workflow-orchestration-patterns

Name: workflow-orchestration-patterns
Author: wshobson

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How to install workflow-orchestration-patterns?

wshobson/agents/workflow-orchestration-patterns

$npx -y skills add wshobson/agents --skill workflow-orchestration-patterns

Installs into the current project.

Summary

Design durable workflows with Temporal for distributed systems. Covers workflow vs activity separation, saga patterns, state management, and determinism constraints. Use when building long-running processes, distributed transactions, or microservice orchestration.

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SKILL.md

1	# Workflow Orchestration Patterns
2
3	Master workflow orchestration architecture with Temporal, covering fundamental design decisions, resilience patterns, and best practices for building reliable distributed systems.
4
5	## When to Use Workflow Orchestration
6
7	### Ideal Use Cases (Source: docs.temporal.io)
8
9	- Multi-step processes spanning machines/services/databases
10	- Distributed transactions requiring all-or-nothing semantics
11	- Long-running workflows (hours to years) with automatic state persistence
12	- Failure recovery that must resume from last successful step
13	- Business processes: bookings, orders, campaigns, approvals
14	- Entity lifecycle management: inventory tracking, account management, cart workflows
15	- Infrastructure automation: CI/CD pipelines, provisioning, deployments
16	- Human-in-the-loop systems requiring timeouts and escalations
17
18	### When NOT to Use
19
20	- Simple CRUD operations (use direct API calls)
21	- Pure data processing pipelines (use Airflow, batch processing)
22	- Stateless request/response (use standard APIs)
23	- Real-time streaming (use Kafka, event processors)
24
25	## Detailed patterns and worked examples
26
27	Detailed pattern documentation lives in `references/details.md`. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.
28
29	## Best Practices
30
31	### Workflow Design
32
33	1. Keep workflows focused - Single responsibility per workflow
34	2. Small workflows - Use child workflows for scalability
35	3. Clear boundaries - Workflow orchestrates, activities execute
36	4. Test locally - Use time-skipping test environment
37
38	### Activity Design
39
40	1. Idempotent operations - Safe to retry
41	2. Short-lived - Seconds to minutes, not hours
42	3. Timeout configuration - Always set timeouts
43	4. Heartbeat for long tasks - Report progress
44	5. Error handling - Distinguish retryable vs non-retryable
45
46	### Common Pitfalls
47
48	Workflow Violations:
49
50	- Using `datetime.now()` instead of `workflow.now()`
51	- Threading or async operations in workflow code
52	- Calling external APIs directly from workflow
53	- Non-deterministic logic in workflows
54
55	Activity Mistakes:
56
57	- Non-idempotent operations (can't handle retries)
58	- Missing timeouts (activities run forever)
59	- No error classification (retry validation errors)
60	- Ignoring payload limits (2MB per argument)
61
62	### Operational Considerations
63
64	Monitoring:
65
66	- Workflow execution duration
67	- Activity failure rates
68	- Retry attempts and backoff
69	- Pending workflow counts
70
71	Scalability:
72
73	- Horizontal scaling with workers
74	- Task queue partitioning
75	- Child workflow decomposition
76	- Activity batching when appropriate
77
78	## Additional Resources
79
80	Official Documentation:
81
82	- Temporal Core Concepts: docs.temporal.io/workflows
83	- Workflow Patterns: docs.temporal.io/evaluate/use-cases-design-patterns
84	- Best Practices: docs.temporal.io/develop/best-practices
85	- Saga Pattern: temporal.io/blog/saga-pattern-made-easy
86
87	Key Principles:
88
89	1. Workflows = orchestration, Activities = external calls
90	2. Determinism is non-negotiable for workflows
91	3. Idempotency is critical for activities
92	4. State preservation is automatic
93	5. Design for failure and recovery

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workflow-orchestration-patterns

9.4kinstalls4.1kforks

View on GitHub

How to install workflow-orchestration-patterns?

wshobson/agents/workflow-orchestration-patterns

$npx -y skills add wshobson/agents --skill workflow-orchestration-patterns

Installs into the current project.

Summary

Files · 1

View on GitHub

SKILL.md

1	# Workflow Orchestration Patterns
2
3	Master workflow orchestration architecture with Temporal, covering fundamental design decisions, resilience patterns, and best practices for building reliable distributed systems.
4
5	## When to Use Workflow Orchestration
6
7	### Ideal Use Cases (Source: docs.temporal.io)
8
9	- Multi-step processes spanning machines/services/databases
10	- Distributed transactions requiring all-or-nothing semantics
11	- Long-running workflows (hours to years) with automatic state persistence
12	- Failure recovery that must resume from last successful step
13	- Business processes: bookings, orders, campaigns, approvals
14	- Entity lifecycle management: inventory tracking, account management, cart workflows
15	- Infrastructure automation: CI/CD pipelines, provisioning, deployments
16	- Human-in-the-loop systems requiring timeouts and escalations
17
18	### When NOT to Use
19
20	- Simple CRUD operations (use direct API calls)
21	- Pure data processing pipelines (use Airflow, batch processing)
22	- Stateless request/response (use standard APIs)
23	- Real-time streaming (use Kafka, event processors)
24
25	## Detailed patterns and worked examples
26
27	Detailed pattern documentation lives in `references/details.md`. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.
28
29	## Best Practices
30
31	### Workflow Design
32
33	1. Keep workflows focused - Single responsibility per workflow
34	2. Small workflows - Use child workflows for scalability
35	3. Clear boundaries - Workflow orchestrates, activities execute
36	4. Test locally - Use time-skipping test environment
37
38	### Activity Design
39
40	1. Idempotent operations - Safe to retry
41	2. Short-lived - Seconds to minutes, not hours
42	3. Timeout configuration - Always set timeouts
43	4. Heartbeat for long tasks - Report progress
44	5. Error handling - Distinguish retryable vs non-retryable
45
46	### Common Pitfalls
47
48	Workflow Violations:
49
50	- Using `datetime.now()` instead of `workflow.now()`
51	- Threading or async operations in workflow code
52	- Calling external APIs directly from workflow
53	- Non-deterministic logic in workflows
54
55	Activity Mistakes:
56
57	- Non-idempotent operations (can't handle retries)
58	- Missing timeouts (activities run forever)
59	- No error classification (retry validation errors)
60	- Ignoring payload limits (2MB per argument)
61
62	### Operational Considerations
63
64	Monitoring:
65
66	- Workflow execution duration
67	- Activity failure rates
68	- Retry attempts and backoff
69	- Pending workflow counts
70
71	Scalability:
72
73	- Horizontal scaling with workers
74	- Task queue partitioning
75	- Child workflow decomposition
76	- Activity batching when appropriate
77
78	## Additional Resources
79
80	Official Documentation:
81
82	- Temporal Core Concepts: docs.temporal.io/workflows
83	- Workflow Patterns: docs.temporal.io/evaluate/use-cases-design-patterns
84	- Best Practices: docs.temporal.io/develop/best-practices
85	- Saga Pattern: temporal.io/blog/saga-pattern-made-easy
86
87	Key Principles:
88
89	1. Workflows = orchestration, Activities = external calls
90	2. Determinism is non-negotiable for workflows
91	3. Idempotency is critical for activities
92	4. State preservation is automatic
93	5. Design for failure and recovery

People who liked this also viewed

6 picks

Type