kind: WorkflowTemplate

What it is

A WorkflowTemplate defines the state machine an issue, run, or other tracked item moves through inside a workspace. It’s the equivalent of “status options on a board”: you declare an ordered list of stages, each tagged with a type (open, started, completed, or cancelled), and the workspace UI uses that as the column layout for kanban boards plus the legal transition graph for status changes. WorkflowTemplates are workspace-scoped and idempotent on metadata.slug within a workspace. The workflow_templates DB table has no slug column, so on export the manifest synthesises a kebab-case slug from metadata.name to keep round-trips stable. Built-in templates seeded by the server (sequential, parallel, dev-test-loop, pipeline) are owned by the server and explicitly excluded from export — re-applying an exported workspace will never overwrite them and never produce drift against them.

YAML schema

apiVersion: crewship/v1
kind: WorkflowTemplate
metadata:
  name: Engineering Standard          # required — stored verbatim in workflow_templates.name
  slug: engineering-standard          # required — workspace-unique idempotency key
spec:
  description: "Default engineering issue lifecycle"   # optional
  icon: ":hammer_and_wrench:"          # optional — emoji shortcode or icon slug
  color: "#3B82F6"                     # optional — hex RGB, applies to the template badge
  stages:                              # required — at least one entry
    - { name: backlog,     type: open,        position: 1, color: "#9CA3AF" }
    - { name: in_progress, type: started,     position: 2, color: "#3B82F6" }
    - { name: in_review,   type: started,     position: 3, color: "#F59E0B" }
    - { name: done,        type: completed,   position: 4, color: "#10B981" }
    - { name: cancelled,   type: cancelled,   position: 5, color: "#EF4444" }

Field reference

Field	Required	Type	Notes
`apiVersion`	yes	string	Always `crewship/v1`.
`kind`	yes	string	Always `WorkflowTemplate`.
`metadata.name`	yes	string	Stored verbatim. Drives the UI label and is the server-side uniqueness key (per workspace).
`metadata.slug`	yes	string	Workspace-unique manifest identifier.
`spec.description`	no	string	Free-form text shown on the template detail panel.
`spec.icon`	no	string	Emoji shortcode (`:hammer_and_wrench:`) or icon slug — the UI looks it up against its icon set.
`spec.color`	no	string	`#RRGGBB`. Three-digit shorthand is rejected.
`spec.stages`	yes	array	Ordered list of stage objects. Must be non-empty.
`spec.stages[].name`	yes	string	Unique within the template. Lowercase + underscores conventionally; the UI displays them with that casing.
`spec.stages[].type`	yes	enum	One of `open`, `started`, `completed`, `cancelled` — see Stage types below.
`spec.stages[].position`	yes	int	Unique within the template. Drives the UI column order.
`spec.stages[].color`	no	string	`#RRGGBB`. Same constraint as `spec.color`.

Stage types

Every stage carries one of four type tags. The tag is what the orchestrator and UI key on for behaviour — not the stage name, which is purely human-facing.

Type	Semantics	Cardinality
`open`	Entry state. Newly-created items land here. Exactly one stage per template must be `open`; that stage is the implicit default when an item is created without a status.	Exactly 1
`started`	In-progress states. The item is being worked on but is not yet terminal. Multiple `started` stages are common (e.g. `in_progress`, `in_review`, `blocked`).	0..n
`completed`	Terminal success states. The item is done and counts toward “completed” in burn-down / velocity rollups. At least one is required so an item can ever finish.	1..n
`cancelled`	Terminal failure / abandon states. The item is done but is excluded from completion metrics. Use this for “won’t fix”, “duplicate”, “out of scope” — anything that closes the item without counting as progress.	0..n

Transitions are unrestricted by default: from any stage to any other stage. The state machine is structural (“which columns exist?”), not behavioural (“which arrows are legal?”).

Examples

Minimal example

apiVersion: crewship/v1
kind: WorkflowTemplate
metadata:
  name: Simple
  slug: simple
spec:
  stages:
    - { name: todo,  type: open,      position: 1 }
    - { name: done,  type: completed, position: 2 }

The minimum legal template: one open stage and one completed stage. No started and no cancelled are fine.

Realistic example with all common fields

apiVersion: crewship/v1
kind: WorkflowTemplate
metadata:
  name: Engineering Standard
  slug: engineering-standard
spec:
  description: |
    Default engineering issue lifecycle. Used by all backend crews.
    Map your repo's PR labels to these stages 1-to-1.
  icon: ":hammer_and_wrench:"
  color: "#3B82F6"
  stages:
    - { name: backlog,        type: open,      position: 1, color: "#9CA3AF" }
    - { name: ready,          type: open,      position: 2, color: "#6B7280" }    # ⚠ invalid — only one open allowed
    - { name: in_progress,    type: started,   position: 3, color: "#3B82F6" }
    - { name: in_review,      type: started,   position: 4, color: "#F59E0B" }
    - { name: blocked,        type: started,   position: 5, color: "#EF4444" }
    - { name: done,           type: completed, position: 6, color: "#10B981" }
    - { name: wont_fix,       type: cancelled, position: 7, color: "#6B7280" }
    - { name: duplicate,      type: cancelled, position: 8, color: "#6B7280" }

The ready row above intentionally illustrates a rejected shape — Validate refuses two open stages. Pick one of backlog/ready as the entry state and tag the other started.

Multi-template bundle

apiVersion: crewship/v1
kind: WorkflowTemplate
metadata:
  name: Support Triage
  slug: support-triage
spec:
  description: "Customer support intake → resolution"
  stages:
    - { name: new,         type: open,      position: 1 }
    - { name: triaged,     type: started,   position: 2 }
    - { name: with_eng,    type: started,   position: 3 }
    - { name: resolved,    type: completed, position: 4 }
    - { name: not_a_bug,   type: cancelled, position: 5 }
---
apiVersion: crewship/v1
kind: WorkflowTemplate
metadata:
  name: Marketing Sprint
  slug: marketing-sprint
spec:
  stages:
    - { name: idea,       type: open,      position: 1 }
    - { name: drafting,   type: started,   position: 2 }
    - { name: shipping,   type: started,   position: 3 }
    - { name: live,       type: completed, position: 4 }

Multiple templates may be declared in one file; each is applied independently. There are no cross-template references.

CLI reference

crewship workflow list                          # GET /api/v1/workflow-templates
crewship workflow get <slug>                    # lists + matches by name client-side
crewship workflow create -f workflow.yaml       # POST /api/v1/workflow-templates
crewship workflow update <slug> -f workflow.yaml # PATCH /api/v1/workflow-templates/{id}, slug→id resolved
crewship workflow delete <slug>                 # DELETE /api/v1/workflow-templates/{id}
crewship apply --file workflow.yaml             # manifest pipeline (preferred for repeatable setups)
crewship export workspace                       # emits one document per non-builtin template

The crewship apply path is the only one that resolves metadata.slug → server ID for you. The flat crewship workflow get/delete accept a slug for convenience and do the lookup themselves.

REST endpoint mapping

Manifest field	POST body field	DB column
`metadata.name`	`name`	`workflow_templates.name`
`spec.description`	`description`	`workflow_templates.description`
`spec.stages`	`template_json` (serialised)	`workflow_templates.template_json` (TEXT)
`spec.icon`	`icon`	`workflow_templates.icon`
`spec.color`	`color`	`workflow_templates.color`
(server-set, always `false` for user-created)	—	`workflow_templates.is_builtin`
(server-assigned)	—	`workflow_templates.id`, `workspace_id`, `created_at`, `updated_at`

The template_json column stores the entire stages array as a JSON string (the column is TEXT, not JSON). The handler does not re-parse user input — it passes the marshalled string straight through to the DB, so any future stage-shape extension is forward-compatible.

Operation	Method	Path
List	GET	`/api/v1/workflow-templates`
Get	GET	`/api/v1/workflow-templates/{id}`
Create	POST	`/api/v1/workflow-templates`
Update	PATCH	`/api/v1/workflow-templates/{id}`
Delete	DELETE	`/api/v1/workflow-templates/{id}`

All paths are workspace-scoped via the JWT/workspace context. RBAC: OWNER, ADMIN, and MANAGER can create / update / delete; every authenticated role can read.

Validation rules

metadata.name is required (server rejects empty name with HTTP 400).
metadata.slug is required and must be unique within the workspace.
spec.stages must be a non-empty array.
Each spec.stages[].name must be non-empty and unique within the template.
Each spec.stages[].position must be unique within the template.
Each spec.stages[].type must be one of open, started, completed, cancelled.
Exactly one stage must have type=open.
At least one stage must have type=completed.
spec.color and spec.stages[].color, if set, must match ^#[0-9A-Fa-f]{6}$. Three-digit shorthand is not accepted.

Failed validation is reported per-document with the offending template slug in the error message so multi-doc bundles surface every issue in one pass.

Apply behavior

`ApplyUpsert` (default)

List the workspace’s templates via GET /api/v1/workflow-templates.
Match by metadata.name:
- No match → Action=Create, POST /api/v1/workflow-templates with {name, description, template_json, icon, color}.
- Match with differing fields → Action=Update, PATCH /api/v1/workflow-templates/{id} carrying the same body.
- Match with identical fields → Action=Unchanged, no HTTP call issued.

Stages are compared after sorting by position, so reordering the stages array in the YAML file without changing positions is a no-op (Unchanged), not a drift.

`ApplyStrict`

Fails with a slug already exists error if any declared template already exists by name. Useful for new-workspace bootstrapping where overwriting a same-named template would be a bug.

`ApplyReplace`

For each declared template, emits Action=Delete followed by Action=Create. Use this only when you want a fresh row (e.g. you’ve renamed a stage and want the underlying record reset rather than mutated in place). Apply also deletes any templates in the workspace that the manifest no longer declares — but never the built-in templates, which are protected server-side.

Round-trip via export

crewship export workspace lists every non-builtin template and emits one kind: WorkflowTemplate document per row. The export decodes template_json back into the structured stages array so the output is directly re-applyable:

apiVersion: crewship/v1
kind: WorkflowTemplate
metadata:
  name: Engineering Standard
  slug: engineering-standard         # synthesised from name on export
spec:
  description: Default engineering issue lifecycle
  icon: ":hammer_and_wrench:"
  color: "#3B82F6"
  stages:
    - { name: backlog,     type: open,      position: 1, color: "#9CA3AF" }
    - { name: in_progress, type: started,   position: 2, color: "#3B82F6" }
    - { name: done,        type: completed, position: 4, color: "#10B981" }

The synthesised slug strips non-alphanumeric runs to single dashes (Engineering Standard → engineering-standard). If two templates in the same workspace share a name (rejected by the DB’s UNIQUE(workspace_id, name) index — so this should never happen in practice), their slugs would collide and crewship apply would reject the bundle. Built-in templates (sequential, parallel, dev-test-loop, pipeline, plus any others the server seeds in the future) are filtered out. The intent is that re-applying an exported workspace bundle never produces drift against server-owned rows.

Get Started

Guides

Security

Configuration

Manifest Reference

Workflow template

kind: WorkflowTemplate

What it is

YAML schema

Field reference

Stage types

Examples

Minimal example

Realistic example with all common fields

Multi-template bundle

CLI reference

REST endpoint mapping

Validation rules

Apply behavior

`ApplyUpsert` (default)

`ApplyStrict`

`ApplyReplace`

Round-trip via export

See also

​kind: WorkflowTemplate

​What it is

​YAML schema

​Field reference

​Stage types

​Examples

​Minimal example

​Realistic example with all common fields

​Multi-template bundle

​CLI reference

​REST endpoint mapping

​Validation rules

​Apply behavior

​ApplyUpsert (default)

​ApplyStrict

​ApplyReplace

​Round-trip via export

​See also

kind: WorkflowTemplate

What it is

YAML schema

Field reference

Stage types

Examples

Minimal example

Realistic example with all common fields

Multi-template bundle

CLI reference

REST endpoint mapping

Validation rules

Apply behavior

`ApplyUpsert` (default)

`ApplyStrict`

`ApplyReplace`

Round-trip via export

See also