Workflow Plugin Core

A lightweight quality gate layer for long skill chains.

It runs right before archive/finalization and prevents weak outputs from being treated as "done".

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Why I built this

This came directly from my own practice.

I was running long chains (for example: fetch data with Feishu skill → analyze with a data-analysis skill → send summary back to Feishu group). It worked, but it was fragile:

• context was easy to lose across steps,
• I often forgot something in the middle,
• and most importantly, nodes had no clear acceptance threshold.

So even when each skill "ran successfully", the final result quality was unstable.

I realized the fix was not just chaining skills — it was adding node-level quality thresholds + feedback loops.

That became this plugin core:

• each workflow can define required artifacts and optional custom checks,
• each run is validated before archive,
• if it fails, the chain does not continue silently.

This simple gate turned unstable chains into reliable pipelines.

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What it does

pre_archive_gate.sh reads workflow/plugin-config.json and enforces checks:

1. Required artifacts check (requiredArtifacts, supports glob)
2. Optional freshness check (freshMinutes)
3. Optional custom gate script (gateScript)

If any check fails:

• archive is blocked,
• workflow/artifacts/revision-todo.md is generated,
• your workflow gets explicit feedback instead of false success.

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Repository contents

• pre_archive_gate.sh — global pre-archive gate entry
• default-plugin-config.json — default config template
• enable_workflow_plugin.sh — enable plugin for one workflow
• plugin_status.sh — inspect plugin status across workflows
• bootstrap_all_workflows.sh — create missing plugin-config for all workflows

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Installation

Option A — Recommended (inside a workflows root)

If you already have a directory like:

workflows/
  .workflow-plugin-core/
  workflow-a/
  workflow-b/

Place this repo as .workflow-plugin-core under your workflows root.

Then bootstrap configs:

cd /path/to/workflows/.workflow-plugin-core
bash bootstrap_all_workflows.sh

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Option B — Any repository layout

You can also clone anywhere and pass explicit paths.

git clone https://github.com/ChrisXHL/pi-workflow-plugin-core.git
cd pi-workflow-plugin-core

# Check status for your custom workflows root
bash plugin_status.sh /path/to/workflows

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Option C — For Pi users

If you use Pi workflow runtime, keep this structure:

<your-workflows-root>/
  .workflow-plugin-core/
  <workflow-name>/
    workflow/
      scripts/archive_task.sh
      plugin-config.json
      artifacts/

Then in each workflow's archive_task.sh, call the plugin gate before archive:

PLUGIN_CORE="${WORKFLOW_ROOT}/../.workflow-plugin-core/pre_archive_gate.sh"
if [[ -x "${PLUGIN_CORE}" ]]; then
  bash "${PLUGIN_CORE}" "${WORKFLOW_ROOT}"
fi

This is the key integration point for Pi workflow pipelines.

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Quick start

1) Bootstrap configs for all workflows

# from workflows/.workflow-plugin-core
bash bootstrap_all_workflows.sh

2) Enable one workflow

bash enable_workflow_plugin.sh \
  ../my-workflow \
  workflow/scripts/plugin_check.sh

3) Check status

bash plugin_status.sh
# or
bash plugin_status.sh ../

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plugin-config.json reference

Example:

{
  "enabled": true,
  "runBaseChecks": true,
  "gateScript": "workflow/scripts/plugin_check.sh",
  "requiredArtifacts": [
    "input-summary.md",
    "reference-selection.md",
    "final-post.md",
    "reports/*.json"
  ],
  "freshMinutes": 180
}

Fields:

• enabled (bool): turn plugin on/off for this workflow
• runBaseChecks (bool): enable required artifact checks
• gateScript (string): optional script for custom pass/fail logic
• requiredArtifacts (string[]): required files/globs under workflow/artifacts
• freshMinutes (number|null): require artifacts to be recently updated

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Failure and feedback model

When checks fail, the plugin writes:

• workflow/artifacts/revision-todo.md

This gives the next iteration a concrete fix list, which creates a practical quality feedback loop.

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Emergency bypass

For debugging only:

ALLOW_ARCHIVE_WITH_FAIL=1 bash pre_archive_gate.sh /path/to/workflow-root

Use with caution — this bypasses all gate failures.

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Design philosophy

• Chains are not enough. Gates are mandatory.
• A node is only complete when it meets a threshold.
• No threshold, no reliability.
• No feedback, no quality improvement.

This project exists to make multi-skill automation stable in real-world usage.

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License

MIT