Workflow Create

Author a workflow on whichever surface fits the job.

Pick a surface

• MCP workflow template — a persisted definition with a pause/resume lifecycle. Use for long-lived, human-gated, resumable pipelines.
• Native .claude/workflows/*.js — an imperative orchestration script that fans subagents out. Use for comprehensive fan-out (review, audit, migration, research) where you aggregate structured results in code.

A — MCP workflow template

1. List templates — call mcp__claude-flow__workflow_template to see available templates
2. Create workflow — call mcp__claude-flow__workflow_create with steps, conditions, and execution order
3. List workflows — call mcp__claude-flow__workflow_list to see all defined workflows
4. Check status — call mcp__claude-flow__workflow_status to monitor a workflow
5. Clean up — call mcp__claude-flow__workflow_delete to remove unused workflows

Features: sequential/parallel steps, conditional branching, template inheritance, pause/resume approval gates.

B — Native .claude/workflows/*.js

Write a .js file under .claude/workflows/. It MUST begin with a pure-literal export const meta block; the body runs inside an async wrapper (top-level await/return are legal) with these hooks injected:

Hook	Purpose
agent(prompt, opts)	Spawn one subagent; pass opts.schema (JSON Schema) to get validated structured output back
parallel(thunks)	Run thunks concurrently with a barrier — .filter(Boolean) the results
pipeline(items, ...stages)	Stream each item through stages independently — prefer this over a barrier
phase(title) / log(msg)	Progress grouping / narration

export const meta = {
  name: 'my-workflow',                 // becomes the invocable name — must be a pure literal
  description: 'one line',
  phases: [{ title: 'Find' }, { title: 'Verify' }],
}
const SCHEMA = { type: 'object', required: ['ok'], properties: { ok: { type: 'boolean' } }, additionalProperties: false }
phase('Find')
const found = await agent('find the things', { schema: SCHEMA, agentType: 'tester' })
phase('Verify')
const checked = await parallel((found.items || []).map((it) => () =>
  agent(`verify ${it}`, { schema: SCHEMA })))
return { found, checked: checked.filter(Boolean) }

Rules: meta is a pure literal (no variables/calls/interpolation); default to pipeline over parallel; never use Date.now()/Math.random() (they throw — vary by index instead). Validate syntax (the body is ESM-in-async-wrapper, not a bare module):

node -e 'const fs=require("fs");let s=fs.readFileSync(".claude/workflows/my-workflow.js","utf8").replace(/^export\s+const\s+meta/m,"const meta");fs.writeFileSync("/tmp/wf.mjs","let agent,parallel,pipeline,phase,log,args,budget,workflow;async function __wf(){\n"+s+"\n}")' \
  && node --check /tmp/wf.mjs && echo OK

Run it with the workflow-run skill or Workflow({ name: 'my-workflow' }). Reference: .claude/workflows/plugin-contract-audit.js. See ADR-0002.