Generic Workflow Application

This repository contains a prototype for a generic workflow platform built around a standalone Camunda 7 engine, a Spring Boot API host, a React frontend, a NestJS worker service, and workflow-pack assets.

Repository Layout

• apps/workflow-api: Spring Boot API host with tenant-aware workflow facade endpoints
• apps/workflow-ui: React UI for adaptive worklists, task details, admin, and process launch
• apps/workflow-workers: NestJS reference external-task worker service
• packages/workflow-contracts: shared TypeScript contracts that mirror the backend API shape
• workflows: deployable workflow packs containing BPMN, DMN, Groovy, and JSON form metadata
• docs/architecture: architecture and API design notes
• infra: local runtime assets

Prototype Scope

The current prototype focuses on:

• custom product APIs instead of raw engine REST exposure
• workflow-owned vs source-system-owned data boundaries
• logical multi-tenancy
• standalone Camunda 7 as the workflow system of record
• no workflow-specific business logic in the API host
• JSON-driven user task forms loaded from workflow-pack metadata
• NestJS external task workers for workflow-specific execution
• header-based authentication stub with role-based authorization
• metadata-driven UI rendering
• a reference loan application workflow with user and system tasks
• a sample claim approval workflow pack with external tasks, DMN guidance, and resubmission loop

Local Verification

1. Install workspace dependencies:

npm install

2. Start the standalone workflow runtime:

.\scripts\start-workflow-runtime.ps1

This brings up PostgreSQL, a standalone Camunda 7 container on http://localhost:8081, and the NestJS external-task worker container. Cockpit is available from that engine container rather than from the API host.

3. Deploy the workflow packs:

.\scripts\deploy-workflow-pack.ps1 -WorkflowKey loan-application
.\scripts\deploy-workflow-pack.ps1 -WorkflowKey claim-approval

4. Run the backend API host:

cd apps/workflow-api
.\mvnw.cmd test
.\mvnw.cmd spring-boot:run

Useful backend environment variables:

$env:WORKFLOW_ENGINE_BASE_URL="http://localhost:8081/engine-rest"
$env:WORKFLOW_FORMS_PATH="..\..\workflows"

5. Run the frontend:

cd apps/workflow-ui
npm run dev
npm run build:ui

6. Optional worker-only local build:

cd apps/workflow-workers
npm run build

The Maven wrapper is configured so apps/workflow-api\mvnw.cmd can use the repo-local .tools/jdk8 fallback when a full system JDK is not installed.