The backport workflow's PR comments told people to "paste this commit SHA into the `ref` input". `ref` is the input's YAML name and appears nowhere in the Run workflow dialog, which labels inputs by their description. The one visibly ref-named control there is "Use workflow from", which selects the branch the workflow file is read from and rejects a raw SHA. Name the field by its visible label instead, and say which control it is not. Also correct what a manual dispatch actually buys you. A forced run skips the AI *decision*; it does not skip AI *conflict resolution*, which runs unconditionally whenever the cherry-pick conflicts. So "once the underlying issue is fixed, re-run" was the wrong advice for the failure that prompted this: every run since 2026-08-21 18:31 died on `API key budget exceeded` from the AI Gateway, including a forced dispatch that resolved its SHA and cherry-picked correctly before hitting the same wall. The failure comment now lists an out-of-budget key among the causes and carries the manual cherry-pick recipe, which previously lived only in the conflict comment that an infra failure never reaches. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Workflow SDK makes TypeScript and JavaScript functions durable. It persists workflow progress, retries failed steps, and provides built-in observability. Workflows can suspend without using compute while they wait.
Quick start
Install the SDK in an existing project:
npm install workflow
Configure the integration for your framework. For example, with Next.js:
// next.config.ts
import { withWorkflow } from 'workflow/next';
export default withWorkflow({});
Then start a workflow from an API route, Server Action, or other server-side code:
import { start } from 'workflow/api';
import { onboardUser } from './workflows/onboard-user';
await start(onboardUser, ['hello@example.com']);
Run your app, then open the local observability UI in another terminal:
npm run dev
npx workflow web
Choose your framework in the getting-started guides.
Note
The
workflowpackage includes its full documentation, so coding agents can read version-matched guides locally fromnode_modules/workflow/docs.
Run anywhere
Local development uses the bundled backend with no configuration. Deploy to Vercel for managed storage, queuing, scaling, and observability. To self-host, use the Postgres backend or implement a custom World.
There are many third-party Worlds (both self-hosted or managed), see the Worlds page for a list of maintainer-curated third party worlds. Submit your world by opening updating the Worlds Manifest.
Community
The Workflow SDK community lives on GitHub Discussions, where you can ask questions, share ideas, and show what you have built.
Contributing
Contributions are welcome. Use issues and discussions to collaborate with the team and wider community. By participating, you agree to our Code of Conduct.
Security
If you believe you have found a security vulnerability in Workflow SDK, we encourage you to responsibly disclose this and not open a public issue.
To participate in our Open Source Software Bug Bounty program, please email responsible.disclosure@vercel.com. We will add you to the program and provide further instructions for submitting your report.