name: dust-temporal description: Step-by-step guide for creating Temporal workflows in Dust. Use when adding background jobs, async processing, durable workflows, or task queues.

Creating Temporal Workflows

This skill guides you through creating Temporal workflows for durable background processing.

Quick Reference

Files Structure (per queue)

temporal/your_queue/
├── config.ts          # Queue name and version
├── helpers.ts         # Workflow ID generators
├── activities.ts      # Activity implementations (DB, API calls)
├── workflows.ts       # Workflow orchestration
├── worker.ts          # Worker setup
└── client.ts          # Workflow launcher functions

Key Concepts

Workflow: Durable, deterministic function that orchestrates activities
Activity: Non-deterministic function with side effects (DB, API calls)
Task Queue: Named queue where workflows/activities execute
Workflow ID: Unique identifier for idempotency

Step-by-Step Implementation

Step 1: Create Queue Configuration

Create temporal/your_queue/config.ts:

const QUEUE_VERSION = 1;
export const QUEUE_NAME = `your-queue-v${QUEUE_VERSION}`;

Step 2: Create Workflow ID Helper

Create temporal/your_queue/helpers.ts:

export function makeYourWorkflowId({ entityId }: { entityId: string }): string {
  return `your-workflow-${entityId}`;
}

Important: Workflow IDs must be deterministic (same inputs = same ID) for idempotency.

Step 3: Create Activities

Create temporal/your_queue/activities.ts:

import { YourResource } from "@app/lib/resources/your_resource";
import logger from "@app/logger/logger";

export async function yourActivity({
  entityId,
  workspaceId,
}: {
  entityId: string;
  workspaceId: number;
}): Promise<void> {
  const entity = await YourResource.fetchById(entityId);
  if (!entity) {
    throw new Error(`Entity not found: ${entityId}`);
  }

  const result = await entity.doSomething();
  if (result.isErr()) {
    logger.error({ entityId, error: result.error }, "Failed to process entity");
    throw new Error(`Failed to process: ${result.error.message}`);
  }
}

Guidelines: Activities perform side effects, can throw (Temporal retries), should be idempotent.

Step 4: Create Workflow

Create temporal/your_queue/workflows.ts:

import { proxyActivities } from "@temporalio/workflow";
import type * as activities from "@app/temporal/your_queue/activities";

const { yourActivity } = proxyActivities<typeof activities>({
  startToCloseTimeout: "5 minutes",
});

export async function yourWorkflow({
  entityId,
  workspaceId,
}: {
  entityId: string;
  workspaceId: number;
}): Promise<void> {
  await yourActivity({ entityId, workspaceId });
}

Guidelines: Workflows are deterministic - no Math.random(), Date.now(), etc.

Step 5: Create Client Launcher

Create temporal/your_queue/client.ts:

import { WorkflowExecutionAlreadyStartedError } from "@temporalio/client";
import { getTemporalClientForFrontNamespace } from "@app/lib/temporal";
import logger from "@app/logger/logger";
import { QUEUE_NAME } from "@app/temporal/your_queue/config";
import { makeYourWorkflowId } from "@app/temporal/your_queue/helpers";
import { yourWorkflow } from "@app/temporal/your_queue/workflows";
import type { Result } from "@app/types";
import { Err, normalizeError, Ok } from "@app/types";

export async function launchYourWorkflow({
  entityId,
  workspaceId,
}: {
  entityId: string;
  workspaceId: number;
}): Promise<Result<undefined, Error>> {
  const client = await getTemporalClientForFrontNamespace();
  const workflowId = makeYourWorkflowId({ entityId });

  try {
    await client.workflow.start(yourWorkflow, {
      args: [{ entityId, workspaceId }],
      taskQueue: QUEUE_NAME,
      workflowId,
      memo: { entityId, workspaceId },
    });
    return new Ok(undefined);
  } catch (e) {
    if (!(e instanceof WorkflowExecutionAlreadyStartedError)) {
      logger.error({ workflowId, entityId, workspaceId, error: e }, "Failed starting workflow");
    }
    return new Err(normalizeError(e));
  }
}

Step 6: Create Worker

Create temporal/your_queue/worker.ts:

import type { Context } from "@temporalio/activity";
import { Worker } from "@temporalio/worker";
import { getTemporalWorkerConnection, TEMPORAL_MAXED_CACHED_WORKFLOWS } from "@app/lib/temporal";
import { ActivityInboundLogInterceptor } from "@app/lib/temporal_monitoring";
import logger from "@app/logger/logger";
import * as activities from "@app/temporal/your_queue/activities";
import { getWorkflowConfig } from "@app/temporal/bundle_helper";
import { QUEUE_NAME } from "./config";

export async function runYourQueueWorker() {
  const { connection, namespace } = await getTemporalWorkerConnection();

  const worker = await Worker.create({
    ...getWorkflowConfig({
      workerName: "your_queue",
      getWorkflowsPath: () => require.resolve("./workflows"),
    }),
    activities,
    taskQueue: QUEUE_NAME,
    maxCachedWorkflows: TEMPORAL_MAXED_CACHED_WORKFLOWS,
    maxConcurrentActivityTaskExecutions: 16,
    connection,
    namespace,
    interceptors: {
      activityInbound: [(ctx: Context) => new ActivityInboundLogInterceptor(ctx, logger)],
    },
  });

  await worker.run();
}

Step 7: Register Worker (Critical!)

Edit temporal/worker_registry.ts:

// 1. Add import
import { runYourQueueWorker } from "@app/temporal/your_queue/worker";

// 2. Add to WorkerName type
export type WorkerName =
  | "agent_loop"
  // ... existing workers
  | "your_queue"; // <- Add this

// 3. Add to workerFunctions mapping
export const workerFunctions: Record<WorkerName, () => Promise<void>> = {
  // ... existing workers
  your_queue: runYourQueueWorker, // <- Add this
};

Without registration, workflows will never execute!

Timeout & Retry Configuration

const { yourActivity } = proxyActivities<typeof activities>({
  startToCloseTimeout: "5 minutes",
  retry: {
    maximumAttempts: 3,
    initialInterval: "1s",
    backoffCoefficient: 2,
    maximumInterval: "1m",
    nonRetryableErrorTypes: ["ValidationError"],
  },
});

Validation Checklist

Queue config created with versioned name
Workflow ID helper is deterministic
Activities handle errors properly
Workflow uses proxyActivities with appropriate timeouts
Client returns Result<> and handles WorkflowExecutionAlreadyStartedError
Worker registered in worker_registry.ts
Tested locally

Reference Examples

See temporal/ directory for existing implementations.

dust-temporal

Installation

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Usage

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