v0.8.0 — Real-time WebSocket event stream

Release Notes — v0.8.0

Release date: 2026-05-20

Overview

v0.8.0 adds real-time push notifications to the AutoFlowOps frontend via a WebSocket event stream. Job executions and new alerts now appear in the UI as they happen, without waiting for the next polling cycle.

All WebSocket events contain only safe, pre-masked data — no credentials, headers or secrets are ever forwarded to browser clients.

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What's New

WebSocket event stream (GET /ws/events)

A new WebSocket endpoint accepts JWT-authenticated connections and pushes domain events in real time:

Event	Trigger
execution.started	An HTTP execution transitions to running
execution.completed	An execution reaches a terminal state (success, failure, timeout) or retrying
alert.created	A job failure creates a new alert

Authentication uses the existing JWT access token passed as a query parameter (?token=<JWT>). The server rejects missing or invalid tokens with WebSocket close code 1008 (Policy Violation). No new credentials or configuration are required.

Redis Pub/Sub fan-out

The backend starts a long-running asyncio task at startup that subscribes to the autoflowops:events Redis channel and fans out messages to all connected WebSocket clients. The task fails gracefully if Redis is unavailable — the WebSocket endpoint still accepts connections and the frontend falls back to polling.

useWebSocket frontend hook

The hook manages the WebSocket lifecycle:

• Automatic reconnect with exponential backoff (max 30s delay)
• Stops reconnecting on authentication failure (code 1008)
• Cleans up on component unmount
• Falls back silently when no access token is present

LiveIndicator component

A small status badge is shown in the top-right area of the Jobs, Executions and Alerts pages:

• Green pulsing dot — WebSocket connected, real-time updates active
• Grey dot — Connecting…
• Nothing — Closed or auth failure (polling still active)

Pages updated

Page	Real-time trigger
Jobs	execution.completed — refreshes last_run_at
Executions	execution.started, execution.completed
Alerts	alert.created

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Test Coverage

Suite	Before	After
Backend pytest	209	216 (+7)
Frontend Vitest	65	75 (+10)

New backend tests (tests/test_ws.py)

• No token → rejected (code 1008)
• Invalid token → rejected (code 1008)
• JWT for non-existent user → rejected (code 1008)
• Valid admin token → connected message received
• Ping/pong keepalive
• ConnectionManager.broadcast delivers to registered connections
• ConnectionManager silently removes dead connections

New frontend tests (tests/useWebSocket.test.ts)

• Connection created on mount
• Initial status is connecting
• Auth error when no token stored
• Status transitions to open on successful connection
• Incoming messages parsed as WSEvent
• pong and connected frames do not update lastEvent
• Code 1008 sets auth_error and prevents reconnect
• Normal close schedules reconnect
• Socket closed on unmount

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Architecture Changes

New files

File	Purpose
backend/app/services/event_publisher.py	publish_event() (sync) and publish_event_async() — write to Redis Pub/Sub channel autoflowops:events
backend/app/api/ws.py	WebSocket endpoint, ConnectionManager singleton, redis_subscriber background task
backend/tests/test_ws.py	WS endpoint and connection manager tests
frontend/src/hooks/useWebSocket.ts	Hook with auto-reconnect and auth-error detection
frontend/src/components/ui/LiveIndicator.tsx	Connection status badge
frontend/src/tests/useWebSocket.test.ts	Hook unit tests

Modified files

File	Change
backend/app/main.py	Includes WS router; starts redis_subscriber asyncio task in lifespan
backend/app/services/http_runner.py	Publishes execution.started, execution.completed, alert.created
backend/app/worker/tasks.py	Publishes execution.completed (incl. retrying), alert.created synchronously
frontend/src/pages/ExecutionsPage.tsx	Wires useWebSocket; invalidates query on exec events
frontend/src/pages/JobsPage.tsx	Wires useWebSocket; invalidates jobs query on completion
frontend/src/pages/AlertsPage.tsx	Wires useWebSocket; invalidates alerts query on new alert

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Known Limitations

• Token in URL — The JWT is sent as a query parameter during the WebSocket handshake. Use HTTPS/WSS in production to keep it encrypted in transit. It will appear in server access logs; use short token lifetimes.
• Single subscriber per replica — Each backend replica independently subscribes and fans out. In a multi-replica deployment, a client connected to replica A will not receive events published only on replica B's Redis subscriber (but both subscribers connect to the same Redis channel, so this is not an issue in practice — the event is published once and both subscribers relay it).
• No history replay — WebSocket clients only receive events that occur after connection; historical executions are loaded via the REST API.
• No per-user filtering — All authenticated users receive the same event stream. Fine-grained filtering (e.g. viewer sees only their own job events) is not yet implemented.

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Upgrade Steps

No database migration is required. No new environment variables are required.

1. Pull the latest code.

2. Rebuild Docker images: docker compose up -d --build

3. Verify the backend log shows:

   INFO  app.api.ws  Redis WS subscriber ready on channel autoflowops:events
   

4. Open the Jobs, Executions or Alerts page in the browser; the Live indicator should appear within a few seconds.