerator;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.streaming.StreamingChatGenerator;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.springframework.ai.chat.client.ChatClient;
import org.springframework.ai.chat.model.ChatResponse;
import org.springframework.ai.chat.prompt.PromptTemplate;
import reactor.core.publisher.Flux;

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

/**
 * @author yingzi
 * @since 2025/6/13
 */

public class TranslateNode implements NodeAction {

    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(ExpanderNode.class);

    private static final PromptTemplate DEFAULTPROMPTTEMPLATE = new PromptTemplate("Given a user query, translate it to {targetLanguage}.\nIf the query is already in {targetLanguage}, return it unchanged.\nIf you don't know the language of the query, return it unchanged.\nDo not add explanations nor any other text.\n\nOriginal query: {query}\n\nTranslated query:\n");

    private final ChatClient chatClient;

    private final String  TARGETLANGUAGE= "English";

    public TranslateNode(ChatClient.Builder chatClientBuilder) {
        this.chatClient = chatClientBuilder.build();
    }

    @Override
    public Map<String, Object> apply(OverAllState state) {
        logger.info("translate node is running.");

        String query = state.value("query", "");
        String targetLanguage = state.value("translatelanguage", TARGETLANGUAGE);

        Flux<ChatResponse> chatResponseFlux = this.chatClient.prompt().user((user) -> user.text(DEFAULTPROMPTTEMPLATE.getTemplate()).param("targetLanguage", targetLanguage).param("query", query)).stream().chatResponse();
        AsyncGenerator<? extends NodeOutput> generator = StreamingChatGenerator.builder()
                .startingNode("translatellmstream")
                .startingState(state)
                .mapResult(response -> {
                    String text = response.getResult().getOutput().getText();
                    List<String> queryVariants = Arrays.asList(text.split("\n"));
                    return Map.of("translatecontent", queryVariants);
                }).build(chatResponseFlux);
        return Map.of("translatecontent", generator);
    }
}

edge

The next edge of the human node is a conditional edge, controlled by HumanFeedbackDispatcher to determine which node to jump to next

package com.spring.ai.tutorial.graph.human.dispatcher;

import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.OverAllState;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.StateGraph;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.action.EdgeAction;

/**
 * @author yingzi
 * @since 2025/6/19
 */

public class HumanFeedbackDispatcher implements EdgeAction {
    @Override
    public String apply(OverAllState state) throws Exception {
        return (String) state.value("humannextnode", StateGraph.END);
    }
}

controller

GraphHumanController

CompileConfig.builder().saverConfig(saverConfig).interruptBefore(“humanfeedback”): Interrupts the flow before the human feedback node
Sinks.Many<ServerSentEvent> sink: Receives Stream data

package com.spring.ai.tutorial.graph.human.controller;

import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.CompileConfig;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.CompiledGraph;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.NodeOutput;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.OverAllState;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.RunnableConfig;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.StateGraph;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.async.AsyncGenerator;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.checkpoint.config.SaverConfig;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.checkpoint.constant.SaverConstant;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.checkpoint.savers.MemorySaver;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.exception.GraphRunnerException;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.exception.GraphStateException;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.state.StateSnapshot;
import com.spring.ai.tutorial.graph.human.controller.GraphProcess.GraphProcess;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Qualifier;
import org.springframework.http.MediaType;
import org.springframework.http.codec.ServerSentEvent;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestParam;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;
import reactor.core.publisher.Flux;
import reactor.core.publisher.Sinks;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

/**
 * @author yingzi
 * @since 2025/6/13
 */
@RestController
@RequestMapping("/graph/human")
public class GraphHumanController {

    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(GraphHumanController.class);

    private final CompiledGraph compiledGraph;

    @Autowired
    public GraphHumanController(@Qualifier("humanGraph") StateGraph stateGraph) throws GraphStateException {
        SaverConfig saverConfig = SaverConfig.builder().register(SaverConstant.MEMORY, new MemorySaver()).build();
        this.compiledGraph = stateGraph
                .compile(CompileConfig.builder().saverConfig(saverConfig).interruptBefore("humanfeedback").build());    }

    @GetMapping(value = "/expand", produces = MediaType.TEXTEVENTSTREAMVALUE)
    public Flux<ServerSentEvent<String>> expand(@RequestParam(value = "query", defaultValue = "你好，很高兴认识你，能简单介绍一下自己吗？", required = false) String query,
                                                @RequestParam(value = "expandernumber", defaultValue = "3", required = false) Integer expanderNumber,
                                                @RequestParam(value = "threadid", defaultValue = "yingzi", required = false) String threadId) throws GraphRunnerException {
        RunnableConfig runnableConfig = RunnableConfig.builder().threadId(threadId).build();
        Map<String, Object> objectMap = new HashMap<>();
        objectMap.put("query", query);
        objectMap.put("expandernumber", expanderNumber);

        GraphProcess graphProcess = new GraphProcess(this.compiledGraph);
        Sinks.Many<ServerSentEvent<String>> sink = Sinks.many().unicast().onBackpressureBuffer();
        AsyncGenerator<NodeOutput> resultFuture = compiledGraph.stream(objectMap, runnableConfig);
        graphProcess.processStream(resultFuture, sink);

        return sink.asFlux()
                .doOnCancel(() -> logger.info("Client disconnected from stream"))
                .doOnError(e -> logger.error("Error occurred during streaming", e));
    }

    @GetMapping(value = "/resume", produces = MediaType.TEXTEVENTSTREAMVALUE)
    public Flux<ServerSentEvent<String>> resume(@RequestParam(value = "threadid", defaultValue = "yingzi", required = false) String threadId,
                                      @RequestParam(value = "feedback", defaultValue = "true", required = false) boolean feedBack) throws GraphRunnerException {
        RunnableConfig runnableConfig = RunnableConfig.builder().threadId(threadId).build();
        StateSnapshot stateSnapshot = this.compiledGraph.getState(runnableConfig);
        OverAllState state = stateSnapshot.state();
        state.withResume();

        Map<String, Object> objectMap = new HashMap<>();
        objectMap.put("feedback", feedBack);

        state.withHumanFeedback(new OverAllState.HumanFeedback(objectMap, ""));

        // Create a unicast sink to emit ServerSentEvents
        Sinks.Many<ServerSentEvent<String>> sink = Sinks.many().unicast().onBackpressureBuffer();
        GraphProcess graphProcess = new GraphProcess(this.compiledGraph);
        AsyncGenerator<NodeOutput> resultFuture = compiledGraph.streamFromInitialNode(state, runnableConfig);
        graphProcess.processStream(resultFuture, sink);

        return sink.asFlux()
                .doOnCancel(() -> logger.info("Client disconnected from stream"))
                .doOnError(e -> logger.error("Error occurred during streaming", e));    }
}

GraphProcess

ExecutorService executor: Configure thread pool to get stream flow

Write the results to the sink

package com.spring.ai.tutorial.graph.stream.controller.GraphProcess;

import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.CompiledGraph;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.NodeOutput;
import com.alibaba.cloud.ai.graph.streaming.StreamingOutput;
import com.alibaba.fastjson.JSON;
import com.alibaba.fastjson.JSONObject;
import org.bsc.async.AsyncGenerator;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.springframework.http.codec.ServerSentEvent;
import reactor.core.publisher.Sinks;

import java.util.Map;
import java.util.concurrent.CompletionException;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
import java.util.concurrent.Executors;

public class GraphProcess {

    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(GraphProcess.class);

    private final ExecutorService executor = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();

    private CompiledGraph compiledGraph;

    public GraphProcess(CompiledGraph compiledGraph) {
        this.compiledGraph = compiledGraph;
    }

    public void processStream(AsyncGenerator<NodeOutput> generator, Sinks.Many<ServerSentEvent<String>> sink) {
        executor.submit(() -> {
            generator.forEachAsync(output -> {
                try {
                    logger.info("output = {}", output);
                    String nodeName = output.node();
                    String content;
                    if (output instanceof StreamingOutput streamingOutput) {
                        content = JSON.toJSONString(Map.of(nodeName, streamingOutput.chunk()));
                    } else {
                        JSONObject nodeOutput = new JSONObject();
                        nodeOutput.put("data", output.state().data());
                        nodeOutput.put("node", nodeName);
                        content = JSON.toJSONString(nodeOutput);
                    }
                    sink.tryEmitNext(ServerSentEvent.builder(content).build());
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    throw new CompletionException(e);
                }
            }).thenAccept(v -> {
                // Normal completion
                sink.tryEmitComplete();
            }).exceptionally(e -> {
                sink.tryEmitError(e);
                return null;
            });
        });
    }
}

Effect

Call the expand interface, stream output && interrupt flow to get final result

Then call the resume interface, restore state to continue the flow and handle subsequent logic