Very Long-Running Workflows

Long-running workflows are processes that do not have a definite end, which can last from less than a second to many years depending on the application. These workflows are also known as Entity Workflows and are similar to an Actor Model where a Workflow Execution represents one occurrence of some kind of entity like a customer's lifecycle through their purchasing journey or a product inventory. Temporal ensures the durability of these long-running workflows by recording state changes, known as Events, in its Event History. When the Event History limit is reached, Continue-As-New can be used to clear the history and start a new instance with the same Workflow ID. Signals are used to send data into a Workflow while Queries allow retrieval of application-specific data from a Workflow. Updates combine both operations in one.