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Workflows

Draw a pipeline on the builder canvas, wire its steps together, save it as a version, and activate it.

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A workflow is a graph. Steps are the boxes, and an arrow from one box to another means "wait for that one to finish, then run". Hodoflow executes the graph, not a script, so anything without an arrow between it and another step runs in parallel.

Workflows in the sidebar lists everything you have saved. New Workflow, or opening an existing one, takes you to the builder. The builder is desktop only — on a phone you get the read-only graph view instead.

The canvas

A brand-new workflow opens on the trigger wizard, because a workflow with nothing to start it can never run. Pick Webhook, Scheduled, Kafka, or No trigger (subflow); the next screen configures whichever you chose. Triggers and webhooks covers all of them.

Steps come from a searchable palette rather than a drag-and-drop tray. Press Cmd/Ctrl + K, or click the + beneath a selected step, or click the + under the Start here — add the first step card on an empty canvas. Type in Search steps… and the palette narrows; a Recent section remembers what you reached for last.

The + under a selected step also offers On error… and Compensate…. Those add the same step types, wired with a different kind of arrow: an on-error edge runs its target only when the parent fails, and a compensate edge runs its target to undo work when the run unwinds. You can change any existing arrow between Normal, On error, and Compensate by right-clicking it.

Connections are drawn by dragging from one step's handle to another's. While you drag, every step the connection cannot legally reach outlines itself in red — that is either a cycle, or a step already reachable from where you started. Hodoflow keeps the graph free of arrows that another path already implies, so adding a shortcut can silently remove one; a toast at the bottom of the screen tells you when that happened and why.

A step with no arrow coming into it shows No parent step on the card and counts toward the invalid nodes total in the toolbar. It will not stop you saving, but it will stop you activating.

Click a step to open the inspector on the right. Name is the label you see on the canvas, API Name is the identifier formulas use to reach this step's output, and the Configuration and Policy tabs hold everything else. Select several steps and the panel switches to Duplicate, Copy, and Delete for the whole selection.

Positions do not matter. Only the connections are saved, and Hodoflow runs its own layout every time you open a workflow — Auto Layout in the toolbar re-runs it on demand and never counts as a change.

Step types

Thirteen step types exist. Seven have an entry in the step palette and can be added to a workflow today; the other six run in the engine but have no way into the builder yet. The identifier in the first column is what the Type column shows when you inspect a run.

Step type Palette name What it does
http_request HTTP Request Calls any HTTP endpoint and passes the response to the steps below.
api_request API Request Calls one operation from an imported API Spec, with its parameters typed for you.
harmonizer Map to Data Model Maps incoming fields onto a data model and saves the result to the warehouse as a record.
filter_list Filter List Keeps only the items of an upstream list that match a condition, and skips the branch below when nothing survives.
data_transform Data Transform Reshapes, renames, and computes fields with formulas before the next step reads them.
conditional Conditional Evaluates its branch conditions top to bottom and sends the run down the first one that matches, or down Default.
subflow Subflow Runs another workflow as a run of its own and continues with whatever it returns.
delay — Parks the run until a fixed instant and frees the slot until then. The deadline is recorded when the run suspends, so a resume never restarts the clock.
kafka_produce — Publishes one message to a Kafka topic through a Kafka connector.
snowflake_query — Runs a SELECT against Snowflake through a Snowflake connector.
snowflake_write — Writes rows into a Snowflake table, by insert, merge, or truncate-and-insert.
s3_read — Downloads one object, or lists objects under a prefix, from S3-compatible storage.
s3_write — Writes one object to S3-compatible storage.

Running a step once per item

HTTP Request, API Request, Data Transform, and Subflow each get an Iteration section in the inspector. Leave Mode on Run once with the whole payload and the step behaves normally. Switch it to Run once per item and you get:

  • Source list — the path to the list to walk, like fetch.data for an upstream step's whole output or fetch.data.stations for a list inside it. Each element is available to formulas as item. Upstream lists Hodoflow can already see are offered as clickable chips.
  • When an item fails — Fail the run, or Skip and count, which attempts every element and lets the step succeed on the rest.
  • Advanced — how many items run at once, a delay between them, and a Max items ceiling that refuses the step before any item runs.

Saving and versions

Nothing is written until you press Save. Until then the toolbar shows Unsaved changes, and you can rearrange, delete, and reconnect freely.

Every version of a workflow is its own record, sharing a group with the others. Editing a version that has been published turns the button into Save as New Version and the indicator into Draft changes: your edits fork a new version rather than rewriting the one that is live. A version that was never published keeps taking plain saves.

The version number sits beside the workflow name in the header as v1, v2, and so on. Edit details changes the name and description without touching the graph.

Back on the Workflows list, each workflow collapses into one row with a version count. Expand it and every version is there with its state — Active, Inactive, or Draft — plus Published date, and Activate, Deactivate, Delete, and Open as appropriate. Deleting a version deletes its runs too, and cannot be undone.

Activation

A saved workflow is not a running workflow. Press Activate.

The button stays disabled while anything obvious is wrong, and its tooltip says which thing: Save changes before activating, Fix invalid nodes before activating, Add at least one trigger before activating, Add at least one step before activating, Connect every step to the flow. Some have no incoming path, or Re-sample stale sources before activating.

When you press it, Hodoflow checks the version properly and refuses with a message naming the first problem it found:

  • A workflow must have at least one trigger, unless it is a subflow. Subflows are invoked by other workflows, so they are exempt.
  • Every step must be fully configured.
  • Every Map to Data Model step needs field mappings, and its data model needs a primary key field that is mapped.
  • The steps must connect to the trigger, with no disconnected steps.
  • The graph must have no cycles.
  • No source schema may be stale. If a source's configuration changed since it was last sampled, a banner offers Re-sample per source.

Activating a version deactivates whichever version of that workflow was live before, so exactly one version of a workflow ever runs.

Deactivate takes it offline: webhooks for that workflow start being rejected, its schedules are cancelled, and its Kafka consumers stop. Runs already in progress continue to completion. Deactivating is always allowed and never forks a version.

Watching runs

Workflows → Monitor is the run history. Its table shows Time, Workflow, Status, Duration, and Source, filtered by workflow version and by time range. Turn on Live Tail and new runs stream in as they happen.

A run's status is one of pending, running, completed, failed, or suspended. Suspended is normal — it is what a run looks like while it waits out a delay or waits for a subflow.

Click a run to open its steps in order, each with its own status, duration, and error. A failed run also gets a Run again from the failure panel with a Retry Run button. Every step that finished is kept, and only the steps that never finished run again.

Occasionally a run stops between issuing an external call and recording what came back, and the panel above the retry asks you to say what happened under Unaccounted-for external calls. Check with the provider, then answer Never sent — which lets the step run again — or Went through, which keeps the failure rather than repeating the call. Retry stays disabled until you do, because Hodoflow cannot know whether repeating the call is safe.

The Analytics tab on the same page totals Total Runs, Completed, Failed, and Avg Duration for whatever the filters are set to, with breakdowns by workflow and by status.

From inside the builder, the Monitor button in the toolbar opens the same page pre-filtered to the workflow you are editing.