Quickstart

This walks through defining a workflow in code, storing it, and running it. For the interactive terminal alternative, see Building workflows.

1. Define a workflow

A workflow is data. Build it with Workflow::fromArray() and hand it to the repository:

use Qanna\WorkflowEngine\Engine\Nodes\Logic\ConditionNode;
use Qanna\WorkflowEngine\Engine\Nodes\Action\LogNode;
use Qanna\WorkflowEngine\Engine\Nodes\Model\ModelUpdateNode;
use Qanna\WorkflowEngine\Engine\Triggers\ManualTrigger;
use Qanna\WorkflowEngine\Models\Workflow;
use Qanna\WorkflowEngine\Storage\Contracts\WorkflowRepositoryContract;

$workflow = Workflow::fromArray([
    'id'      => 'flag-large-orders',
    'name'    => 'Flag large orders for review',
    'trigger' => ['type' => ManualTrigger::type(), 'config' => []],
    'nodes'   => [
        [
            'id'     => 'check-total',
            'type'   => ConditionNode::type(),
            'config' => ['field' => '{{ trigger.total }}', 'operator' => '>=', 'value' => '1000'],
        ],
        [
            'id'     => 'flag',
            'type'   => ModelUpdateNode::type(),
            'config' => [
                'model'      => \App\Models\Order::class,
                'key'        => 'id',
                'value'      => '{{ trigger.order_id }}',
                'attributes' => ['status' => 'needs_review'],
            ],
        ],
        [
            'id'     => 'log-small',
            'type'   => LogNode::type(),
            'config' => ['level' => 'info', 'message' => 'Order {{ trigger.order_id }} auto-approved'],
        ],
    ],
    'edges' => [
        ['from' => 'trigger',     'to' => 'check-total', 'branch' => 'main'],
        ['from' => 'check-total', 'to' => 'flag',        'branch' => 'true'],
        ['from' => 'check-total', 'to' => 'log-small',   'branch' => 'false'],
    ],
]);

app(WorkflowRepositoryContract::class)->create($workflow);

Key points:

• The first edge always starts at from: 'trigger'.
• ConditionNode exposes two branches, true and false. The engine only walks the branch that matched.
• {{ trigger.total }} reads from the payload you pass at run time. {{ nodes.<id>.* }} reads a previous node's output. See Context & expressions.

2. Run it

use Qanna\WorkflowEngine\Facades\Workflow;

$execution = Workflow::run('flag-large-orders', [
    'order_id' => 42,
    'total'    => 1499.00,
]);

$execution->status;   // ExecutionStatus::Succeeded
$execution->output;   // the final node's output
$execution->logs;     // per-node timeline

Workflow::run() executes synchronously in the current process and returns a WorkflowExecution. To run it on a queue instead:

Workflow::dispatch('flag-large-orders', ['order_id' => 42, 'total' => 1499.00]);

3. Run it from the CLI

php artisan workflow:run flag-large-orders --payload='{"order_id": 42, "total": 1499}'

Without --payload, the command prompts you for the trigger's inputs interactively and prints the execution timeline. See the CLI reference.

Next steps

• Concepts — how definitions, execution, context, and branching actually work.
• Node reference — every built-in node, its config, and its output.
• Testing — assert on workflow behaviour with Workflow::fake().
• Extending — write your own nodes and triggers.