Workflow engine
The Workflow Engine defines and runs atomic workflows, specifying what each task receives, how it works, what it produces and what happens next.
Workflow definitions
Section titled “Workflow definitions”A workflow definition is authored as a draft and published in versions, preserving earlier versions for existing runs. It defines the steps and the rules for evaluation, revision, and promotion of work.
Workflow runs
Section titled “Workflow runs”A run executes a published workflow version and can be linked to an issue. Alongside each step’s outputs, it captures cost, execution time and quality evidence to support workflow evaluations and comparisons between task configurations.
- Executions
- 7
- Tokens
- 2.8M
- Cost
- $3.58
- Duration
- 8m 10s
Workflow steps
Section titled “Workflow steps”A workflow combines tasks with routing and composition. Authoring and evaluation are task roles: each uses its own instructions and expected outputs.
| Step type | What you define | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Start | Required and optional workflow inputs. | Accept a source document and optional supporting material. |
| Agent task | The work an agent performs and how it is configured. | Produce an artifact or evaluate its quality. |
| Human gate | The approval or decision needed to continue. | Approve work, request changes or choose the next action. |
| Branch | Conditions and the routes they select. | Route work for revision when an evaluation identifies blocking findings. |
| Subworkflow | Another workflow to call and the inputs and outputs to map. | Pass an artifact to a reusable review workflow and receive its evaluation. |
| Terminal | An end state and the outputs returned by that outcome. | Return the completed artifact or end when the revision limit is reached. |
Parallel steps
Section titled “Parallel steps”Parallel steps run at the same time. A shared next step starts as soon as all preceding parallel steps have completed, with their outputs available as context.
Routing and revision
Section titled “Routing and revision”- Routing: branch conditions determine which steps run next.
- Revision: results return to an earlier task for further work, with a revision limit and a route for when that limit is reached.
Agent task configuration
Section titled “Agent task configuration”Harness, model and effort
Section titled “Harness, model and effort”These are the only settings you can change without publishing a new workflow version. Test different harnesses, models and effort levels against the same version.
Choose which harnesses can run the task and their model and effort preferences.
| Setting | What you configure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Harness | Enable multiple harnesses to distribute task runs between them. | Codex CLI |
| Model | Preferred model for each harness. | gpt-6-astra |
| Effort | Reasoning effort for the selected model. | Medium |
Primary and additional skills
Section titled “Primary and additional skills”Workflows require durable instructions, provided by a versioned primary skill instead of prompts.
- Primary skill: durable, versioned task instructions included in the initial context capsule.
- Additional skills: versioned supporting instructions made available to the agent, but not included in the initial context capsule.
Context configuration
Section titled “Context configuration”Every task receives issue and workflow context. Use the Context picker to select additional inputs:
- Workflow inputs: values supplied when the workflow run starts.
- Step outputs: results from earlier connected steps.
Tools and operations
Section titled “Tools and operations”Select tools and operations to determine what the agent can read and change.
| Tool | Operations |
|---|---|
| Issues | Read and create issues; update content, status, priority, type, assignment, labels and relationships. |
| Findings | Read, record and collate findings; resolve, supersede, dismiss, accept risk or carry findings forward. |
| Evaluations | Read and record evaluations. |
| Artifacts | Read artifacts; create, edit, abandon and finalise drafts; record typed fields and validation results; request promotion. |
| Decisions | Read and create decision candidates; prepare ratification drafts, link responses, ratify or supersede outcomes. |
| Workflow definitions | Read definitions; create and edit drafts, update metadata and publish versions. |
| Workflow runs | Start, stop and resume workflow runs; read run state, attempts and results; record checkpoints and clear downstream blockers. |
Outputs
Section titled “Outputs”Tools create the task’s results, such as artifacts, evaluations and findings. Name each output so later steps can clearly identify and use the result.