windmill/system_prompts/base/flow-cli.md

Windmill Flow CLI Guide

Creating a Flow

You — the AI agent — scaffold the flow yourself by running wmill flow new <path> with the right flags. Do NOT hand-create the folder + flow.yaml, and do NOT tell the user to "run wmill flow new and follow the prompts".

wmill flow new creates the folder with the correct suffix (__flow or .flow depending on the workspace's nonDottedPaths setting), writes a minimal flow.yaml shell, and prints Claude-specific next-step hints. Scaffolding by hand skips all of that and often picks the wrong suffix.

Step 1 — Gather path + summary by asking the user

You need two things:

1. path — the windmill path, e.g. f/folder/my_flow or u/username/my_flow.
2. summary — a short description of the flow.

If the user's request didn't supply both, ask for both in a single round-trip. Use whichever interactive question facility your runtime provides — a structured multi-choice tool if available, otherwise plain chat — and provide one or two example values for each (with an "Other" / free-form fallback). Do not guess paths or summaries.

Step 2 — Run the command yourself

wmill flow new f/folder/my_flow --summary "Short description"

Add --description "..." when the user provided a longer explanation worth preserving separately from the summary.

Step 3 — Fill in flow.yaml

Open the generated flow.yaml (under the folder the command just created) and replace the empty value.modules + schema with the real flow definition.

For rawscript modules, use !inline path/to/script.ts for the content key. Inline script files should NOT include .inline_script. in their names (e.g. use a.ts, not a.inline_script.ts).

Once the flow has real content, offer to open the visual preview as a one-sentence next step (e.g. "Want me to open the visual preview?"). Don't auto-open — opening the dev page has side effects (browser window, possibly a launch.json entry) and the user should consent.

Anti-patterns to avoid

• ❌ Hand-creating the __flow folder + flow.yaml instead of running wmill flow new. You'll miss the suffix-setting resolution, the default shape, and the Claude hints.
• ❌ Telling the user to "run wmill flow new <path>" — you can and should run it yourself.
• ❌ Inventing a path/summary instead of asking the user.

CLI Commands — running, previewing, deploying

After writing, act on the user's intent instead of just listing commands. Run wmill flow preview yourself when it fits (see "After writing — offer to run, don't wait passively" below). wmill generate-metadata regenerates local lock/hash files (not a deploy) but re-resolves deps — offer it and run on agreement, unless the project's AGENTS.md opts into running metadata automatically. Only name wmill sync push (the deploy) so the user can approve it. The options:

• wmill flow preview <flow_path> — default when iterating on a local flow. Runs the local flow.yaml against local inline scripts without deploying. Add --remote to use deployed workspace scripts for PathScript steps instead of local files. Add --step <step_id> to run only one module in isolation (see "Single-step vs whole-flow preview" below).
• wmill flow run <path> — runs the flow already deployed in the workspace. Use only when the user explicitly wants to test the deployed version, not local edits.
• wmill generate-metadata — regenerate stale local .lock files for the flow and its inline scripts and refresh their content hashes in wmill-lock.yaml. Writes local files only (not a deploy). Run it after editing inline scripts whose imports or arguments changed, so wmill-lock.yaml doesn't drift and add noise to git-sync/CI. By default it scans scripts, flows, and apps across the workspace but only regenerates stale ones; pass the flow's folder as an argument (or run from that subdirectory) to limit the scope to the flow you edited. Note a flow (or script) that imports a changed shared script is pulled in too — run wmill generate-metadata --dry-run to see exactly what is stale and why (content changed vs depends on <path>) before applying.
• wmill sync push — deploy local changes to the workspace. Only suggest/run this when the user explicitly asks to deploy/publish/push — not when they say "run", "try", or "test".

Preview vs run — choose by intent, not habit

If the user says "run the flow", "try it", "test it", "does it work" while there are local edits to a flow.yaml, use flow preview. Do NOT push the flow to then flow run it — pushing is a deploy, and deploying just to test overwrites the workspace version with untested changes.

Only use flow run when:

• The user explicitly says "run the deployed version" / "run what's on the server".
• There is no local flow.yaml being edited (you're just invoking an existing flow).

Only use sync push when:

• The user explicitly asks to deploy, publish, push, or ship.
• The preview has already validated the change and the user wants it in the workspace.

Single-step vs whole-flow preview

Use flow preview <flow_path> --step <step_id> when the user is iterating on one module and the flow's upstream steps aren't part of what they're trying to validate. It runs only that step's runnable (rawscript: the inline script; script: the PathScript, locally if available; flow: the subflow by path) and is much faster than running the whole flow when previous steps are slow or expensive. The step id is resolved by walking nested branchone/branchall/forloopflow/whileloopflow modules and includes the special preprocessor and failure modules.

Use flow preview <flow_path> (no --step) when steps depend on each other's outputs, when the user is validating the overall control flow, or when --step doesn't apply (branchone, branchall, forloopflow, whileloopflow, identity, and AI agent steps cannot themselves be tested in isolation — for branchone/branchall/forloopflow/whileloopflow, the contained steps can, by passing the inner step's id).

After writing — offer to run, don't wait passively

This is about programmatic execution (wmill flow preview -d '<args>'), which actually runs the flow and has side effects. Visual preview (the preview skill) is offered separately — see "Visual preview" below.

If the user hasn't already told you to run/test the flow, offer it as a one-sentence next step (e.g. "Want me to run wmill flow preview with sample args?"). Do not present a multi-option menu.

If the user already asked to test/run/try the flow in their original request, skip the offer and just execute wmill flow preview <path> -d '<args>' directly — pick plausible args from the flow's input schema.

wmill flow preview is safe to run yourself (it does not deploy). wmill generate-metadata does not deploy either (it only writes local lock/hash files) but re-resolves deps — offer it and run on agreement, unless the project's AGENTS.md opts into automatic metadata. After running it, check the regenerated .lock diff and tell the user which inline-script dependency versions changed, so they can catch an unwanted bump before deploying. Only wmill sync push deploys; run it only when the user explicitly asks.

Visual preview

To open the flow visually in the dev page (graph + live reload), use the preview skill. Always offer it as a one-sentence next step (e.g. "Want me to open the visual preview?") rather than opening it automatically — opening the dev page has side effects (browser window, possibly a launch.json entry under MCP-preview branches) the user should consent to. If the user already asked to see/preview/visualize the flow in their original request, skip the offer and just invoke the skill.