workflow-orchestration-patterns

Design durable, long-running distributed workflows with Temporal using workflow/activity separation, sagas, and state management.

• Orchestrate long-running, distributed processes with Temporal.
• Separate orchestration (workflow) from external interactions (activity).
• Implement distributed transactions via saga patterns with compensation.
• Manage entity lifecycles with entity workflows (actor model).

• Workflows must be deterministic (same inputs → same outputs).
• Activities can be non-deterministic but must be idempotent.
• Automatic state preservation across failures and restarts.
• Supports parallel execution via fan-out/fan-in patterns.
• Enables recovery from crashes with full event history replay.
• Saga patterns allow rollback with compensation actions.
• Workflows cannot use threading, locks, or system time.
• Workflows cannot perform direct I/O or network calls.

1. 1.Identify multi-step, long-running processes needing resilience.
2. 2.Separate orchestration (workflow) from external calls (activity).
3. 3.Use sagas with compensation for distributed transactions.
4. 4.Spawn parallel activities/workflows for scalability.
5. 5.Ensure all activities are idempotent and workflows are deterministic.