getting-started.md

Getting Started with Workflow Engine

Prerequisites

• Go 1.26+
• Git

Quick Start

1. Clone and Build

git clone https://github.com/GoCodeAlone/workflow.git
cd workflow
go build -o server ./cmd/server
go build -o wfctl ./cmd/wfctl

2. Run Your First Workflow

./server -config example/simple-workflow-config.yaml

Visit http://localhost:8080 to see your server running.

3. Explore Example Configs

The example/ directory contains 27 top-level example/*.yaml configurations, plus additional configs under application subdirectories:

ls example/*.yaml | head -20

Try the order processing pipeline:

./server -config example/order-processing-pipeline.yaml

4. Validate a Config

./wfctl validate example/order-processing-pipeline.yaml

5. Inspect a Config

./wfctl inspect example/order-processing-pipeline.yaml

This shows modules, workflows, triggers, and the dependency graph.

Understanding YAML Configs

A workflow config has three main sections:

# 1. Modules - the building blocks
modules:
  - name: my-server
    type: http.server
    config:
      address: ":8080"

# 2. Workflows - how modules connect
workflows:
  http:
    routes:
      - method: GET
        path: /hello
        handler: my-handler

# 3. Triggers - what starts execution
triggers:
  - type: http
    config:
      port: 8080

Next Steps

• Building Plugins - Create custom components
• Scaling Workflows - Production deployment
• Chat Platform Walkthrough - Full application example
• API Reference - REST endpoint documentation