SpiffWorks

August 2026

2026-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

The cost of 10,000 Processes a day</h2>
This White Paper</a> covers our recent engagement with Kiwi and the value of a transparent and simple pricing agreement.</p>

Support Engagements</h2>
Need a hand with your own deployment of SpiffArena or the SpiffWorkflow Library? We are the core contributors to these projects. No one knows them better.</p>
We have published what we offer on a new Support</a> page: fixed-cost pilot projects that run four to six weeks, and monthly retainers that put a named engineer from the core team on your process. Schedule a free consultation</a> and we will tell you which one fits.</p>

What we accomplished in July</h2>
Ad-Hoc Subprocesses</h3>
The core SpiffWorkflow library now supports ad-hoc subprocesses. They relax the execution order of a workflow, and teams are using them to build agentic workflows. We are working on some fresh ideas around agentic workflows. Stay tuned!</p>
Visual Design Studio Updates</h3>

Timer events.</strong> Fire a timer by hand, and automate tests for processes that use them.</li>
Service tasks.</strong> Configure retry logic the same way you would in SpiffArena.</li>
Message start events.</strong> Start a process from an incoming message.</li>
Mocked connector proxies.</strong> Define proxies in config files and build diagrams before connecting real systems.</li>
External form editor.</strong> Deploy a custom form builder and test other ways of building user forms.</li>
Live configuration.</strong> Configuration changes apply without a browser reload.</li>
Debugging tools</strong> for the AI chat interface.</li>
Better breadcrumbs</strong> and recordings that handle more complex cases.</li>
Various bug fixes.</li> </ul>
Multiple AI enhancements</h3>
We use AI heavily to build models for customers, and we keep experimenting with it. This month we rewrote the guidance behind the built-in chat, which makes editing a diagram through it far more effective. Layout, design, and user forms all improved. We also compared models, wrote skills, and studied frameworks that use BPMN to put stable guardrails around AI agents. Test and recording generation now runs programmatically, exercising every path through a diagram. Partner with us and we will show you how to set up your own agents. More arrives each month.</p>
Analytics Engine</h3>
We redesigned the core data storage of the analytics engine. The new design supports high-volume execution and real-time analysis.</p>
FileStore Service</h3>
We are building a file store service to connect the new editor, SpiffArena, and the analytics engine. More on this soon.</p>

Europe 2026

2026-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

A travel journal from two weeks across Europe (Warsaw, Brno, Frankfurt, and Regensburg) visiting the teams building on SpiffWorkflow and seeing the continent up close.</p>
June 16–17 · Warsaw</h2>
I arrived in Warsaw in the early afternoon of Tuesday, June 16, a</em>nd visited the PGE office, where I met Kris, Maciej, and Piotr. PGE is using SpiffWorks to handle some aspects of their SIM card_ activation process.</p>
</p>
We worked on a few problems together, and discussed improvements_ to the core library. We discussed:</p>

Dynamic network configurations</li>
API retries (I discussed some of the recent service-task enhan*cements we've developed with Kiwi)</li>
Process-instance "reaping", clearing data that is no longer relevant</li>
Analytics Engine deployment</li> </ol>
I was invited to enter their "control room" where they have a large 20' by 10' screen on the wall. It showed the location of hundreds of cell towers PGE has deployed across Poland to monitor electricity usage. Europe is energy-conscious (a very good thing). I noticed that in the hotel and offices, all the lights turn off almost instantly when someone is not actively using the space. AC is rarely used in homes (it's very temperate here in Warsaw), and I didn't use it in my hotel room — at least, I made it till 3 a.m. last night, and then turned it on for a few hours till I left at 6 a.m. this morning.</p>
In the evening, I took a walk along the river, close to the hotel_. People were everywhere — not in a crowded way, and not rushing about. There are so many inviting community spaces here.</p>
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For more than a mile, groups of two to six people were sitting by the river in chairs, or on steps — among beautiful wild flowers and tall grasses that are planted everywhere. It felt… alive, thriving. It was good energy. There were lots of cool posters pasted to the walls around the river.</p>
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On Wednesday, I spent the morning working from a coffee shop. It is exceedingly</em> influenced by US culture here. Every coffee shop, every cab, every lobby is playing some form of music from the States — mostly classic rock, but there was a good bit of modern music as well. It is hard to avoid the Starbucks, Hard Rock Cafe, H&M, and 100 other US companies. I took a walk through the mall at the train station, and it could have dropped directly out of any US city. But there is a different culture here. And with a little effort, you can find food courts and music in the parks that are authentic and truly Polish.</p>
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After lunch, I did a little sightseeing. I visited the "old town," which is entirely rebuilt.</p>
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Every single building in Warsaw was destroyed by the Nazis in an act of sustained violence that boggles my mind. When they could not bomb it further, they sent teams in to dynamite the buildings that were left standing. Every book in every library, every church, every piece of culture was burned to ash. A population was reduced from 1.3 million to less than a thousand — all in retribution for the Polish uprising. I have incredible respect for the young people who gave their lives and fought for their beliefs in the face of that insane force that was the Third Reich. I've seen all the movies, but it feels different when you are standing here. There is a museum about the uprising that should not be missed. There is also a massive modern city.</p>
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Last night I visited the giant park Łazienki, and took pictures of peacocks, foxes, statues of Pan, and everything else that delighted me as I walked around one of the most picturesque parks in the world.</p>
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This morning I'm on a train to the Czech Republic, to visit the Kiwi offices. The trains are clean and new.</p>
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It is safe here in Warsaw. It is cleaner than every US city I've visited in the last 10 years. I see no sign of crime. People don't even jay-walk here.</p>
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June 18–19 · Brno</h2>
On June 18th, I came in on the train from Warsaw, arriving in Brno in the late afternoon. I met up with a pleasant local Czech when transferring trains. He, I, and a young traveler from England doing a three-week holiday sat on the train and talked for an hour. Everyone I've encountered here is fluent in English. I've tried to learn to say a few words, but didn't have time to practice like I did in Warsaw. I can say Good Morning (Dobré ráno) — but I only mastered that today as I sit on the train headed back to Germany.</p>
I walked to my hotel, about a mile, going through the downtown area, with St. Peter's cathedral peeking up behind the mix of modern and historic buildings.</p>
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Everything here is of a different scale. 90% of the buildings are five or six stories tall.</p>
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Many are elaborately decorated and beautiful.</p>
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The time difference between the public trams and walking was always around three or four minutes, so I just walked everywhere. That was wise, with one very notable exception. I made a long evening of the first night. It gets dark here around 10 p.m. I visited Špilberk Castle</a> — which is up a small hill that sits close to the downtown. It offers a great view of the city.</p>
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I also walked by the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul</a>. </p>
The following day I spent with the Kiwi team — Lada, Mathieu, and Dejour.</p>
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The walk there was hell. It seemed temperate enough in the shade by the hotel, but Kiwi is in an old industrial area they are rebuilding — there is no shade, no grass. Just 90 degrees for 20 minutes in the baking sun. I got there and was drenched in sweat. The satchel strap painted a strip across my shoulder and chest, and my face dripped on the coffee counter like a faulty drain. Lada very kindly sat with me, got me a coffee, and waited for me to cool down and dry out before taking me down to meet the team.</p>
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At Kiwi we talked about:</p>

The transition from Camunda to SpiffWorks, and the method of replacing one sub-process at a time.</li>
The use of BPMN as a high-level orchestration process.</li>
Kiwi's value proposition, and the importance of tight collaboration among diverse teams and skill sets.</li>
The effects of AI on their business processes, and how they are working with many tools to find the right benefits.</li>
The importance of an analytics engine, and the value a high-level BPMN orchestration engine can bring to a company's self-awareness.</li>
Where to draw the line between BPMN and software development, and how BPMN is, to quote Lada, "very good at doing nothing," and why this is a valuable attribute.</li> </ol>
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I really like Lada. I learned a lot about the company and its backstory. Lada has been there since it was just 30 people — it's now in the thousands of employees. And they drink a lot</em> of matcha.</p>
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They took me out for dinner that evening. They fed me some traditional Czech dinner that was a beet cream sauce pooled over several slices of roast beef, with dumplings on the side. Very delicious.</p>
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We also toured a few sites — they pointed out this weird solid black bullet-shaped sculpture in the middle of the square, which is in fact the town clock. Every Tuesday at 11 a.m. it spits out a marble. Folks collect them, but you don't have a shot against the locals.</p>
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We climbed to the top of this bell tower at the Church of St. James</a>.</p>
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Over dinner we talked about politics (they have many of the same issues we face, with strong feelings on both the liberal and conservative side about immigration). Lada said many times that they "are the same thing (as the US), on a smaller scale." I think he meant it in a self-deprecating way, but it isn't a fault — it is a strength. It is the ludicrous scale of Trump, Elon, Bezos, and Zuckerberg that makes them so terribly dangerous. If we could see these things play out several times on a smaller stage, we would get some pattern recognition. Like an inoculation. And then we wouldn't catch the actual disease.</p>
June 20–21 · Frankfurt</h2>
Saturday the 20th was a travel day — and with catching trains, switching to planes, and getting into Frankfurt, there wasn't much that happened of note. Though I was pretty damn happy to make it through the airport.</p>
When I arrived in Frankfurt I got in contact with Jan Alsters, who was meeting me at the main station. All I needed to do was make it from the airport to the station — a short 15-minute train ride. It took me two hours. I didn't know it at the time, but the</em> major music star in Germany, Helene Fischer, was playing at the stadium, which was a stop along the way to the station. When I got down to the tracks it was solid people, from the wall to the tracks. A train left every eight minutes. I missed it multiple times trying to find my way through the crowd, then being right at the door, but unable to fit. When I finally got on, there was a large woman behind me, with her breasts pressing into my back, and her husband's nose 10 inches from my own. I had no idea about the concert; I assumed everyone was headed to the main station. We got to a stop called "Stadion," and everyone poured out. It did not look right, and I paused for a minute, but stepped out when someone encouraged me to do so. Fucker. And then I was in a world of hell for an hour as thousands of German fans poured around me while I stood there looking lost with my luggage. After several failed attempts at finding Track 1, and discovering there is very little overlap between Helene Fischer</a> fans and English speakers, I found Track 1, hidden behind a crowd of 20,000 hot-dog eaters, and made my way home. Did I mention it was 93 degrees out? I would far rather go see a Dire Straits or Deep Purple tribute band myself.</p>
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On Saturday night, the Germans were playing the World Cup, and all of Frankfurt went out for what they call a "public viewing." I told Jan that when someone invites me to a public viewing in the States, it means we are headed to a funeral. He got a big laugh out of that.</p>
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On Sunday I met up with Daniel Lübke, and he and Jan took me out to tour the city of Frankfurt (home to the biggest stock exchange in Germany).</p>
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We went to the downtown square and got a few pictures together.</p>
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Jan said, "All these old buildings… they were constructed in the last five years. It is basically Disneyland, but with less pink" — and then five minutes later, I kid you not, someone in a Mickey Mouse costume walked by getting pictures with folks. There was a note on the wall that said Greenland is not for sale. Nice work, Mr. Trump.</p>
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Much like Warsaw, Frankfurt was devastated at the end of World War II — only the Cathedral walls were left standing. So they have been rebuilding ever since. Jan and Daniel introduced me to Currywurst for lunch. To any US citizen, this is going to look like a lunch for a five-year-old: a cut-up hot dog in a pool of ketchup with fries on the side. But this is not a hot dog; it is a proper German sausage, and the ketchup is flavored with lots of curry powder, which definitely elevates the flavor.</p>
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Vivien (Regensburg) is also attending the conference and met up with us — Jan took us to a beautiful shady spot by the river, and we drank light German beers at a picnic table all afternoon. For water and beer, they will ask "with, or without?" without specifying what in the hell they are asking about. When you ask the same question 1,000 times, you tend to want to keep it short. If it's water, they are asking if you would like it carbonated, and if it is about beer, it means do you want it with alcohol. It seems most beer here is available in a non-alcoholic version. More breweries in the states should do this.</p>
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Frankfurt is called Frankfurt am Main, as it is on the beautiful Main River</a>.</p>
We had a wonderful time. Here is what I learned from my German friends that sounded a lot more important when I was drinking beer than as I stand here writing it:</p>

Tom DeMarco has a book that was suggested to me — maybe Slack: Getting Past Burnout</em> is worth reading and writing about.</li>
Die Fantastischen Vier, Peter Fox, Seeed — these are German bands I need to check out.</li>
"Es war Sommer" is a German song about a young man, in high school, on summer break, who has an adventure with an older woman.</li>
"Schöner, jünger, geiler — Layla," translated "Prettier, younger, hornier Layla," maybe worth a listen.</li>
Lichthupe — flashing your lights when someone is going too slow in the left lane.</li> </ul>
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June 21–23 · The Conference</h2>
Conferences are hard. They are hard to pick. Hard to participate in. They take a lot of social engagement. I am not adept. It's difficult to get an honest read on how well they are run. The talks here were very focused on use cases for specific companies. SAP did a great job of making this about</em> SAP. This audience was partially owned before we got here. Jan and Viv both left early. The room with the booths had been empty all morning, but it did fill up after the break. I've taken to walking around and inviting myself into conversations — that's proven far more effective. But it's exhausting. After yesterday, I went back to my room and slept for 12 hours. I'm still wiped out. There are a handful of contacts, and we get some substantial visibility with the 5-minute talk. But overall, this is an expensive learning experience. I've handed out around 50 cards and fidget spinners and talked to 20 companies. Some are potential future partners: ARIS, which shares our mission to improve communication and collaboration among diverse people, and Phoenix Contact, which provides enterprise level consulting services.</p>
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June 24 · Regensburg</h2>
Vivien took me on the Autobahn. We hit 128 MPH (206 Kph). It was a great drive. We also hit all the big topics about life on the way down while listening to Depeche Mode, Madonna, and the Pet Shop Boys. Vivien listens to a set of CDs her father gave her. Good memories all around.</p>
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I visited the Regensburg office, where I was reminded of the US's sad addiction to Keurig coffee pods while sipping freshly ground and brewed espresso. When SpiffWorks opens it's corporate office in the US, I'll have to make sure our employees are all trained in how to brew a proper double shot of espresso. While sipping the good stuff, I met with Vivien, Hans-Jürgen, Martin, and Bastian to discuss recommended changes and updates to SpiffWorkflow.</p>
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Here are a few of the items the Regensburg office would like to see added:</p>

Form editor plugin / extension</strong>: so you can select your own form builder; Hans-Jürgen is working on his own new form editor. A grid-layout option is critical, along with the ability to easily drag and drop form components and shift around the layout of fields in a form.</li>
Testing</strong>: they specifically mentioned the "ability to test workflows," which I was able to demonstrate with Ed.</li>
Task assignment</strong>: as with GSA, they want the ability to assign tasks. In this case, they also want the ability to delegate to a "Representative." When this is enabled in their central HR app, they want Spiff to allow this representative to complete any tasks on behalf of the main user.</li>
Files</strong>: deep integration with an existing Document Management System would be most useful.</li>
Type ahead</strong>: they want some kind of connection to their company HR system so they can find people. We offer this via data stores, but may need to deliver more.</li>
Style sheets</strong>: would like the ability to update / edit / override stylesheets in the SpiffArena UI.</li>
Error messages in Arena</strong>: "model not saved" cannot be dismissed, and obscures things they would like to see. (This should be a quick fix.)</li>
Better breadcrumbs</strong>: would like easier navigation, something that understands how you got to a sub-process or call activity, and allows you to navigate back cleanly. This is better in the new Editor, but well worth some time improving.</li> </ol>
Afterwards, Vivien and Hans-Jürgen gave me a tour of the beautiful historic areas of Regensburg. We visited the old town hall, where people get married on a daily basis, and walked along the stone bridge across the Danube River.</p>
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That bridge, built in the 1100s, opened up major trade routes across Europe.</p>
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We then sat in the shade by the bridge and shared a wonderful dinner together.</p>
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June 25 · Home</h2>
Uneventful ride home. I miss Europe already.</p>

June 2026

2026-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

Europe Visit</h2>
This month we visited partners across Europe—in Warsaw, Brno, Frankfurt, and Regensburg. Our latest article, Europe 2026</a>, covers the trip and our conversations with customers. Special thanks to Krzysztof (Kris) Nipochorski of PGE, Ladislav (Lada) Radoň of Kiwi, Vivien Weber of Regensburg, Jan Alsters, and Daniel Lübke, who went out of their way to make the trip productive and fun.</p>
What's New</h2>
Event Sub-Processes</h3>
Event subprocesses let a workflow react to things that happen while it runs—an order being cancelled, say—without handling them at every step of the main process. This month we added the ability to spawn subworkflows outside the normal task flow, so an event subprocess can trigger without a parent task in the regular sequence. A new bpmn_start_event</code> attribute on workflow specs identifies what kicks off a process, and we refactored the task-waiting mechanism.</p>
Human Task Notifications</h3>You often need to notify people when a human task is assigned to them. You can now configure that trigger on the task through a new BPMN extension, found in the properties panel under "Task Hooks." Read more in our documentation</a>.</p> Improved UI</h3> We've improved the usability of the SpiffArena interface. Process models now appear in a list view that makes browsing and organizing thousands of models practical, and the Process Instances page has sortable columns. Try it at spiffdemo.org.</p> Improvements to SpiffArena (our Execution Service and Dashboard)</h4> Process Instance Reaper.</strong> Adds automated cleanup for process instances. Removes stale or completed instances.</li> Async Service Task Retries.</strong> Implements retry logic for async service tasks. Improves reliability of background operations.</li> Service Task Error Boundary Support.</strong> Adds error boundary event support for service tasks in the editor. Improves error handling.</li> Message Model Location Management.</strong> Adds a message model page with location editing, including migration and diagram update notifications.</li> Python 3.13.</strong> Adds Python 3.13 to supported versions.</li> </ul> Visual Design Studio (ED BPMN Editor) Updates</h3> We improve our BPMN editor daily—more than 100 updates this month to the usability of our real-time editing and debugging system. We have significantly improved AI guidance with customized tool calls, skill definitions, and reference documentation.</p> Our AI assistant can now draft Jira tickets, proposing changes as local files without ever touching your real board. A human approves each change before the system files it in your chosen Jira instance, with proper formatting and a full audit trail. Once a change lands, the AI can reopen with a follow-up prompt to keep work moving.</p> A new headless CLI runs tests from the command line with run</code>, validate</code>, ai</code>, and mcp</code> commands. We also fixed engine bugs in paused-task resumption and final result handling.</p> New coachmarks guide first-time users through the editor, and observability helps analyze user behavior.</p> Analytics Engine</h3> Time Bucket Navigation.</strong> Adds day, week, and month views to analytics charts and improves the left navigation.</li> UI Improvements.</strong> Fixes element deselection, removes aggressive localStorage caching, adds green data indicators, and improves search and navigation.</li> </ul> Community Contributions</h2> Thanks to Nicholas Becksted, an industrious CS student at James Madison University, for helping us triage security vulnerability reports. (LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/n-becksted/, GitHub: https://github.com/fdjfnd222dd)</p>
May 2026 2026-05-01T00:00:00+00:00 Our new website is live at spiff.works</a>. Everything is now in one place: our workflow editor, full documentation, and real-time release updates. Please let us know what you think — hit reply and send us your feedback.</p> Smarter Integrations: Service Retries</h1> External services fail. Now SpiffWorkflow handles it automatically. Configure the number of retry attempts and the timing between them.</p> Reliable Message Handling</h1> Processes no longer miss messages that arrive before they are ready to receive them. SpiffWorkflow now holds messages briefly in a queue, so fast-moving data always reaches its destination. You can also launch a process by submitting a web form directly from the workflow editor.</p> Deeper Test Coverage</h1> Our Visual Workflow Editor now shows how thoroughly your automated tests cover every path through a workflow, including sub-processes. You can verify that a process completed correctly, and when something goes wrong, improved diagnostics help you find the problem fast.</p> Performance</h1> Permission checks and process-group management are faster. Large deployments will notice the difference.</p> Bug Fix</h1> Milestone report permissions now work correctly with the standard permission system.</p> Documentation</h1> All documentation lives at spiff.works/learn</a> — updated examples, new guides for service tasks and form building, and a fresh look to match the site.</p> Community Contributors</h1> Three contributors made this release stronger:</p> Bret Mogilefsky</a> closed 108 security vulnerabilities and added automated security tooling.</li> Byler Burton</a> expanded the data store and strengthened the structure of API calls.</li> Milan Lesnek</a> added type annotations and corrected documentation in our core library. (We lost track of your pull request — our apologies, and our thanks.)</li> </ul> Under the Hood</h1> We removed dead code and modernized to current Python conventions. SpiffWorkflow now supports Python 3.10 through 3.14.</p> April 2026 2026-04-01T00:00:00+00:00 Dan here. This has been one of the most productive months I've ever seen from our team, with sweeping performance improvements that make workflows dramatically faster and more efficient, significant enhancements to our editor, and a growing team bringing new expertise and energy to the project. From a 5x speedup in workflow parsing to new recording and testing capabilities in the editor, we are delivering real operational gains while continuing to invest in the reliability, security, and ease of use that your teams depend on.</p> Performance</h1> To put it simply, things just got a lot faster.</em></p> We have made a multitude of major performance improvements across our full application stack. While we are certainly getting some help from LLMs to identify areas for improvement, we are working carefully, critically, and surgically. We have reduced workflow parsing time to 1/5th of what it was. Compression now delivers an 88% reduction in serialized workflow size, with a new serialization method adding a further 43% on top of that. Running workflows are now serialized 4x faster, with a 10x improvement in the memory footprint for workflow state and history — meaning your workflows run faster, cost less to operate, and scale further. We work as a team, but want to call out Jon Herron for one of the most prolific periods of performance and feature additions we've seen in a while.</p> The Team Is Growing</h1> Tim Stevens is joining us in a fractional advisory role as we look for new ways to build a sustainable open source project and mature our commercial offerings to more directly address the needs of organizations like yours.</p> Jacob Armstrong also joins the team this month as a new software engineer. He fixed several issues in our editor and will be introducing some optional AI enhancements to help make building workflows faster and more intuitive. We are eager to make our editor easier to use, while allowing you to remain fully in control of your business workflows. Looking forward to seeing what you develop, Jacob!</p> Editor Enhancements</h1> We added support for recording the execution of a process in our editor. Use the new record button to capture form responses and API calls as your workflow runs. These recordings let you jump directly to any point in a workflow for faster iteration, or serve as automated tests that verify your workflows complete as expected. This started as a small addition, but a valuable one, and we've put substantial effort into making it feel intuitive, fast, and dependable.</p> Connector Improvements</h1> We are continuing to refine our long-running service tasks and callbacks, improving reliability when integrating SpiffWorkflow with external systems and services.</p> Spiff-Arena Updates</h1> We updated the code editor in Arena, moving from Monaco to CodeMirror, for a better overall scripting experience. We've also improved the display of error messages in the Arena editor, making it easier to identify and resolve issues quickly.</p> Community Contributions</h1> Many thanks to Chris Bisom</a> (again!) for tracking down and addressing security vulnerabilities as part of his team's security due diligence.</p> March 2026 2026-03-01T00:00:00+00:00 Dan here. We have made major enhancements to the editor that make it 10x easier to use. We've also made changes to our core library that bring about major performance improvements while drastically reducing storage size. I had the pleasure of presenting at OSCON this past week. Read on for more information.</p> Upcoming Q2 Release: Ed Editor</h1> The Ed Editor continues to move toward an official release and is the most significant area of development this quarter.</p> Recording and Playback</strong> — Record and replay steps in the Ed Editor. Worth seeing in action.</li> JSON Data Stores</strong> — Create and use JSON Data Stores directly within the editor.</li> File System Sync for Chrome</strong> — Sync directly with files on your local hard drive from within the editor.</li> Additional enhancements</strong> — Better record sorting in the display, improved dropdown filtering, and automated test coverage can now be linked up to run automatically when you push diagram changes to GitHub.</li> </ul> Enhancements</h1> Performance Improvements</strong> — Drastically reduced duplicate data storage in the core library by modifying how SpiffWorkflow serializes data (fully backwards compatible and opt-in). Pulled into Spiff Arena to support larger workflows and tasks looping hundreds of times. Thanks to Maciej Kycler for identifying the underlying issues.</li> Message Search and Filters</strong> — Search and filter messages directly, making it easier to debug complex process communications.</li> Dynamic Task Assignment</strong> — Assign multiple groups to tasks in a lane; assignments update automatically when group membership changes.</li> Bug Fixes: Correlation Properties</strong> — Bug resolved in the panel. Multi-Instance Output: fixed an issue that complicated syncing inputs and outputs when using multi-instance tasks.</li> </ul> OSCON</h1> Dan presented at the Open Source Conference (OSCON)</a> on March 23 where the theme was "Building Cities, Not Empires". He shared what it actually looks like to run a lean team and an open source project at the same time. If you missed it, follow the link above to watch.</p> Community Contributions</h1> Christopher Bisom</strong> (@Mwindo</a>) — contributed a Potential Owners API endpoint, enabling custom applications to display the list of users assigned to a task</li> Bret Mogilefsky</strong> (@mogul</a>) — patched a potential security vulnerability in GitHub Actions that prevents hackerbot-claw style exploits</li> Christian Fischer</strong> (@vcodx</a>) — fixed a typo in the core library</li> </ul> February 2026 2026-02-01T00:00:00+00:00 Building and executing BPMN diagrams with SpiffWorkflow keeps getting faster and easier. We've shipped dozens of improvements since early January — here are three highlights worth knowing about.</p> Easier, Faster BPMN Development with Auto-Complete of Variables</h1> We've added intelligent code completion for user tasks, manual tasks and script tasks — making it far easier to pick up existing variables and use them in follow-on steps. Check out our demo video</a>.</p> Simpler, Cleaner Connections to All of Your Other Systems</h1> Connecting to external services just got simpler. Service tasks can now wait for async callbacks natively — no more pairing a service task with a separate message receive task. There is a video of this as well.</a></p> More Secure Integration Layer</h1> Added an optional API key authentication for connector proxy calls. You can still secure API calls at the individual connector level, but this enhancement allows you to secure all of your connectors at once through a single configuration.</p> More Features, Bug Fixes, Docs and Updates</h2> Testing BPMN Messages from your Browser</strong> — Some of our users work heavily with messages. This quick video</a> explains how to send messages into a BPMN process from another tab in your browser.</li> Extracted BPMN Editor from Spiff Arena into Separate Package</strong> — We extracted the BPMN editor, viewer and debugger from Spiff Arena into a standalone package. Improves code modularity and reusability and makes it easier for others to develop and integrate BPMN editors into their own systems. While most of our effort is in the new ED Editor, this package is available for adoption and extension for the open source community. spiff-arena #2684</a></li> Human Task Webhook Notifications</strong> — Sends webhook events when human tasks are created or removed. Enables real-time task change monitoring. spiff-arena #2697</a></li> GitLab Sync Integration</strong> — Adds GitLab support to sync functionality. Enables version control with GitLab repositories. aggregate-connector-proxy #167</a></li> Fix Parallel Human Task Submission</strong> — Fixes race condition in parallel task submission with processor-level locking. Adds load testing for parallel tasks. spiff-arena #2678</a></li> Add Connector and Editor Docs</strong> — Adds comprehensive documentation for Connector Proxy deployment and ED Editor BPMN editing features. spiff-arena #2671</a></li> Data Item Name Validation</strong> — Incorporates data item name validation from bpmn-js-spiffworkflow library. Prevents invalid variable names. spiff-arena #2689</a></li> Cancel Unused Message Models</strong> — Marks message models as cancelled when process instances stop listening. Cleans up orphaned messages in database. spiff-arena #2682</a></li> Refresh Call Activity DMN</strong> — Ensures DMN from first-level call activities stay current. Prevents stale decision model data. aggregate-connector-proxy #185</a></li> Display Step Error Information</strong> — Shows detailed step information when errors occur. Improves error debugging experience. aggregate-connector-proxy #177</a></li> Validate Data Item IDs</strong> — Validates data input/output and object IDs, preventing dashes and invalid Python variable names. Auto-converts dashes to underscores on creation. bpmn-js-spiffworkflow #140</a></li> Link Subworkflows in Event Logs</strong> — Adds variables to event logs connecting subworkflows with parent processes. Improves process hierarchy tracking. spiff-arena #2681</a></li> Move Test Runner to Common</strong> — Migrates BPMN unit test runner and task coverage to common package. spiff-arena #2691</a></li> Add Unit Test Strategy</strong> — Introduces unittest strategy that completes tasks when test fixtures exist. Supports upcoming CI/CD diagram testing. spiff-arena #2688</a></li> Filter Files During Sync</strong> — Adds file filtering during sync operations. Prevents unwanted files from syncing. aggregate-connector-proxy #175</a></li> Fix PNPM Installation Issue</strong> — Allows pnpm install without deleting node_modules first. Simplifies dependency management. aggregate-connector-proxy #170</a></li> </ul> January 2026 2026-01-01T00:00:00+00:00 Happy New Year!</p> Over the past few months, we shipped 50+ improvements across performance, security, task management, and BPMN editing.</p> To start the year, we want to highlight the most impactful technical enhancements, give thanks to our community contributors (Tyler Burton, William Jolivet and Christopher Bisom), and share how we're helping organizations run more efficiently.</p> What's New and Improved</h1> 1. Faster, More Reliable Execution</h2> We made targeted performance and reliability improvements that reduce operational overhead in production environments:</p> Reduced database load by optimizing message correlation queries</li> Faster local service task execution by bypassing unnecessary HTTP calls</li> Improved multi-threaded task handling to prevent orphaned tasks and race conditions</li> More reliable boundary event processing for deterministic error handling</li> </ul> Result: workflows execute more predictably at scale, with fewer production surprises.</p> 2. Improved Security & Identity</h2> Security improvements focused on authentication, authorization, and task data isolation:</p> Expanded authentication support, including Login.gov</li> Stronger OAuth flows with PKCE and improved token refresh handling</li> Clearer task data boundaries limiting human task access to configured variables</li> Improved OpenID provider documentation for multi-provider environments</li> </ul> Result: safer defaults and a clearer security posture for regulated and enterprise deployments.</p> 3. Custom Applications with SpiffWorkflow</h2> If you are building your own frontends and want the ability to add custom details to user tasks — such as setting priority ("This is High Priority!") or a due date for a form — it is now possible to configure all user tasks system-wide to allow BPMN authors to specify these values as they create their diagrams.</p> Result: a seamless connection between your application's user interface and the BPMN authoring tool that drives it. Everything is aligned.</p> 4. A More Productive BPMN Editor</h2> The BPMN editor (code-named "ED") continues to mature with usability and debugging improvements:</p> Cross-tab copy/paste for faster diagram creation</li> Clearer debugging with precise script error line numbers</li> Improved previews and form rendering</li> Fixes for issues that previously interrupted modeling flow</li> </ul> Results: faster iteration, fewer context switches, and less friction while building and debugging workflows.</p> Community Spotlight</h1> This release includes standout contributions from community members solving real deployment challenges:</p> Tyler Burton</strong></a> — Added Login.gov authentication support, enabling government agency deployments</li> William Jolivet</strong></a> — Contributed French translations, expanding SpiffWorkflow's international reach</li> Christopher Bisom</strong></a> — Implemented PKCE security for OAuth flow with multiple access token refresh support — critical for short-lived token configurations</li> </ul> Thank you to everyone contributing code, documentation, and feedback. Your work directly shapes SpiffWorkflow's direction and your fellow developers.</p>

SpiffWorks

August 2026

The cost of 10,000 Processes a day</h2> This White Paper</a> covers our recent engagement with Kiwi and the value of a transparent and simple pricing agreement.</p>

Ad-Hoc Subprocesses</h3> The core SpiffWorkflow library now supports ad-hoc subprocesses. They relax the execution order of a workflow, and teams are using them to build agentic workflows. We are working on some fresh ideas around agentic workflows. Stay tuned!</p>

Analytics Engine</h3> We redesigned the core data storage of the analytics engine. The new design supports high-volume execution and real-time analysis.</p>

FileStore Service</h3> We are building a file store service to connect the new editor, SpiffArena, and the analytics engine. More on this soon.</p>

Europe 2026

June 25 · Home</h2> Uneventful ride home. I miss Europe already.</p>

June 2026

Community Contributions</h2> Thanks to Nicholas Becksted, an industrious CS student at James Madison University, for helping us triage security vulnerability reports. (LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/n-becksted/, GitHub: https://github.com/fdjfnd222dd)</p>

May 2026

Deeper Test Coverage</h1> Our Visual Workflow Editor now shows how thoroughly your automated tests cover every path through a workflow, including sub-processes. You can verify that a process completed correctly, and when something goes wrong, improved diagnostics help you find the problem fast.</p>

Performance</h1> Permission checks and process-group management are faster. Large deployments will notice the difference.</p>

Bug Fix</h1> Milestone report permissions now work correctly with the standard permission system.</p>

Under the Hood</h1> We removed dead code and modernized to current Python conventions. SpiffWorkflow now supports Python 3.10 through 3.14.</p>

April 2026

Connector Improvements</h1> We are continuing to refine our long-running service tasks and callbacks, improving reliability when integrating SpiffWorkflow with external systems and services.</p>

Spiff-Arena Updates</h1> We updated the code editor in Arena, moving from Monaco to CodeMirror, for a better overall scripting experience. We've also improved the display of error messages in the Arena editor, making it easier to identify and resolve issues quickly.</p>

March 2026

Upcoming Q2 Release: Ed Editor</h1> The Ed Editor continues to move toward an official release and is the most significant area of development this quarter.</p>

February 2026

January 2026

What's New and Improved</h1>

The cost of 10,000 Processes a day</h2>
This White Paper</a> covers our recent engagement with Kiwi and the value of a transparent and simple pricing agreement.</p>

Ad-Hoc Subprocesses</h3>
The core SpiffWorkflow library now supports ad-hoc subprocesses. They relax the execution order of a workflow, and teams are using them to build agentic workflows. We are working on some fresh ideas around agentic workflows. Stay tuned!</p>

Analytics Engine</h3>
We redesigned the core data storage of the analytics engine. The new design supports high-volume execution and real-time analysis.</p>

FileStore Service</h3>
We are building a file store service to connect the new editor, SpiffArena, and the analytics engine. More on this soon.</p>

June 25 · Home</h2>
Uneventful ride home. I miss Europe already.</p>

Community Contributions</h2>
Thanks to Nicholas Becksted, an industrious CS student at James Madison University, for helping us triage security vulnerability reports. (LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/n-becksted/, GitHub: https://github.com/fdjfnd222dd)</p>

Deeper Test Coverage</h1>
Our Visual Workflow Editor now shows how thoroughly your automated tests cover every path through a workflow, including sub-processes. You can verify that a process completed correctly, and when something goes wrong, improved diagnostics help you find the problem fast.</p>

Performance</h1>
Permission checks and process-group management are faster. Large deployments will notice the difference.</p>

Bug Fix</h1>
Milestone report permissions now work correctly with the standard permission system.</p>

Under the Hood</h1>
We removed dead code and modernized to current Python conventions. SpiffWorkflow now supports Python 3.10 through 3.14.</p>

Connector Improvements</h1>
We are continuing to refine our long-running service tasks and callbacks, improving reliability when integrating SpiffWorkflow with external systems and services.</p>

Spiff-Arena Updates</h1>
We updated the code editor in Arena, moving from Monaco to CodeMirror, for a better overall scripting experience. We've also improved the display of error messages in the Arena editor, making it easier to identify and resolve issues quickly.</p>