Implement Early Exit and Skip Controls for Workflows #49

obie · 2025-05-17T00:36:18Z

Early Exit and Skip Controls for Workflows

Background

Workflows sometimes need to terminate early or skip certain steps based on runtime conditions. Currently, there's no way to exit a workflow early or conditionally skip sections without complex workarounds, leading to inefficient execution paths and unnecessary processing.

Proposed Solution

Implement early exit and skip mechanisms to provide more control over workflow execution:

Early Exit Pattern

steps:
  - validate_input
  - 
    exit_if: "{{output.validate_input.fatal_error}}"
    message: "Terminating workflow due to fatal input error"
  - process_data

Skip Steps Pattern

steps:
  - process_data
  - 
    skip_if: "{{output.process_data.no_results}}"
    steps:
      - generate_visuals
      - create_dashboard

Implementation Details

Exit Control
- Add support for early workflow termination with status message
- Allow customizable exit codes/status for integration with other systems
- Ensure proper cleanup and state finalization on early exit
Skip Control
- Implement conditional skipping of step groups
- Maintain workflow state consistency when steps are skipped
- Support clear logging of skipped steps for debugging
Integration with State Management
- Record exit reasons and skip decisions in workflow state
- Ensure state repository properly handles early termination
- Support resumption that respects previous skip/exit decisions
Workflow Validation
- Validate that exit/skip conditions can be properly evaluated
- Check for proper step structure in skip blocks
- Ensure message templates are valid

Technical Approach

Extend workflow configuration schema to support exit_if and skip_if structures
Modify workflow executor to handle early termination and step skipping
Update state persistence to record skip/exit decisions
Implement clear logging and reporting for skipped steps and early exits
Ensure schema validation for new control structures

Acceptance Criteria

Workflows can exit early based on conditions
Exit status/message is properly recorded and reported
Groups of steps can be conditionally skipped
Skip/exit decisions are logged clearly for debugging
State repository correctly handles early termination
Session replay respects previous skip/exit decisions
Documentation and examples demonstrate skip/exit usage patterns

Related Issues

Parent Epic: #46 Enhanced Control Flow for Roast Workflows

xrendan · 2025-05-19T04:57:28Z

This would be nicer and more extensible if instead we implemented an if

Early Exit Pattern

steps:
  - validate_input
  - 
    if: "{{output.validate_input.fatal_error}}"
    steps: 
      - exit! "Terminating workflow due to fatal input error"
  - process_data

Skip Steps Pattern

 steps:
   - process_data
   - 
     if: "{{output.process_data.no_results}}"
     steps:
       - generate_visuals
       - create_dashboard

xrendan · 2025-05-19T04:59:50Z

This would also really helpful if this construct was exposed to tools so that a particular tool call could be used by the LLM to end the workflow itself

obie added the enhancement New feature or request label May 17, 2025

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Implement Early Exit and Skip Controls for Workflows #49

Implement Early Exit and Skip Controls for Workflows #49

Implement Early Exit and Skip Controls for Workflows #49

Implement Early Exit and Skip Controls for Workflows #49

Comments

Early Exit and Skip Controls for Workflows

Background

Proposed Solution

Early Exit Pattern

Skip Steps Pattern

Implementation Details

Technical Approach

Acceptance Criteria

Related Issues

Early Exit Pattern

Skip Steps Pattern