workflow-orchestration-patterns

Installation
Summary

Design durable distributed workflows with Temporal, separating orchestration logic from external interactions.

  • Workflows handle orchestration and decision-making (must be deterministic); activities handle external calls like APIs and databases (must be idempotent)
  • Implements saga pattern with compensation for distributed transactions, entity workflows for long-lived state management, and fan-out/fan-in for parallel execution
  • Automatic state preservation across failures via event history; workflows replay deterministically from last checkpoint
  • Covers determinism constraints (no threading, random(), system time, or direct I/O in workflows), retry policies, heartbeats for long-running activities, and idempotency requirements
SKILL.md

Workflow Orchestration Patterns

Master workflow orchestration architecture with Temporal, covering fundamental design decisions, resilience patterns, and best practices for building reliable distributed systems.

When to Use Workflow Orchestration

Ideal Use Cases (Source: docs.temporal.io)

  • Multi-step processes spanning machines/services/databases
  • Distributed transactions requiring all-or-nothing semantics
  • Long-running workflows (hours to years) with automatic state persistence
  • Failure recovery that must resume from last successful step
  • Business processes: bookings, orders, campaigns, approvals
  • Entity lifecycle management: inventory tracking, account management, cart workflows
  • Infrastructure automation: CI/CD pipelines, provisioning, deployments
  • Human-in-the-loop systems requiring timeouts and escalations

When NOT to Use

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