windmill/system_prompts/base/workflow-as-code.md

Windmill Workflow-as-Code Writing Guide

Scope

Use this guide when writing or modifying Windmill Workflow-as-Code (WAC) scripts. WAC is authored as a Windmill script and deployed with the normal script workflow. It is not an OpenFlow YAML flow.

Supported WAC authoring targets:

• Bun TypeScript scripts that import from windmill-client
• Python 3 scripts that import from wmill

File Shape

Bun TypeScript:

import {
  task,
  taskScript,
  taskFlow,
  step,
  sleep,
  waitForApproval,
  getApprovalUrls,
  parallel,
  workflow,
} from "windmill-client";

const process = task(async (x: string): Promise<string> => {
  return `processed: ${x}`;
});

export const main = workflow(async (x: string) => {
  const result = await process(x);
  return { result };
});

Python:

from wmill import task, task_script, task_flow, step, sleep, wait_for_approval, get_approval_urls, parallel, workflow

@task()
async def process(x: str) -> str:
    return f"processed: {x}"

@workflow
async def main(x: str):
    result = await process(x)
    return {"result": result}

Rules:

• Do not call main.
• Bun TypeScript should export the workflow entrypoint, preferably export const main = workflow(async (...) => { ... }).
• Python must use @workflow on an async top-level function, usually main.
• Define task functions and taskScript/task_script or taskFlow/task_flow assignments at module top level with stable names.
• Use the exact SDK names. Do not alias workflow, task, taskScript, taskFlow, step, sleep, waitForApproval, task_script, task_flow, or wait_for_approval; the WAC parser recognizes these names directly.

Checkpoint And Replay Model

The parent workflow may rerun from the top after any suspension, retry, approval, or child task completion. Completed durable steps are replayed from the checkpoint.

Put every side effect or non-deterministic value behind a durable WAC boundary:

• Use task() / @task() for substantial work that should run as its own child job.
• Use taskScript() / task_script() for an existing script or a relative module file.
• Use taskFlow() / task_flow() for an existing Windmill flow.
• Use step(name, fn) for lightweight inline work whose result must be checkpointed.
• Use sleep(seconds) for server-side sleeps that do not hold a worker.
• Use waitForApproval() / wait_for_approval() for external approval suspension.

Never put API calls, database writes, notifications, random values, timestamps, or irreversible changes directly in the top-level workflow body. The workflow body can be rerun. Put those operations in a task or in step().

Branching on task or step results is safe because those results are checkpointed. Branching on current time, random data, environment reads, or external state is unsafe unless the value is first captured with step().

Tasks

Use task() / @task() for inline functions that become workflow steps:

const enrich = task(async (customerId: string) => {
  return await fetchCustomer(customerId);
});

@task(timeout=600, tag="etl")
async def enrich(customer_id: str):
    return await fetch_customer(customer_id)

In TypeScript, prefer assigning each task to a named top-level const. In Python, prefer top-level async functions decorated with @task() or @task.

For existing scripts:

const helper = taskScript("./helper.ts");
const existing = taskScript("f/data/extract", { timeout: 600 });
const value = await helper({ input: x });

helper = task_script("./helper.py")
existing = task_script("f/data/extract", timeout=600)
value = await helper(input=x)

For existing flows:

const pipeline = taskFlow("f/etl/pipeline");
const output = await pipeline({ input: data });

pipeline = task_flow("f/etl/pipeline")
output = await pipeline(input=data)

Inline Steps

Use step() for lightweight inline values that must not change during replay:

const startedAt = await step("started_at", () => new Date().toISOString());

from datetime import datetime

started_at = await step("started_at", lambda: datetime.now().isoformat())

Use stable, descriptive step names. Do not generate step names dynamically.

Parallelism

To run independent work in parallel, start task promises/coroutines before awaiting them together:

const [a, b] = await Promise.all([process("a"), process("b")]);
const many = await parallel(items, process, { concurrency: 5 });

import asyncio

a, b = await asyncio.gather(process("a"), process("b"))
many = await parallel(items, process, concurrency=5)

Only parallelize independent steps. Do not read the result of a task before it is awaited.

Approvals

Name the approval step and generate its URLs inside step() before sending them. getApprovalUrls / get_approval_urls returns the URLs bound to that step, the same ones its built-in approve/reject buttons use:

const urls = await step("urls", () => getApprovalUrls("manager"));
await step("notify", () => sendApprovalEmail(urls.resume, urls.cancel));
const approval = await waitForApproval({ key: "manager", timeout: 3600 });

urls = await step("urls", lambda: get_approval_urls("manager"))
await step("notify", lambda: send_approval_email(urls["resume"], urls["cancel"]))
approval = await wait_for_approval(key="manager", timeout=3600)

With several approvals in one workflow, give each its own key so each notification resumes its own step. Keys must be unique — reusing one raises an error rather than silently renaming the step. A minted URL only resumes while its own step is awaiting approval; used at any other moment it is rejected rather than resuming the wrong one. getResumeUrls() / get_resume_urls() still works but signs a random nonce, so its URLs are not tied to any particular approval step.

selfApproval: false and self_approval=False are Enterprise-only approval behavior. Do not use them unless the user asks for that behavior.

Error Handling

Let task errors fail the workflow unless the user asks for recovery logic.

Python: except Exception is safe around WAC calls because internal suspension inherits from BaseException. Avoid bare except: in workflow code. If the user asks for recovery logic around failed child work, catch TaskError from wmill for task failures.

TypeScript: avoid broad try/catch around WAC SDK calls. The SDK uses an internal suspension error during initial dispatch; catching it can break workflow suspension. If a broad catch is unavoidable, rethrow internal suspension errors before handling business errors.

A caught failure reads the same whether it came from a task or from a step(), and the same in the round that ran the failing body as in every round replaying it. It carries step_key, child_job_id (absent for a step(), which runs in the workflow job and has no child job), a message that is the failure's own message, and result = {"error": {"name", "message", "stack"?, "extra"?}}. name, message and stack are the fields that read the same whichever side failed; name and message are always there, stack only when the failure had a traceback to give. extra carries the failure's own custom fields (an exception's attributes, an error's properties) and is best-effort: it is absent when there were none, and a task can report entries a step does not, so read it defensively and don't branch on its absence. extra is dropped when it is too large to keep in the checkpoint, and extra_omitted: true says so — absent extra with no extra_omitted means the failure simply had no custom fields. Branch on those, not on the original exception type: the workflow body re-runs from the top every round and a replay rebuilds the failure from the checkpoint, so nothing outside that record survives. Python raises TaskError; TypeScript throws an Error named TaskError carrying the same fields. Nothing is chained onto __cause__ / cause — the traceback is in result.error.stack, and is also printed to the job log when the step fails.