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Enriching the User Interface - Python SDK

Enhance the Temporal UI by adding contextual information to Workflows and Events. This makes it easier to identify and understand Workflows and their operations at a glance.

Adding Summary and Details to Workflows​

Temporal supports adding summaries and details in several places: when starting a Workflow, from within the Workflow itself, and on Activities or Timers within a Workflow.

Starting a Workflow​

When starting a Workflow, you can provide a static summary and details to help identify the Workflow in the UI:

# Start a Workflow with static summary and details
handle = await client.start_workflow(
    YourWorkflow.run,
    "workflow input",
    id="your-workflow-id",
    task_queue="your-task-queue",
    static_summary="Order processing for customer #12345",
    static_details="Processing premium order with expedited shipping"
)

static_summary is a single-line description that appears in the Workflow list view, limited to 200 bytes. static_details can be multi-line and provides more comprehensive information that appears in the Workflow details view, with a larger limit of 20K bytes.

The input format is normal Markdown excluding: images, html, and scripts.

You can also use the execute_workflow method with the same parameters:

result = await client.execute_workflow(
    YourWorkflow.run,
    "workflow input",
    id="your-workflow-id",
    task_queue="your-task-queue",
    static_summary="Order processing for customer #12345",
    static_details="Processing premium order with expedited shipping"
)

Inside the Workflow​

Within a Workflow, you can get and set the current workflow details. Unlike static summary/details set at workflow start, this value can be updated throughout the life of the Workflow. Current workflow details also takes Markdown format (excluding images, html, and scripts) and can span multiple lines.

@workflow.defn
class YourWorkflow:
    @workflow.run
    async def run(self, input: str) -> str:
        # Get the current details
        current_details = workflow.get_current_details()
        print(f"Current details: {current_details}")
        
        # Set/update the current details
        workflow.set_current_details("Updated workflow details with new status")
        
        return "Workflow completed"

Adding Summary to Activities and Timers​

You can attach a summary to Activities when starting them from within a Workflow:

@workflow.defn
class YourWorkflow:
    @workflow.run
    async def run(self, input: str) -> str:
        # Start an activity with a summary
        result = await workflow.execute_activity(
            your_activity,
            input,
            start_to_close_timeout=timedelta(seconds=10),
            summary="Processing user data"
        )
        return result

Similarly, you can attach a summary to Timers within a Workflow:

@workflow.defn
class YourWorkflow:
    @workflow.run
    async def run(self, input: str) -> str:
        # Create a timer with a summary
        await workflow.sleep(timedelta(minutes=5), summary="Waiting for payment confirmation")
        return "Timer completed"

The input format for summary is a string, and limited to 200 bytes.