Workflows
Learn when to prescribe the path, when to use agent judgement, and how durable execution changes the design of automation.
Intermediate · 10 min
A workflow is a versioned process with an explicit path. It turns a trigger into a sequence of steps that can branch, wait, retry, request approval, and recover without losing its place.
Agent or workflow?
For example, collecting account records, checking a policy, writing a CRM update, and notifying an owner are deterministic workflow steps. Assessing the likely reason a customer is at risk can be an agent step inside that workflow.
Durable execution
Real business processes wait. They wait for an approver, a scheduled time, a rate-limited API, a customer response, or a downstream system to recover. A durable workflow stores progress between steps, so a restart does not repeat work that already succeeded.
Design for recovery
Every external action needs a defined retry behaviour. If repeating the action could create a duplicate payment, notification, or record, the workflow needs an idempotency key, a business identifier, or an explicit remediation path. A retry is safe only when its effect is understood.
Next: Runs, traces, and versions.
Actualizado el 31 ago 2026