3.1 About Tasks

Tasks are the building blocks of a workflow. A workflow definition must contain at least one task.

A workflow definition describes how MicroTx Workflows executes business logic. It defines the tasks to run, the order in which they run, how each task receives input, and how task output is passed to later tasks or returned as workflow output. Tasks can run sequentially, in parallel, conditionally, or in response to events, depending on how the workflow is modeled.

MicroTx Workflows supports most of the task types provided by open-source Conductor and also provides custom tasks for database operations, events, human intervention, and AI or agentic workflows.

Types of Tasks

MicroTx Workflows supports different types of tasks that you can use to build workflow logic. Each task type fulfills a different purpose in a workflow.

• System tasks are built-in tasks that MicroTx Workflows manages and executes. MicroTx Workflows also includes agentic and AI-related tasks that let you integrate LLM profiles, agents, planners, tools, knowledge sources, and GenAI operations into workflow execution. Use system tasks for common operations such as invoking HTTP endpoints, running SQL, publishing events, waiting for signals, requesting human approval, using GenAI capabilities, or invoking agentic tasks.

• Operator tasks are built-in tasks that control workflow execution logic. Use operators to model branching, joins, loops, parallel execution, dynamic tasks, and other orchestration patterns.

• Simple tasks or worker tasks let you implement custom business logic in your own services outside MicroTx Workflows. External workers poll MicroTx Workflows tasks for work, execute custom business logic, and return results to MicroTx Workflows.

This chapter describes the custom tasks available in MicroTx Workflows. For standard Conductor task behavior, see the Conductor documentation.

Topics

• About System Tasks
  System tasks are built-in tasks that MicroTx Workflows manages and executes within its server environment. Use system tasks to perform common workflow operations without creating and running custom worker services.
• About Operator Tasks
  Operator tasks control how a workflow moves from one step to another. Use operators to model branching, looping, joins, parallel execution, dynamic task selection, sub-workflows, and other orchestration patterns.
• About Simple Tasks or Worker Tasks
  Simple tasks, also called worker tasks, let you run custom business logic in your own services outside MicroTx Workflows.
• About Task Status
  Understanding how a task moves from one status to another helps you to execute the workflow successfully and troubleshoot any issues.