xyOps Dev Update: June / July / August 2026

[jhuckaby]

Overview

This update covers June 13, 2026 through August 19, 2026, picking up right after the last post.

It has been an exciting summer! We shipped the brand-new SDK for Node.js, workflows gained some seriously useful debugging and live-control features, the API became friendlier for synchronous automation, the scheduler and database layers were hardened for larger workloads, multi-user administration got safer, and the Marketplace grew again.

This stretch also produced a big collection of practical Wiki guides. They cover everything from custom business calendars and global blackout windows to multiplexed sub-workflows, six-figure batch processing, live workflow modification, SFTP customer intake, low-bandwidth networks, accessibility, and a long list of hidden shortcuts.

Release Overview

During this window we shipped:

• 24 xyOps releases, from v1.0.69 through v1.0.92
• 262 commits in the xyOps repo
• 129 changed files, with 11,264 lines added
• The new xyOps SDK launched, and has already reached v1.0.4
• 3 new PixlCore Marketplace Plugins, bringing the Marketplace to 50 Plugins total

As always, see the full changelog for every feature, fix, dependency update, and documentation change:

• https://github.com/pixlcore/xyops/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md

Major Improvements

Here are the biggest themes from mid-June through mid-August:

• The xyOps SDK for Node.js is here, with both a friendly REST API client and a complete job runtime toolkit. It supports CommonJS and ESM, ships with type definitions, and is already included with modern xySat releases.
• Workflow testing and debugging took a major step forward, with node replay, resume-to-node, test controls for actions and limits, live workflow updates, compact and expanded nodes, controller progress rows, custom node titles, nested multiplexing, and two-stage batch processing patterns.
• External automation got much easier, thanks to synchronous /wait support for Event and Magic Link launches, richer workflow responses, raw output in stream_job, the new get_multiple endpoint, API-key file uploads, and a new API for changing active jobs.
• Scheduling and dispatch became more flexible, including multiple launches of the same Event in one minute with different parameters, the new "Fewest Active Jobs" algorithm, better catch-up handling, server self-disable during shutdown, and preferred conductor handoff.
• Performance work reached every layer, with staggered mass launches, debounced job broadcasts, queued database searches, detailed query performance logs, more efficient browser requests, and faster multi-conductor synchronization.
• Administration became safer for teams, with edit-presence warnings, system-wide broadcasts, a completely redesigned category and group restriction system, hardened restricted-user searches, better privilege handling, and clearer dependency and revision tools.
• The Marketplace added Google Sheets, iCal Blackout Calendar, and IMAP Email Trigger Plugins, along with a substantial batch of updates to existing Plugins.

Introducing the xyOps SDK for Node.js

The new xyOps SDK for Node.js gives JavaScript developers a clean, native interface for both sides of xyOps development:

• The api interface connects applications, services, command-line scripts, integrations, and jobs to the xyOps REST API.
• The job interface helps custom Event Plugins and Shell Plugin scripts communicate with xyOps while they are running.

You can install it from npm:

npm install @pixlcore/xyops-sdk

Then import either or both interfaces:

const { api, job } = require('@pixlcore/xyops-sdk');

The API client handles URL construction, API-key authentication, request formatting, uploads, downloads, response parsing, timeouts, retries, and live job streaming. Its method names use normal JavaScript camel case, so get_events becomes api.getEvents(), run_event becomes api.runEvent(), and so on. The catalog covers Events, Jobs, Servers, Monitors, Alerts, Tickets, Secrets, Buckets, Marketplace data, search APIs, and much more.

The job runtime side handles the xyOps JSON-over-STDIO protocol for you. A custom Node.js job can read parameters, input data, files, workflow data, server data, and assigned secrets with simple helper methods. It can publish output data, attach files, add tags and actions, render custom tables or Markdown, update its progress and status live, emit structured logs, record performance metrics, and finish with a clean success or error result.

There are also helpers for encrypting and decrypting JSON-compatible values using AES-256-GCM, including optional authenticated context data. This is useful for workflows that need to store an encrypted value in a bucket, spreadsheet, or external service and retrieve it later.

The SDK supports both CommonJS and ESM imports and includes bundled type definitions. It is already included with xySat v1.0.34 and later, so custom Event Plugins and Node.js scripts running through the built-in Shell Plugin can require it without installing anything. In v1.0.89, xyOps also added the SDK to its own dependencies so Action and Trigger Plugins can use it directly.

The project has already reached v1.0.4, including support for the new update_active_job API. This was originally a later-roadmap item, so I am very happy to have shipped it early. See the full SDK announcement and examples, or jump directly into the SDK documentation.

Workflow Replay and Better Testing

Workflow debugging is much more practical now.

The new Replay feature lets you freeze a node during a test run and reuse the output from one of its previous jobs. This is perfect when an early node is slow, expensive, destructive, or calls an external service. You can replay its earlier data and files, then repeatedly test everything downstream without running that first step again.

Suspended workflows can now resume at a selected target node, which gives operators a controlled way to skip ahead after investigating or correcting a problem. Start and retry delays can also be skipped manually by clicking the live state label.

Test runs gained much finer controls. You can choose exactly which action conditions should fire, toggle resource limits, supply custom JSON and files, and test unsaved Event or Workflow changes without committing them first. The Test dialog remembers your preferred action and limit settings too.

Workflow Job Details now show Controller nodes in the jobs table with their own elapsed time and progress bars. Event and Job nodes can switch between compact and expanded display, custom titles can clarify repeated uses of the same Event, and clicking a node highlights and scrolls to all of its related job rows.

These are all small pieces of one larger goal: make a complex workflow understandable while it is running, and make it easy to reproduce just the part you are trying to debug.

Live Workflow Control

The new update_active_job API can change a workflow while it is still running. It can update eligible properties on the parent workflow job, change shared workflowData, and modify nodes that have not started yet.

That enables some very dynamic patterns. An early job can inspect a file, query a service, or ask a user for input, then choose which later nodes should run, change their targets, update their parameters, or prepare shared data for the rest of the workflow.

The new Update a Live Workflow guide walks through doing this from inside a running job. It also shows how to build a reusable Action Plugin backed by a narrowly scoped API Key and Secret Vault. The SDK exposes the same operation as api.updateActiveJob(), so Node.js jobs can do this without writing their own HTTP plumbing.

This is one of those features that looks specialized at first, but it opens up a lot of possibilities. Workflows can now adapt their future execution plan based on facts discovered during the run itself.

Multiplexing and Large Batches

Nested workflows can now be multiplexed. A Split Controller in an outer workflow can launch one copy of a sub-workflow per item or batch, just like it can launch an Event node. Inside each sub-workflow, all of the normal workflow tools are available again.

Split Controllers also gained a configurable Batch Size. Instead of always sending one item to each job, they can divide a large input array into smaller arrays and send each batch to a separate job or sub-workflow.

Together, these features make it possible to process very large inputs without creating an unmanageable fan-out in one workflow. The new Processing Large Batches with Two-Stage Workflows guide demonstrates the pattern with 100,000 items:

1. An outer Split Controller divides the full array into batches of 1,000.
2. Each batch launches an inner sub-workflow.
3. The inner workflow splits its batch into individual item jobs.
4. Max Concurrent Jobs and Max Queue Size limits keep both stages under control.

There is also a focused How to Multiplex a Sub-Workflow guide for the simpler case.

As a safety guardrail, xyOps now limits each workflow run to 1,000 sub-jobs by default, with a configurable maximum. Two-stage batching gives you a clean way to scale far beyond that while preserving useful boundaries, progress tracking, concurrency limits, and failure isolation.

Easier Automation Through the API

The Event and Magic Link launch APIs now accept a /wait URL suffix. Instead of returning as soon as a job is queued, the request can wait until the job completes and return the result. When the launched Event is a Workflow, the final response includes the parent job and all of its sub-job objects.

This makes xyOps much easier to use as a synchronous automation service. A script, web service, CI job, or external application can launch work, wait on one HTTP request, and receive the complete result without building its own polling loop. These direct API launches also skip the normal scheduler launch queue, so they are not delayed by mass-scheduling throttles.

Other API improvements include:

• stream_job can optionally include raw live text output alongside structured job updates.
• get_multiple can fetch several commonly needed lists in one request, and can include the current epoch, active jobs, alerts, and system statistics.
• upload_files now works with API Keys as well as browser sessions.
• fire_job_web_hook lets an authorized caller fire a configured Web Hook for a job.
• update_active_job enables the live workflow patterns described above.
• Search APIs were hardened so category-limited and group-limited users only receive data they are allowed to see.

The new SDK wraps these APIs in straightforward JavaScript methods, including uploads, downloads, streaming, errors, retries, and authentication.

Actions, Labels and On-Demand Responses

Running jobs can now fire Instant Job Actions. A Plugin can dynamically push an action such as an email or Web Hook with the special instant condition, and xyOps executes it immediately instead of waiting for the job to finish.

This is useful when a long-running job discovers something that needs an immediate response. It can notify a team, call another service, or launch follow-up automation while continuing its own work.

The built-in "Run Event" action gained an optional start delay, and operators can manually skip both start delays and retry delays when needed. A new "Apply Label" action can assign a dynamic label to an Event or Workflow job. Action descriptions on Event Details are now clickable where applicable, which makes their configuration easier to inspect.

Plugins can also add actions at runtime through the SDK with job.addAction() or job.addActions(). The Hidden Features guide includes complete examples for sending a custom email or firing a Web Hook from inside a running job.

Scheduling, Dispatch and Failover

The scheduler can now launch multiple jobs for the same Event in the same minute (i.e. with separate parameters). This removes an awkward limitation for schedules that intentionally fan out several variations of one Event at the same timestamp.

There is also a new Fewest Active Jobs targeting algorithm. It selects the eligible server currently running the fewest jobs, giving you a simple load-balancing option that does not depend on CPU or memory monitor values.

High-volume launches are smoother too. Parallel scheduled jobs are staggered by a small configurable interval (default 50ms), and rapid job status broadcasts are debounced. These changes reduce unnecessary bursts when a large number of Events fire at once.

Multi-conductor installations gained Preferred Conductors for controlled primary handoff. Administrators can designate which conductor should be primary, and the cluster can actively hand ownership over instead of waiting for a failure.

Worker upgrades now disable the server before beginning so new jobs are not dispatched into the maintenance window. Servers can also disable themselves during an unplanned but graceful shutdown. Several related retry and failover bugs were fixed, including active jobs not resuming after conductor failover and satellite-shutdown aborts not triggering eligible retries.

Finally, catch-up handling was corrected for single-shot and precision schedules, and schedule-related timestamps are normalized consistently to the minute.

Performance, Database Maintenance and Scale

A lot of the less visible work in this cycle focused on keeping xyOps responsive under heavier load.

Database search queries now pass through a queue so expensive searches do not pile up under load. Detailed search timing and index metrics are written to the API log, which makes slow-query diagnosis much easier. On the browser side, many read-only calls were corrected to use HTTP GET, and the client now queues GET requests to avoid flooding the server.

The database maintenance editor now exposes advanced settings as JSON. Nightly maintenance can optionally save all chopped rows into XYBK backup files before deleting them, giving administrators a recoverable artifact for offline analysis or later re-import.

Other scaling improvements include faster synchronization between conductor peers, debounced job status broadcasts, staggered scheduled launches, more efficient combined data fetches, and reduced low-level storage transaction logging by default.

Safer Team Administration

xyOps now shows when another user is editing an Event, both on the Event list and when you open an editor. It does not lock the object, but it gives everyone a clear warning before two people accidentally overwrite each other's work.

Administrators can broadcast a custom message to every connected user from the System page. Messages support several notification types, include the sender's name, and are handy for planned maintenance, urgent operational notices, or coordination during an incident.

The user category and group restriction system received a complete overhaul. Restricted searches were hardened, workflow secret propagation across categories was corrected, and admin-locked Plugin parameters now stay protected when non-admins run Workflows.

The Plugin Editor also gained clearer access to revision history, job history, and a new "Show Dependants" dialog. Plugin types can no longer be changed after creation, and new default parameter values can be pushed into existing Events.

Security work continued throughout the cycle with stronger user-input encoding and sanitization, stricter API validation, dependency vulnerability updates, and provenance attestations for GitHub Actions build artifacts.

Operator Experience

There were many useful day-to-day improvements across the UI:

• Event and Workflow lists now show an abbreviated last-run age, with the full timestamp on hover.
• Event rows have an inline enable/disable checkbox.
• Ticket search presets can optionally show live counts in the sidebar.
• Users can choose horizontally scrolling tables instead of compressed or collapsed columns.
• The Event list gained a sortable last-modified column on wide screens.
• Server alert notifications can be clicked to open the alert directly.
• Recently offline servers keep their friendly label or hostname in more parts of the UI.
• Active jobs now show Event and Plugin parameters before completion.
• Raw Job JSON can be viewed or downloaded with keyboard shortcuts, and job metadata can be downloaded as CSV.
• Drag-sorted tables such as Categories, Groups, and Monitors now support full sorting options too.
• Secrets gained table searching, sorting, and a variable-name column, plus file drag-and-drop in the variable editor.
• Category colors were expanded and tuned for light mode, dark mode, high contrast, and color accessibility.

The new Hidden Features guide collects many shortcuts that are easy to miss. It covers Alt-click actions, range and pattern selection in multi-select menus, raw JSON editing, file drops into code editors, one-click Workflow node creation, grid snapping, quick condition editing, job-row highlighting, test runs with unsaved changes, Ticket short URLs, XYPDF imports from any page, and the full keyboard shortcut catalog.

New Marketplace Plugins

Three new PixlCore Plugins arrived during this window, bringing the full Marketplace to 50 Plugins, including 19 from PixlCore:

• Google Sheets: Read, search, append, update, clear, and delete Google Sheets rows and ranges.
• iCal Blackout Calendar: Use an iCal file to block scheduled jobs during calendar events, or invert the behavior and only allow jobs during those events.
• IMAP Email Trigger: Watch an IMAP mailbox for matching email, launch jobs, and pass message data and attachments into the job.

The calendar Plugin is a nice example of the Trigger Plugin system. You keep a normal xyOps schedule on the Event, then use an iCal calendar as a final launch modifier for holidays, freeze windows, business hours, or other organization-specific rules.

The IMAP Trigger opens another useful intake path. Email can now become structured workflow input, including attachments, without an external service translating the mailbox into API calls first.

Several existing Marketplace Plugins also received updates:

• Package Manager reached v1.0.9.
• Image Converter reached v1.0.4.
• Extract Anything reached v2.0.6.
• Stagehand reached v1.0.20.
• S3 Toolbox reached v1.0.4.
• Whisper Transcription reached v1.0.2.
• AI Generation reached v1.0.10.
• Video Toolkit reached v1.0.1.
• PowerShell Plugin by Nick Dollimount reached v1.4.12.

Thank you again to all of the Marketplace authors and maintainers. The catalog is becoming a very capable toolbox.

New Wiki Guides

The Wiki grew quite a bit during this cycle. Here are the new guides and what they cover:

• Low Bandwidth Networks explains how to make xySat installs and upgrades reliable over slow, unreliable, filtered, or air-gapped connections. It covers serving packages from a local xyOps Bucket, increasing both timeout layers, and troubleshooting the first uncached download.
• Accessibility Options documents theme, reduced motion, contrast, color accessibility, keyboard focus, page descriptions, Streamer Mode, sound volume, and whole-page visual adjustments.
• Run Events with a Custom Calendar Trigger shows both a small custom Node.js Trigger Plugin and the new iCal Blackout Calendar Marketplace Plugin.
• Multiplex a Sub-Workflow demonstrates fan-out where every item launches its own copy of a reusable inner Workflow.
• Customer SFTP Processing Workflow is a full customer-intake and file-processing recipe using Magic Links, Buckets, Secret Vaults, encrypted passwords, SFTP Transfer, Workflow limits, and Node.js jobs.
• Global Daily Blackout shows how two scheduled Events can use the API to disable and re-enable the global scheduler around a daily blackout window, including catch-up and recovery behavior.
• Update a Live Workflow uses the new API and SDK to change future nodes and shared data while a Workflow is running.
• Processing Large Batches combines batch splitting, multiplexed sub-workflows, concurrency limits, and queues to process very large arrays safely.
• Hidden Features gathers shortcuts, advanced gestures, testing tricks, dynamic job actions, Workflow editor techniques, and keyboard commands into one reference.

I love these recipe-style docs because they show how xyOps features fit together. A Magic Link, Bucket, Secret Vault, Marketplace Plugin, Action, API Key, and Workflow can each be useful on its own, but the really interesting solutions appear when you compose them.

Hosting, Storage and Reliability

The main Hosting guide was rewritten from scratch, with a new "Before You Install" section and clearer guidance throughout. It also gained instructions for migrating xyOps to a new server, satellite upgrade timeout configuration, more accurate installation details, and stronger coverage for real deployment decisions.

Storage documentation now covers PostgreSQL SSL, native transaction support, and updated recommended configurations. The sample configuration includes Redis, and the System DB Optimization tool now supports multiple storage engines, including PostgreSQL.

Satellite installation and upgrade scripts were hardened for unreliable downloads and older systemd versions. External ports are preserved correctly in install and upgrade URLs, partial GitHub outages are handled more carefully, and normal GitHub failures no longer produce noisy UI error notifications.

Job and Workflow cleanup became more robust too. Deleting a Workflow parent now traverses through nested sub-jobs and sub-workflows, and job deletion cleans up input files as well as output files unless another xyOps object still owns them.

Stability and Fixes

There were plenty of fixes mixed in with the new features. Some notable ones include:

• Correctly resuming active jobs after conductor failover.
• Allowing eligible satellite-shutdown aborts to enter retry handling.
• Preventing late job updates from resetting Event and Tag data.
• Fixing a race while navigating to Job Details at the exact moment a job finishes.
• Correcting workflow revision rollback and admin-locked parameter behavior.
• Propagating workflow-category secrets to sub-jobs in other categories.
• Preventing server monitoring crashes and restoring metrics from servers with no groups.
• Correcting Least CPU and Least Memory target selection.
• Fixing schedule catch-up for single-shot and precision launches.
• Hardening API validation, upload errors, group hostname validation, and live log tailing.
• Fixing workflow Controller progress flicker and laggy job progress bars.
• Preventing negative monitor values from breaking server and group donut charts.
• Filtering prereleases out of normal upgrade checks.
• Updating sanitize-html, nanoid, mail, WebSocket, request, and form dependencies for upstream security fixes.

Retries also gained an optional force mode, which allows a retry to run even when the prior attempt ended through an abort. The Retry Limit documentation now explains retry eligibility and the new option in detail.

Looking Ahead

Shipping the SDK early was a big milestone, and it gives the next round of CLI, Plugin, and integration work a much stronger foundation.

The major v1.1 roadmap items still ahead include the full remote CLI, filesystem and Git synchronization, and password-protected Magic Links. I also want to keep expanding the practical Wiki recipes, growing the Marketplace, tightening high-scale behavior, and improving the tools for operating xyOps as a team.

The last two months have made xyOps much more programmable from both directions. External software can launch work and wait for complete results, while code inside a job can use the SDK to interact richly with its own run or even reshape the rest of a live Workflow. I am very excited to see what people build with this!

Community

Please join the community and help improve xyOps:

• GitHub Discussions: Discussion Board
• Reporting Bugs: GitHub Issues
• Reddit: r/xyOps
• Discord: Join the Server
• Social Media: Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, YouTube
• RSS Feed: pixlcore.com/feed.rss

Hope to see you there! Come and say hi!

[nickdollimount]

It's come a long way in a short amount of time! It's been fantastic for us since we switched to it and it just keeps getting better. Amazing work!