Skip to main content

Application message passing - Temporal development feature

Need a responsive application? Temporal provides Signals, Queries, and Updates as a means to send data into and get data out of your running application. Signals enable your application to asynchronously react to events at runtime, Queries enable on-demand data retrieval from ongoing Workflows without disrupting their execution, and Updates enable you to change the state of a running application.

Signals: Signals allow you to send messages asynchronously to running Workflow Executions, enabling you to change their state and control their flow in real-time. This feature is particularly useful in scenarios where Workflows must react to external events or user interactions.

Queries: Queries provide a way to access and monitor the internal state of your Workflow Executions in real-time. This is essential for monitoring the progress of long-running Workflows and retrieving their results.

Updates: An Update is a synchronous, blocking call that could replace both a Signal and a Query.

See the SDK feature guides for implementation details.

For a deep dive into Application message passing, enroll in one of our courses or read our Encyclopedia page.