Platform · Orchestration

KERNSTACK Workflows

Workflows are KERNSTACK’s orchestration: a named sequence of steps declared in stack.json, where each step runs a function, a worker, an AI model call, or pauses for a human decision. Workflows carry triggers (cron, table events), per-step retries and timeouts, conditional branching on earlier outputs, and a run history in which every attempt and approval is recorded.

Approval Workflows

Talk to us Read Workflows Docs → Software Lifecycle Cloud →

Why teams replace assembled cloud services with KERNSTACK Workflows

Teams otherwise run a state-machine product plus a queue plus a side channel for approvals. On KERNSTACK the flow, the workers it drives, and the human pauses live in the same declaration as the rest of the product.

The step vocabulary

A step names its kind by its field: function or worker for code, ai for a model call (model, prompt, context from earlier steps, output schema), human for a titled decision that can show earlier output, allow edits, expire, and route rejections. Steps can run conditionally (when a previous output equals, exceeds, or exists), retry with backoff, and fail into declared on_error paths.

Runs are evidence

Every run records its steps’ attempts, outputs, and approvals, with retention configurable per workflow. That history is the operational product: median approval wait, the step that always retries on Fridays, the run a customer asks about. Because workflows live in the project, an agent can draft a flow change in a sandbox and a person approves the same plan as any other change.

Triggers include cron schedules with timezones and table-driven starts; dedupe windows are declarable
Human steps pause at zero compute cost — week-long approvals are economically boring
Changes-requested loops return a run to a named step with feedback and an attempt counter

SDKs & Language Integration

Every KERNSTACK environment vendors typed SDK packages into .kernstack/ so both engineers and coding agents in Agent Sandboxes can call Workflows without external credentials:

Go SDK: github.com/coding-berlin/kernstack-sdk-go/sdk_workflows
Node.js SDK: kernstack-sdk
Python SDK: kernstack_sdk
PHP SDK: kernstack/sdk (Composer)

European alternatives to the hyperscaler equivalent

AWS Step Functions →

Implementation guides for Workflows

Node.js + Workflows →

Workflows in the Project Graph

Declarestack.jsonworkflows

RunWorkflowsinfrastructure

MeterOne credit balanceEU zone

stack.json — workflows configuration plan · deploy

{
  "resources": {
    "functions": [{ "name": "prepare" }],
    "workflows": [{ "name": "approve-payment", "retention_days": 365,
      "triggers": [{ "type": "cron", "cron": "0 6 * * *", "timezone": "Europe/Berlin" }],
      "steps": [
        { "id": "prepare", "function": "prepare", "retry": { "max_attempts": 3, "backoff_seconds": 60 } },
        { "id": "approve", "human": { "title": "Approve this payment", "expires_in_seconds": 259200 } }
      ] }]
  }
}

Metering · compute, storage, or network 1 Shared Balance

Usage draws from the same credit balance as compute (0.01 credits/GiB-s), storage (0.04 credits/GB-hour), and egress (9.00 credits/GiB).

Replaces: AWS Step Functions · no native equivalent · no direct equivalent

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from a queue plus cron?

A workflow is the declared composition: ordered steps with branching, retries, human pauses, and a recorded run. Queues and cron are mechanisms inside it; the workflow is the thing reviewers read and auditors sample.

Can a workflow wait for a person for days?

Yes. A human step holds the run until a decision or its declared expiry; waiting costs no compute. Approvals, escalations, and reminders are part of the declaration.

What happens when a step keeps failing?

Its declared retry policy applies, then the on_error path. Every attempt is in the run history, so “it failed silently” is a state the record can disprove.

Connected in the Project Graph

Related capabilities, architectures, and comparisons

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