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Agent Instructions

CRITICAL RULES:

  • NEVER push directly to the main or stable branches
  • Do not remove or break agent-discoverable docs sitemap behavior: keep docs/app/sitemap.md/route.ts and docs/app/[lang]/sitemap.md/route.ts, and keep the sitemap link in docs/app/[lang]/llms.mdx/[[...slug]]/route.ts.

Overview

Workflow SDK is a durable functions framework for JavaScript/TypeScript that enables writing long-running, stateful application logic on top of stateless compute. The runtime persists progress as an event log and deterministically replays code to reconstruct state after cold starts, failures, or scale events.

This repository contains the client-side SDK code for workflows, along with example apps that showcase Workflow SDK in action.

Architecture

Core Components

  • packages/core: Core workflow runtime and primitives (@workflow/core)
  • packages/next: Next.js integration (@workflow/next)
  • packages/cli: Command-line interface (@workflow/cli)
  • packages/world: Core interfaces and types for workflow storage backends (@workflow/world)
  • packages/world-local: Filesystem-based workflow backend for local development and testing (@workflow/world-local)
  • packages/world-vercel: Production workflow backend for Vercel platform deployments (@workflow/world-vercel)
  • packages/swc-plugin-workflow: SWC compiler plugin for workflow transformations
  • workbench/example: Basic workflow examples using the CLI (aka "standalone mode")
  • workbench/nextjs-turbopack: Workflow examples using the Next.js integration

Workflow Execution Model

Workflows consist of two types of functions:

  1. Workflow functions ("use workflow"): Orchestrators that run in a sandboxed VM without full Node.js access
  2. Step functions ("use step"): Individual pieces of logic with full Node.js runtime access

The framework uses compiler transformations to split workflow files into separate bundles for client, workflow, and step execution contexts.

Development Commands

Workspace-level Commands

# Build all packages
pnpm build

# Run tests across all packages  
pnpm test

# Run end-to-end tests
pnpm test:e2e

# Format code with Biome
pnpm format

# Lint with Biome
pnpm lint

# Typecheck TypeScript
pnpm typecheck

# Clean build artifacts
pnpm clean

Core Package Testing

# Test core functionality
cd packages/core && pnpm test

# Test specific file
cd packages/core && pnpm vitest run src/[filename].test.ts

# Run E2E tests (requires environment variables and running dev server)
# Note: Use nextjs-turbopack for local e2e testing (not example app - it has no dev server)

# Step 1: Start the dev server in background
# NOTE: WORKFLOW_PUBLIC_MANIFEST=1 is required for e2e tests to access the workflow manifest
cd workbench/nextjs-turbopack && WORKFLOW_PUBLIC_MANIFEST=1 pnpm dev > /tmp/nextjs-dev.log 2>&1 &

# Step 2: Wait for server to be ready (usually 15-20 seconds)
sleep 15

# Step 3: Run the e2e tests from the project root
DEPLOYMENT_URL="http://localhost:3000" APP_NAME="nextjs-turbopack" pnpm vitest run packages/core/e2e/e2e.test.ts

# Step 4: Stop the dev server when done
pkill -f "pnpm dev"

# To run specific tests, use the -t flag:
DEPLOYMENT_URL="http://localhost:3000" APP_NAME="nextjs-turbopack" pnpm vitest run packages/core/e2e/e2e.test.ts -t "sleeping"

# For running E2E locally against a deployed Vercel preview/production app:
# The test matrix in .github/workflows/tests.yml is the source of truth —
# each app entry defines the project-id / project-slug needed below.
#
# Required environment variables (matches the CI `e2e-vercel-prod` job):
# - DEPLOYMENT_URL: Full URL of the deployed app (e.g. a preview deployment URL)
# - VERCEL_DEPLOYMENT_ID: The dpl_... ID of the deployment (get via `vercel inspect <url>`)
# - APP_NAME: App name (example, nextjs-turbopack, nextjs-webpack, nitro, vite,
#             nuxt, sveltekit, hono, express, fastify, astro)
# - WORKFLOW_VERCEL_ENV: "preview" or "production"
# - WORKFLOW_VERCEL_AUTH_TOKEN: Vercel auth token with access to the team
# - WORKFLOW_VERCEL_TEAM: Vercel team ID (CI uses team_nO2mCG4W8IxPIeKoSsqwAxxB for labs)
# - WORKFLOW_VERCEL_PROJECT: Vercel project ID (prj_...) — see test matrix
# - WORKFLOW_VERCEL_PROJECT_SLUG: Vercel project slug — see test matrix
# - VERCEL_OIDC_TOKEN:         Short-lived OIDC token used to bypass
#                              deployment protection via Trusted Sources.
#                              In CI this is auto-minted from the GitHub
#                              Actions runner. Locally, run
#                              `vercel env pull` from any workbench app's
#                              directory and the resulting `.env.local`
#                              will contain a `VERCEL_OIDC_TOKEN` value
#                              that all workbench projects accept (they
#                              are configured to trust each other under
#                              `trustedSources.projects`).
#
# Example (nextjs-turbopack preview deployment):
NODE_OPTIONS="--enable-source-maps" \
DEPLOYMENT_URL="https://example-nextjs-workflow-turbopack-<hash>.labs.vercel.dev" \
VERCEL_DEPLOYMENT_ID="dpl_..." \
APP_NAME="nextjs-turbopack" \
WORKFLOW_VERCEL_ENV="preview" \
WORKFLOW_VERCEL_AUTH_TOKEN="<vercel_labs_token>" \
WORKFLOW_VERCEL_TEAM="team_nO2mCG4W8IxPIeKoSsqwAxxB" \
WORKFLOW_VERCEL_PROJECT="prj_yjkM7UdHliv8bfxZ1sMJQf1pMpdi" \
WORKFLOW_VERCEL_PROJECT_SLUG="example-nextjs-workflow-turbopack" \
VERCEL_OIDC_TOKEN="$(grep VERCEL_OIDC_TOKEN workbench/nextjs-turbopack/.env.local | cut -d= -f2-)" \
pnpm run test:e2e

Example App Development

# Build workflow bundles for example app
cd workbench/example && pnpm build

# Use workflow CLI directly
cd workbench/example && pnpm workflow [command]
cd workbench/example && pnpm wf [command]  # shorthand

Next.js App Development

# Start Next.js dev server with workflow support
cd workbench/nextjs-turbopack && pnpm dev

# Build Next.js app with workflows
cd workbench/nextjs-turbopack && pnpm build

# Production server
cd workbench/nextjs-turbopack && pnpm start

Key Workflow Concepts

These are only relevant when writing code using the Workflow SDK

  • Workflow functions orchestrate step execution but have limited runtime access
  • Step functions handle side effects, API calls, and complex logic with full Node.js access
  • All function inputs/outputs are serialized to the event log for replay
  • Built-in retry semantics for step functions with FatalError/RetryableError controls
  • Standard JavaScript async patterns work: Promise.all(), Promise.race(), etc.

File Structure Conventions

These are only relevant when writing code using the Workflow SDK

  • Workflow files go in workflows/ directory (or src/workflows/ if using src)
  • Generated API routes appear in app/.well-known/workflow/v1/ (Next.js integration)
  • Workflow files must contain "use workflow" or "use step" directives to be processed
  • Add .swc directory to .gitignore for SWC plugin cache artifacts

Package Manager

This project uses pnpm with workspace configuration. The required version is specified in package.json#packageManager.

Code Style

  • Uses Biome for formatting and linting
  • 2-space indentation, single quotes, trailing commas (ES5)
  • Import type enforcement enabled
  • Explicit any is discouraged (Biome's noExplicitAny rule is currently disabled); exhaustive dependencies warnings enabled

Documentation Standards

  • README.md files in each package must accurately reflect the current functionality and purpose of that package
  • READMEs should not contain outdated or incorrect information about package capabilities
  • When modifying package functionality, ensure corresponding README updates are included
  • When modifying skill files in skills/, always bump the version field in the frontmatter metadata

SWC Plugin

When modifying the SWC compiler plugin (packages/swc-plugin-workflow), you must also update the specification document at packages/swc-plugin-workflow/spec.md to reflect any changes to the transformation behavior.

Versioning & Release Strategy

This repository uses a dual-branch release model with changesets for version management.

Branch Model

  • main — Bleeding-edge / beta channel. Changesets are in pre-release mode (beta tag). Published packages get the beta npm dist-tag (e.g. 5.0.0-beta.3).
  • stable — GA / production channel. Changesets are in regular mode. Published packages get the latest npm dist-tag (e.g. 4.2.1).

Both branches trigger the release workflow (.github/workflows/release.yml) on push. The changesets action creates a "Version Packages" PR on each branch when there are pending changesets.

Important: Some directories are not fully maintained on the stable branch:

  • docs/: Only docs/content/ is actively maintained on stable — the rest of the docs app is a minimal placeholder (documentation is deployed only from main). docs/content/ is kept on stable because the markdown files are bundled into npm packages via prepack scripts.
  • skills/: Not maintained on stable at all. Skill files are unrelated to npm packaging, so there is no reason to keep them in sync on the release branch.

When backporting changes to stable, any conflicts involving docs app files (outside of docs/content/) or skills/ files should be resolved by keeping the stable branch version (discarding the incoming change from main). Conflicts in docs/content/ should be resolved normally. The backport GitHub Action handles this automatically.

Changesets

  • workflow and @workflow/core use changesets' "fixed" versioning strategy — they always have the same version number
  • Every PR requires a changeset to be included before it will be merged
  • To check if one is needed, run pnpm changeset status --since=main >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "no changeset needed" || echo "changeset needed"
  • Create a changeset using pnpm changeset add
    • All changed packages should be included in the changeset. Never include unchanged packages.
    • Use the correct semver bump type: patch for bug fixes, minor for new features, major for breaking changes
    • On main (pre-release mode), the bump type doesn't affect beta numbering (it always increments beta.N) but it does matter when changes are backported to stable
  • Remember to always build any packages that get changed before running downstream tests like e2e tests in the workbench
  • Remember that changes made to one workbench should propagate to all other workbenches. The workflows should typically only be written once inside the example workbench and symlinked into all the other workbenches
  • When writing changesets (via pnpm changeset add from the repo root, as noted above), keep the description terse — one sentence, or two at most. Try to make changesets that are specific to each modified package so they are targeted.

Backporting to stable

Backports are handled by a GitHub Action (.github/workflows/backport.yml) that runs on every push to main. For each commit, AI analyzes the change and decides whether to recommend a backport. The action always opens a PR against stable for human review — it never pushes directly. The changeset file is included in the cherry-pick, so the correct semver bump type is preserved on stable.

Decision criteria. AI is instructed to recommend a backport for any commit that doesn't specifically build on main-only behavior, including:

  • Bug fixes to existing functionality that at least partially exists on stable
  • Added test cases or edge-case fixes that may also apply on stable
  • Self-contained minor feature additions
  • Documentation fixes for content already on stable
  • Dependency bumps and infrastructure/CI changes

When in doubt, AI is told to lean toward recommending a backport — a human reviews the resulting PR and can close it if it isn't worth merging. AI is told NOT to recommend backports for changes that build on main-only APIs, major breaking changes for the next major release, changes confined to directories not maintained on stable (the docs/ app outside docs/content/, and skills/), or release plumbing like changeset/version-bump commits.

Manual override. The workflow can be run manually from the GitHub Actions UI via workflow_dispatch, which accepts an optional ref input (a commit SHA on main; defaults to main HEAD) and an optional model input (the AI model used for AI-assisted decisions and conflict resolution, in <provider>/<model> form — defaults to the workflow's current default). Manual dispatch always forces a backport (skipping AI analysis). Use this when AI declined a backport that you want to ship to stable.

No-backport notification. When AI decides against a backport, it leaves a comment on the source PR (if one is associated with the commit) explaining its reasoning, with instructions for forcing a backport via workflow_dispatch.

Conflict handling. If the cherry-pick fails due to conflicts, the action first auto-resolves conflicts in directories that are not maintained on stable (docs app files under docs/ except docs/content/, and any files under skills/) by keeping the stable branch version. It also auto-resolves pnpm-lock.yaml conflicts by re-running pnpm install. Any remaining conflicts are resolved using opencode (AI-powered conflict resolution); the resulting backport PR notes that conflicts were AI-resolved and must be reviewed carefully. If AI cannot resolve the conflicts, the action comments on the original PR with instructions for manual resolution.

Pre-release Lifecycle

The main branch uses changesets' pre-release mode to publish beta versions.

Starting a new pre-release cycle:

  1. Create a changeset with the desired base bump (e.g. major for a new major version)
  2. Enter pre-release mode: pnpm changeset pre enter beta
  3. Merge the "Version Packages (beta)" PR to publish the first beta

Publishing subsequent betas:

  • Merge PRs with changesets to main as normal
  • Each "Version Packages (beta)" PR merge publishes the next beta.N increment

Graduating to stable:

  1. (Optional) Transition to release candidates: pnpm changeset pre enter rc (publishes X.Y.Z-rc.N)
  2. Exit pre-release mode: pnpm changeset pre exit
  3. The next "Version Packages" PR will publish the final stable version to npm

Common Patterns

Build-time Version Injection

Use genversion to access package version at runtime. See @workflow/core and @workflow/world-vercel for examples:

  • Add genversion as devDependency
  • Update build script: genversion --es6 src/version.ts && tsc
  • Add src/version.ts to .gitignore and turbo.json outputs

Turbo Caching for Generated Files

When a build step generates files, add them to the package's turbo.json outputs array to ensure proper caching.

Architecture Notes

executionContext Field

The executionContext field on workflow runs is a flexible JSONB/CBOR object that can store arbitrary data without schema changes. It flows through all worlds (local, postgres, vercel).

Observability Data Hydration

packages/core/src/observability.ts contains hydrateResourceIO which strips certain fields (like executionContext) before UI display. If you need to display data from stripped fields, extract it before the stripping occurs.