Workflow Development

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Writing WorkflowProcess steps
• ParticipantStepChooser implementations
• Registering services via Felix SCR
• DS R6 OSGi annotations

Example prompts

• “/workflow-development”

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 985c436. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are java).

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Workflow Development loads about 1.2k tokens when it runs, and up to ~7.9k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 132 tokens; SKILL.md has 161 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~132

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.2k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~7.9k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from adobe/skills at commit 985c436, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© adobe). 161 words, ~1,174 tokens.

name

workflow-development

description

[BETA] Implement custom AEM Workflow Java components on AEM 6.5 LTS. This skill is in beta. Verify all outputs before applying them to production projects. Use when writing WorkflowProcess steps, ParticipantStepChooser implementations, registering services via Felix SCR or DS R6 OSGi annotations, reading step arguments from MetaDataMap, accessing JCR payload via WorkflowSession adapter, reading and writing workflow metadata and variables, and handling errors with WorkflowException for retry behavior.

license

Apache-2.0

metadata.status

beta

Development Progress
- [ ] 1) Identify what the step does: process (auto) or participant (human) or dynamic participant
- [ ] 2) Create Java class implementing WorkflowProcess or ParticipantStepChooser
- [ ] 3) Register with @Component/@Service (Felix SCR) or @Component (DS R6) with service property
- [ ] 4) Read step arguments from MetaDataMap args
- [ ] 5) Access payload via item.getWorkflowData().getPayload().toString()
- [ ] 6) Read/write workflow instance metadata via item.getWorkflowData().getMetaDataMap()
- [ ] 7) Return normally to advance; throw WorkflowException to trigger retry
- [ ] 8) Deploy; verify process.label appears in Workflow Model Editor step picker

@Component(
    service = WorkflowProcess.class,
    property = {
        "process.label=My Custom Process Step",
        "service.description=Short description"
    }
)
public class MyCustomProcess implements WorkflowProcess {

    @Reference
    private ResourceResolverFactory resolverFactory;

    @Override
    public void execute(WorkItem item, WorkflowSession session, MetaDataMap args)
            throws WorkflowException {
        String payloadPath = item.getWorkflowData().getPayload().toString();
        String myArg = args.get("myArgKey", "defaultValue");
        item.getWorkflowData().getMetaDataMap().put("processedBy", "my-step");
        // ... do work ...
    }
}

@Component(metatype = false)
@Service(value = WorkflowProcess.class)
@Property(name = "process.label", value = "My Custom Process Step")
public class MyCustomProcess implements WorkflowProcess {

    @Reference
    private SlingRepository repository;

    @Override
    public void execute(WorkItem item, WorkflowSession session, MetaDataMap args)
            throws WorkflowException {
        // same body as DS R6 example
    }
}

@Component(
    service = ParticipantStepChooser.class,
    property = {"chooser.label=Department Head Chooser"}
)
public class DepartmentHeadChooser implements ParticipantStepChooser {

    @Override
    public String getParticipant(WorkItem workItem, WorkflowSession session,
                                 MetaDataMap args) throws WorkflowException {
        String department = workItem.getWorkflowData()
                                    .getMetaDataMap().get("department", "marketing");
        return department + "-managers";
    }
}

© adobe, Apache-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 9 other files (references) in plugins/aem/6.5-lts/skills/aem-workflow/workflow-development of adobe/skills.

• SKILL.md
• references/workflow-development/participant-step-patterns.md
• references/workflow-development/process-step-patterns.md
• references/workflow-development/variables-and-metadata.md
• references/workflow-foundation/65-lts-guardrails.md
• references/workflow-foundation/README.md
• references/workflow-foundation/api-reference.md
• references/workflow-foundation/architecture-overview.md
• references/workflow-foundation/jcr-paths-reference.md
• references/workflow-foundation/quick-start-guide.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 985c436