Use these rules when building host apps with Squid Mesh or changing Squid Mesh itself.
Core Model
- Squid Mesh is an embedded durable workflow runtime for Elixir applications.
- Workflow authors define compiled Elixir workflow modules with triggers, payload contracts, steps, transitions, waits, approvals, retries, and recovery routes.
- The Jido-native journal runtime is the source of truth for run, dispatch, attempt, manual-control, and terminal facts.
- Host workers provide execution capacity by calling
SquidMesh.execute_next/1. - Optional schedulers can deliver cron payloads through
SquidMesh.Runtime.Runner.perform/2. - Optional backend adapters, such as the Bedrock example, can own durable delivery and lease mechanics without changing workflow modules.
Rules To Follow
- Prefer
use SquidMesh.Stepfor custom workflow steps. - Use raw
Jido.Actionmodules only for explicit interop. - Keep workflow definitions backend-neutral.
- Keep delivery and job boundaries thin; call host-owned modules that wrap Squid Mesh public APIs.
- Use
SquidMesh.list_runs/2for index views andSquidMesh.inspect_run/2,SquidMesh.inspect_run_graph/2, orSquidMesh.explain_run/2for details. - Add idempotency keys or domain duplicate detection to side-effecting steps.
- Treat external exactly-once behavior as out of scope for Squid Mesh.
Rules To Avoid
- Do not configure
:executorfor step execution. - Do not configure
:stale_step_timeout. - Do not use or document
:runtime_tables. - Do not deliver step or compensation payloads through
SquidMesh.Runtime.Runner.perform/2. - Do not make workflow modules depend on Bedrock, Oban, or another backend's APIs.
- Do not use
String.to_atom/1on external input or persisted untrusted data.