Jizoku is a workflow automation platform for Elixir applications. It runs inside a host application's supervision tree and infrastructure.
Jizoku.Workflow
- declarative DSL for triggers, payload, steps, transitions, and retries
Jizoku
- public runtime API for starting, inspecting, listing, cancelling, and replaying runs
Jizoku.Runtime.WorkflowAgent
- rebuilds per-run workflow coordination state from durable run-thread journal entries and checkpoints, including planned runnables, applied results, manual pause or approval state, and terminal status
Jizoku.Runtime.DispatchAgent
- rebuilds per-queue dispatch state from durable dispatch-thread journal entries and checkpoints, including visible attempts, running leases, retries, completed results, failures, and expired claims
Jizoku.Runtime.DispatchProtocol
- defines append-only run, dispatch, and run-index journal entries for the journal-backed runtime; its claim and heartbeat vocabulary is compatible with lease-capable backend adapters and refers only to durable dispatch fencing metadata, not host-backend worker lifecycle management
Jizoku.Runtime.Journal
- persists dispatch protocol entries and projection checkpoints through
Jido.Storage, preserving Jido thread revision pointers for rebuildable runtime projections
Jizoku.Runtime.Journal.Storage
- normalizes the trusted host-configured storage adapter for journal threads and checkpoints; the built-in production relational path is the Postgres-compatible Ecto adapter, while other adapters must provide the same ordering, conflict-detection, checkpoint, and rebuild guarantees
Jizoku.Runtime.RunIndexProjection
- rebuilds workflow-scoped run lookup state from run-index journal entries, keeping duplicate index facts idempotent and surfacing malformed or conflicting index facts as anomalies
Jizoku.Runtime.RunCatalogProjection
- rebuilds global run lookup state from run-catalog journal entries, so host-facing tools can list all journal-backed runs without adapter-specific storage scans
Jizoku.ReadModel.Inspection
- rebuilds workflow and dispatch agent projections into a read-only inspection snapshot for the journal-backed runtime, including pending dispatches, unapplied results, scheduled attempts, visible attempts, expired claims, manual intervention state, terminal state, versioned graph state, and projection anomalies
Jizoku.ReadModel.Explanation
- turns a projection-backed inspection snapshot into a deterministic operator explanation with reason-specific details, suggested runtime next actions, and evidence pointers back to durable journal revisions
Jizoku.inspect_run/2 and Jizoku.explain_run/2
- use the journal read model as the default public behavior and infer Ecto storage from the configured repo
- still accept explicit projection options such as
journal_storage:orqueue:when callers need to inspect or explain a non-default journal boundary
Jizoku.Executor
- optional host-implemented behaviour for enqueueing cron activations when an
external scheduler wants to deliver
Jizoku.Executor.Payload.cron/3payloads through a job backend
Jizoku.Runtime.Runner
- backend-neutral entrypoint that host jobs call when queued cron payloads are delivered
Jizoku.Runtime.RetryPolicy
- resolves step-level retry policy into retry decisions and backoff delays
Jizoku.Tools
- shared boundary for external adapters such as HTTP
Jizoku owns:
- workflow structure
- payload validation
- durable run, dispatch, step, attempt, and manual-control facts
- replay and cancellation semantics
- retry policy at the workflow-step layer
- projection-backed inspection and explanation
Jido owns:
- step behavior execution
- action contracts inside custom step modules
- the storage behaviour used by the Jido-native journal and checkpoint boundary
Postgres owns:
- source-of-truth persistence for journal threads, entries, checkpoints, and host application data when using the default Ecto storage adapter
flowchart TB
api["Public API<br/>start / inspect_run / explain_run"]
runtime["Jizoku runtime<br/>plans work, applies results, retries, pauses, cancels, completes"]
journals["Jido journals<br/>runs, attempts, claims, heartbeats, completions, failures, terminal state"]
worker["Host workers<br/>Jizoku.execute_next/1"]
leases["Lease boundary<br/>Jizoku.Executor.Leases"]
adapter["Backend adapter<br/>queue, delay, cron delivery, lease mechanics"]
storage["Backend storage<br/>jobs, leases, worker liveness, delivery metadata"]
api --> runtime
runtime --> journals
journals --> worker
worker --> journals
journals --> leases
leases --> journals
worker --> adapter
leases --> adapter
adapter --> storage
- A host application starts a run through
Jizoku.start/2,start/3, orstart/4. - Jizoku validates the workflow definition and payload.
- The journal runtime appends run and runnable facts to the host repo through the configured journal storage adapter.
- A worker calls
Jizoku.execute_next/1to claim one visible attempt. - Step output is appended back to the journal and projected into run state.
- The runtime decides whether the run completes, advances, retries, fails, or no-ops.
- If more work is required, successor runnable intent is appended before later workers can claim it.
Versioned graph mutations append the mutation and planned runnable intents to
the run thread atomically. Dispatch facts are a later repairable projection:
dependency-ready nodes are scheduled after the run commit, while blocked and
tombstoned nodes remain unscheduled. Jizoku.reconcile_dynamic_graph/2
rebuilds both sides and idempotently repairs missing queue markers or attempts.
Delivered cron payloads use Jizoku.Runtime.Runner.perform/2 to start runs
through the configured journal runtime. Step execution is claimed through
Jizoku.execute_next/1.
Jizoku records claim, lease, and result facts in the Jido-native dispatch
protocol for replay and recovery. A host can run a simple supervised worker that
calls Jizoku.execute_next/1; lease-capable backends can additionally expose
backend-owned worker fencing through Jizoku.Executor.Leases.
Current guarantees:
- run, step, attempt, manual-control, and dispatch history is durable
- queued and scheduled workflow intent survives deploys and restarts through the journal
- stale or duplicate deliveries are treated as workflow-level no-ops when possible
Current non-goals:
- replacing every backend-specific worker heartbeat or lease manager
- automatic reclamation of a step that died mid-side-effect
- exactly-once external side effects without idempotent step implementations