ruvnet__ruflo/plugins/ruflo-workflows/README.md

ruflo-workflows

Workflow automation across two complementary surfaces:

1. MCP workflow_* tools — declarative, persisted workflow definitions with a full state-machine lifecycle (create → run ↔ pause → complete/cancel). Best for long-lived, resumable, human-gated pipelines.
2. Native Claude Code Workflow JS — imperative orchestration scripts (.claude/workflows/*.js) that fan subagents out deterministically via agent / parallel / pipeline / phase. Best for comprehensive fan-out: review, audit, migration, research.

Neither subsumes the other — see Choosing a surface.

Install

/plugin marketplace add ruvnet/ruflo
/plugin install ruflo-workflows@ruflo

Features

• MCP workflow definitions: multi-step processes with conditions, parallel steps, and templates
• Lifecycle management: execute, pause, resume, cancel running workflows
• Approval gates: manual pause points for human review
• Native orchestration: author .claude/workflows/*.js fan-out/pipeline scripts and run them with the Workflow tool

Commands

• /workflow -- List MCP workflows + templates and native .claude/workflows/*.js scripts

Skills

• workflow-create -- Author MCP workflow templates or native .claude/workflows/*.js orchestration scripts
• workflow-run -- Execute/manage MCP workflows or invoke + resume native workflows

Compatibility

• CLI: pinned to @claude-flow/cli v3.6 major+minor.
• Verification: bash plugins/ruflo-workflows/scripts/smoke.sh is the contract.

MCP surface (10 tools)

All defined at v3/@claude-flow/cli/src/mcp-tools/workflow-tools.ts:

Tool	Purpose
workflow_create	Create a new workflow definition
workflow_run	Run a workflow with inputs
workflow_execute	Execute a one-shot workflow without persistence
workflow_status	Inspect a running workflow
workflow_list	List workflows
workflow_pause	Pause a running workflow
workflow_resume	Resume a paused workflow
workflow_cancel	Cancel a workflow
workflow_delete	Delete a workflow definition
workflow_template	Manage workflow templates

Lifecycle state machine

created ──run──→ running ──pause──→ paused ──resume──→ running
                    │                  │
                    │                  └──cancel──→ cancelled
                    │
                    ├──complete──→ completed
                    └──cancel────→ cancelled

State	Allowed transitions
created	running (via workflow_run), cancelled (via workflow_cancel)
running	paused (via workflow_pause), completed (auto), cancelled (via workflow_cancel)
paused	running (via workflow_resume), cancelled (via workflow_cancel)
completed	terminal
cancelled	terminal

workflow_execute is the stateless path — fire-and-forget, no persisted state machine.

Native Workflow Orchestration (Claude Code Workflow tool)

The native surface runs a JavaScript orchestration script that fans subagents out deterministically. Scripts live in .claude/workflows/*.js and each begins with a pure-literal export const meta block — the meta.name makes it an invocable named workflow.

export const meta = {
  name: 'plugin-contract-audit',
  description: 'Run every plugin smoke contract, diagnose failures, report',
  phases: [{ title: 'Sweep' }, { title: 'Diagnose' }, { title: 'Report' }],
}
// body runs inside an async wrapper — top-level await + return are legal
const sweep = await agent('run all plugins/*/scripts/smoke.sh ...', { schema: SWEEP_SCHEMA })
const failures = (sweep?.results || []).filter((r) => r.failed > 0)
const diagnoses = await parallel(failures.map((f) => () =>
  agent(`diagnose ${f.plugin}`, { schema: DIAGNOSIS_SCHEMA })))
return { audited: sweep.results.length, failures, diagnoses }

The four-hook API

Hook	Purpose
agent(prompt, opts)	Spawn one subagent; with opts.schema returns validated structured output
parallel(thunks)	Run thunks concurrently with a barrier (await all)
pipeline(items, ...stages)	Run each item through all stages independently — no barrier
phase(title) / log(msg)	Progress grouping and narration

meta MUST be a pure literal (no variables, calls, or interpolation). Use parallel only when you genuinely need every result together; otherwise prefer pipeline.

Invocation

Workflow({ name: 'plugin-contract-audit' })            // run a named .claude/workflows/*.js
Workflow({ scriptPath: '.claude/workflows/foo.js' })   // run a script by path
Workflow({ name: 'plugin-contract-audit', args: 'ruflo-agentdb' })  // pass args (the script's `args` global)
Workflow({ scriptPath, resumeFromRunId: 'wf_…' })      // resume — unchanged agent() calls return cached

The repo ships a reference workflow at .claude/workflows/plugin-contract-audit.js and a worked example at .claude/workflows/intelligence-system-hardening.js.

Choosing a surface

If you need…	Use
A persisted definition that pauses for human approval and resumes across sessions	MCP workflow_*
A stateful lifecycle (created → running ↔ paused → completed/cancelled) the engine schedules	MCP workflow_*
Deterministic fan-out of many subagents (review N dimensions, audit N plugins, migrate N files)	Native Workflow JS
Structured, schema-validated results aggregated in code	Native Workflow JS
A one-shot stateless run	MCP workflow_execute or native Workflow

Namespace coordination

This plugin owns the workflows-state AgentDB namespace (kebab-case, follows the convention from ruflo-agentdb ADR-0001 §"Namespace convention"). Reserved namespaces (pattern, claude-memories, default) MUST NOT be shadowed.

workflows-state indexes workflow definitions, current state, run history, and template metadata. Accessed via memory_* (namespace-routed).

Verification

bash plugins/ruflo-workflows/scripts/smoke.sh
# Expected: "15 passed, 0 failed"

Architecture Decisions

• ADR-0001 — ruflo-workflows plugin contract (10-tool MCP surface, lifecycle state machine, smoke as contract)
• ADR-0002 — native Claude Code Workflow orchestration (.claude/workflows/*.js fan-out) alongside the MCP surface

Related Plugins

• ruflo-agentdb — namespace convention owner
• ruflo-loop-workers — sibling automation surface (loops are recurring; workflows are stateful pipelines)
• ruflo-sparc — SPARC phase transitions can be modeled as workflows