Durable workflow graphs for the ask-rb ecosystem. Define workflows as graphs of named steps with conditional routing, parallel execution, human-in-the-loop approval, per-item checkpointing loops, and sub-graph composition. Each step is a plain Ruby class with a call(context) method.

ask-graph is for deterministic pipelines: you declare the steps and the routing. For LLM-driven loops that decide their own next step, use ask-agent instead.

gem "ask-graph"

require "ask-graph"

module ProcessOrder
  class Workflow < Ask::Graph
    step ValidateOrder
    step ChargeCustomer,  if: :valid?
    step SendConfirmation, if: :valid?
    step NotifyAdmin,     unless: :valid?

    private

    def valid?
      context.order.valid?
    end
  end
end

result = ProcessOrder::Workflow.call(order: order)

Steps are plain Ruby classes with a call(context) method:

class ValidateOrder
  def call(context)
    context.order = OrderValidator.validate(context.order)
  end
end

A paused workflow resumes with graph.resume(input: "approved") after graph.run.

Shared state flows between steps. Set and read values by method or bracket, iterate with per-item checkpointing, and run sub-workflows:

class SendVoiceReminders
  def call(context)
    context.greeting = "hello"          # method access
    context[:color] = "blue"            # bracket access

    context.each(context.appointments) do |appt|  # per-item checkpointing
      PhoneService.call(appt.number, appt.message)
    end

    context.run(NotifyCustomer::Workflow)         # sub-workflow
  end
end

If the process crashes mid-loop, it resumes from the last completed item.

Pass a storage backend to make workflows durable across crashes. The default is Ask::State::Memory; any backend from ask-state-providers works:

store = Ask::State::Memory.new  # or Redis, SQLite, etc.

# Runs through all steps, saving after each; a later call resumes
result = OrderFulfillment::Workflow.call(input, storage: store)

Ask::Graph.storage(store) sets a class-level default for the workflow.

Failed steps raise Ask::Graph::StepFailed; timeouts raise StepTimeout, WorkflowTimeout, and approval pauses raise Paused.

Declare lifecycle hooks with before_step :method, after_step :method, and on_failure :method. Set timeouts at the class level with step_timeout (or its alias default_step_timeout) and workflow_timeout.

The full ask-rb documentation lives at https://ask-rb.github.io/ask-docs. https://ask-rb.github.io/ask-docs/core/graph covers ask-graph in depth, including crash recovery, inheritance, and the full configuration reference. API reference: https://ask-rb.github.io/ask-docs/reference/api.

bundle install bundle exec rake test

MIT