When a workflow is published as a tool node, it only returns the execution result of the node

[xiaomujiang925]

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Dify version

1.10.1

Cloud or Self Hosted

Self Hosted (Docker)

Steps to reproduce

When a workflow is published as a tool node, it only returns the execution result of the node and cannot return the internal execution status of the tool. Especially when there is an LLM in the tool node, streaming output is not supported. Are there any solutions?

✔️ Expected Behavior

The nodes where workflow is published as a tool can output the execution process, mainly the thinking process of LLM nodes can be output in a streaming manner.

❌ Actual Behavior

No response

[dosubot]

Hi @xiebaogang! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the dify team.

This is a known limitation. When a workflow is published as a tool, streaming is hardcoded as disabled (streaming=False) in the current implementation—only the final aggregated result is returned, not intermediate execution status or LLM thinking process.

Current status:

• A PR to enable streaming output with a "Stream Mode" toggle was proposed but not merged
• There's a discussion about streaming for MCP tool calls with plans to support it via a stream-tool-call feature, but only in Function Calling mode and only if the model supports it

Workaround considerations:

• Using Function Calling agent strategy instead of ReAct will give you some streaming output, though it doesn't wait for tool results before outputting
• For full visibility into LLM reasoning during workflow execution, the workflow would need to be restructured to not use the "publish as tool" pattern

Unfortunately, there's no current workaround to get streaming LLM output from workflow-as-tool nodes. This would require changes to the core implementation.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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[xiaomujiang925]

@dosu
Regarding the first point of the current status, would you like to know what specific effects it will achieve and if there are any plans to merge it into the official branch?

[crazywoola]

Hi @xiaomujiang925, thanks for opening this issue.

Why this is being closed

This issue tracker is reserved for actionable bugs/tasks. This report looks like a usage question.

Next steps

Please use the community channels instead:

• https://forum.dify.ai/
• https://discord.com/invite/FngNHpbcY7

If this is actually a bug/task, please open a new issue with clear reproducible details.

Thanks for understanding and for supporting Dify.