Getting Started

Getting started

Requirements

• An ASP.NET Core app on .NET 8, 9 or 10 that uses Workflow Core 3.x.
• Any Workflow Core persistence provider. Some provider features differ; see Activity journal.

1. Install the packages

The packages are attached to each GitHub release. Download them into a local feed and add them like any other package:

mkdir packages
gh release download v0.1.0 -R inferenceailab/WorkflowCore.Dashboard -p "*.nupkg" -D packages
dotnet nuget add source "$(pwd)/packages" --name wfc-dashboard

dotnet add package WorkflowCore.Dashboard --version 0.1.0
dotnet add package WorkflowCore.Dashboard.EntityFramework --version 0.1.0   # optional: keep history
dotnet add package WorkflowCore.Dashboard.Designer --version 0.1.0          # optional: visual designer

2. Add the dashboard

using WorkflowCore.Dashboard;

builder.Services.AddWorkflow(options => options.UseSqlServer(connectionString, canCreateDB: true));
builder.Services.AddWorkflowCoreDashboard(options =>
{
    options.Title = "Orders";
});

var app = builder.Build();
app.MapWorkflowCoreDashboard("/workflows");
app.Run();

Start the app and open https://localhost:<port>/workflows on the same machine. By default the dashboard only answers local requests; see step 5 to open it up.

AddWorkflowCoreDashboard must come after AddWorkflow. The dashboard does not start the Workflow Core host; your app does, as before.

3. Keep history across restarts (recommended)

Without a persistent journal, the activity feed and totals are kept in memory and the instance list uses Workflow Core's own listing. Store them in a database instead:

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using WorkflowCore.Dashboard.EntityFramework;

builder.Services.AddWorkflowCoreDashboard()
    .UseEntityFrameworkJournal(db => db.UseSqlServer(connectionString));

It works with any EF Core relational provider and can share Workflow Core's database. See Activity journal.

4. Add the designer (optional)

using WorkflowCore.Dashboard.Designer;

builder.Services.AddWorkflowCoreDashboard()
    .UseEntityFrameworkJournal(db => db.UseSqlServer(connectionString))
    .AddDesigner();

A Designer item appears in the navigation. See Designer.

5. Allow access from other machines

Add sign-in with your identity provider. For example, with Okta:

dotnet add package WorkflowCore.Dashboard.OpenIdConnect

builder.Services.AddWorkflowCoreDashboard()
    .UseOkta(okta =>
    {
        okta.Domain = "acme.okta.com";
        okta.ClientId = builder.Configuration["Okta:ClientId"]!;
        okta.ClientSecret = builder.Configuration["Okta:ClientSecret"];
        okta.AdminGroups.Add("Workflow Admins");    // can change workflows
        okta.ViewerGroups.Add("Engineering");       // can watch
    });

Identity providers has the setup for Okta, Entra ID, Auth0, Keycloak, Google, Cognito and others. If your app already has its own sign-in, see Security instead.

Anyone who can open the dashboard can see workflow data, and admins can change workflows: read Security before exposing it.

Try the sample

git clone https://github.com/inferenceailab/WorkflowCore.Dashboard.git
cd WorkflowCore.Dashboard
dotnet run --project samples/WorkflowCore.Dashboard.Sample

Open http://localhost:5290/workflows. The sample uses SQLite for Workflow Core and the journal, has the designer enabled, and runs C#, JSON and YAML workflows. It starts a new workflow every few seconds; set Sample:GenerateTraffic to false in appsettings.json to stop that.