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Introduction

workflow-engine is a headless workflow automation engine for Laravel. It lets you define workflows — a trigger followed by a graph of nodes — and execute them synchronously, asynchronously, or from the command line, without shipping a UI.

A workflow is a small JSON-shaped definition:

  • A trigger decides when a workflow should run (manually, on a webhook, on a schedule, or on an Eloquent model event).
  • Nodes are the steps the workflow performs (log a message, call an HTTP endpoint, update a database record, branch on a condition, loop over a collection, and more).
  • Edges connect nodes together, optionally along a named branch (e.g. a Condition node's true/false outcomes).

Workflows are stored as data (file or database), not code, so they can be authored interactively, generated programmatically, or edited by a future UI — the engine itself doesn't care how the definition was produced.

Why headless?​

Most workflow builders ship as a full product: a visual canvas, a hosted runtime, an opinionated UI. workflow-engine is the opposite — it's a Composer package you add to an existing Laravel application. You bring the interface (a console command is included, and the same public API can power a custom UI); the package provides the execution engine, node library, storage, and testing tools.

Features​

  • Trigger-driven execution — Manual, Webhook, Schedule (cron), and Eloquent Model event triggers included.
  • A large built-in node library — logic (condition, switch, loop), variables, HTTP, files, Eloquent model CRUD, math, text, date/time, and collection operations.
  • An expression language — reference trigger/node output and call chained helper methods with {{ trigger.email }}, {{ nodes.query.result.first() }}, etc.
  • Suspend and resume — nodes like Wait and Call Workflow can suspend an execution and resume it later without re-running earlier steps.
  • Pluggable storage — file-based (git-friendly) or database-backed storage for workflows and executions, configured independently.
  • An interactive builder — php artisan workflow:build walks you through constructing a workflow definition from the terminal, including a full interactive JSON builder.
  • A fluent schema API for custom nodes — declare a node's configuration form with Schema::text(), Schema::select(), Schema::group(), and friends, including fields whose options resolve dynamically at prompt time.
  • First-class testing support — Workflow::fake() and a set of assertions for testing that your application triggers workflows correctly, without needing to assert on the workflow's internals.

Where to go next​