windmill/CONTEXT.md

Windmill

Open-source platform for internal tools, workflows, API integrations, background jobs and UIs. This file pins the vocabulary that is specific to Windmill's domain, so that code, docs and reviews name the same thing the same way.

Language

Flows

Step: One node of a flow — the unit a user selects in the graph and configures in the right-hand panel. Typed as FlowModule in code. Avoid: module (ambiguous with the architectural sense), node, action

Step setting: A per-step runtime option stored on the step itself: retries, error handling, timeout, concurrency limit, priority, cache, debounce, early stop, skip, suspend, sleep, lifetime. Distinct from the step's inputs and its code. The panel that edits them is the run settings tab; a single setting is still a step setting. Avoid: advanced setting, step config, flow option

Configured: Said of a step setting whose config object is present on the step. Deliberately not the same as "would change the runtime's behaviour" — a setting can be configured and still be a no-op (sleep of 0). Every surface that answers "is this setting on?" answers it this way. Avoid: enabled, active, effective

Trigger step: The first step of a polling flow. It runs on a schedule and returns the items found since its last run; an empty return means there is nothing to process and the flow stops early, marked skipped rather than failed. Avoid: poll script, trigger node, schedule step

Default predicate: The stop_after_if expression seeded onto a trigger step at creation, encoding what "nothing new" looks like. One value, owned in one place, shared by every path that creates a trigger step.

Connect: Arming an input so that the next property picked fills it. A property can be picked from the prop picker or, when the panel is docked beside the graph, by clicking a step node's output. At most one input is armed per panel, so a pick always has exactly one destination. Avoid: link, bind, plug (the icon is a plug; the action is connecting)

Step input: One argument of a step, edited in the step's input form. Its prop picker is a pane beside the form, always visible, so previous results can be browsed without connecting. Avoid: argument field, param

Expression input: Any other place a property can be picked into: the loop iterator, skip and early-stop predicates, the retry condition, a branch predicate, timeout. Its prop picker opens in a popover from the connect button rather than taking a pane. Avoid: JS field, code input

Permissions

Member: A user or group granted a role on a folder, a group, or an item's extra ACL. The list of them is "Members (n)" everywhere it is shown, and one is added with "Add member". Avoid: participant, collaborator, owner, ACL entry, permission (that names the concept, not the people)

Role: The access level a member holds: viewer, writer or admin on a folder; member or admin on a group. Viewers read, writers also edit, admins also manage the members. A group role of manager — manages the group without belonging to it — is a legacy state the UI shows and can leave, but offers no way to enter. Avoid: permission level, access level, rank

Owner: Reserved for the path prefix that says where an item lives — u/alice or f/team. A folder's owners column in the database is its admin members; call those admins, never owners, in the UI. Avoid: using "owner" for a folder admin