medusa-workflows

Medusa v2 Workflows

Before writing code

Fetch live docs:

1. Fetch https://docs.medusajs.com/learn/fundamentals/workflows for workflow overview
2. Web-search site:docs.medusajs.com createStep createWorkflow for step and workflow API
3. Web-search site:docs.medusajs.com workflow compensation rollback for compensation patterns
4. Web-search site:docs.medusajs.com workflow hooks for extending built-in workflows
5. Web-search site:docs.medusajs.com built-in workflows list for available core workflows

Workflow Concept

Workflows orchestrate multi-step, transactional operations in Medusa v2:

• Each step is an isolated, retryable unit of work
• Steps can define compensation (rollback) logic for failure recovery
• Workflows execute steps sequentially, in parallel, or conditionally
• Built-in workflows handle core commerce operations (cart, order, fulfillment)
• Custom workflows are invoked from API routes, subscribers, or scheduled jobs

Step Lifecycle

Phase	On Success	On Failure
Step invoked	Execute function	—
Execute function	Proceed to next step	Trigger compensation
All steps done	Workflow complete	—
Compensation	Rollback completed steps in reverse order	Manual resolution

Creating Steps

Step Definition Skeleton

// Fetch live docs for createStep signature
import { createStep, StepResponse } from "@medusajs/framework/workflows-sdk"

const myStep = createStep("my-step", async (input, { container }) => {
  const service = container.resolve("my-module")
  const result = await service.createMyEntity(input)
  return new StepResponse(result, result.id) // data, compensationInput
})

Compensation (Rollback)

// Fetch live docs for compensation function signature
const myStep = createStep("my-step",
  async (input, { container }) => {
    return new StepResponse(result, result.id) // forward logic
  },
  async (compensationInput, { container }) => {
    // Rollback logic: undo what forward did
  })

Creating Workflows

Workflow Definition Skeleton

// Fetch live docs for createWorkflow API
import { createWorkflow, WorkflowResponse }
  from "@medusajs/framework/workflows-sdk"

const myWorkflow = createWorkflow("my-workflow", (input) => {
  const stepResult = myStep(input)
  return new WorkflowResponse(stepResult)
})

Execution Patterns

Pattern	API	Purpose
Sequential	Default step ordering	Steps run one after another
Parallel	parallelize(stepA, stepB)	Steps run concurrently
Conditional	when(condition, () => step())	Skip steps based on data
Transform	transform(data, fn)	Transform data between steps

Parallel Execution

// Fetch live docs for parallelize import
import { parallelize } from "@medusajs/framework/workflows-sdk"

const [resultA, resultB] = parallelize(stepA(input), stepB(input))

Conditional Execution

// Fetch live docs for when() API
import { when } from "@medusajs/framework/workflows-sdk"

when(input, (data) => data.sendEmail === true, () => {
  return sendEmailStep(input)
})

Invoking Workflows

Context	Invocation Pattern
API Route	await myWorkflow(req.scope).run({ input })
Subscriber	await myWorkflow(container).run({ input })
Scheduled Job	await myWorkflow(container).run({ input })
Another Workflow	Use as a step with createStep wrapping

Workflow Hooks

Hooks allow extending built-in workflows without modifying core code:

Hook Type	Purpose
before	Run custom logic before a built-in step
after	Run custom logic after a built-in step

Hook Registration Skeleton

// src/workflows/hooks/my-hook.ts
// Fetch live docs for hook registration API
import { createProductsWorkflow } from "@medusajs/medusa/core-flows"

createProductsWorkflow.hooks.productsCreated(
  async ({ products, additional_data }, { container }) => {})
// Fetch live docs for available hook names per workflow

Built-in Workflows (Key Examples)

Workflow	Domain	Key Hooks
createProductsWorkflow	Catalog	productsCreated
updateProductsWorkflow	Catalog	productsUpdated
createCartWorkflow	Cart	cartCreated
completeCartWorkflow	Checkout	cartCompleted
createOrderWorkflow	Orders	orderCreated
createFulfillmentWorkflow	Fulfillment	fulfillmentCreated
createPaymentCollectionWorkflow	Payments	hook available
createCustomerAccountWorkflow	Customers	hook available

Fetch live docs for the complete list -- new workflows and hooks are added in each Medusa release.

Compensation Strategy

Scenario	Compensation Action
Record created	Delete the created record
Payment captured	Refund the payment
Inventory reserved	Release the reservation
Email sent	Log warning (cannot unsend)
External API called	Call reverse/cancel endpoint

Key rules:

• Every step that creates a side effect should define compensation
• Compensation runs in reverse order of step completion
• Compensation input is the second argument to StepResponse
• If compensation itself fails, the workflow enters a "failed" state requiring manual resolution

Best Practices

• Keep steps small and focused -- one side effect per step
• Always define compensation for steps with side effects
• Use parallelize for independent steps to improve performance
• Use when for conditional logic -- do not put branching inside steps
• Resolve services from the container, never import them directly
• Name workflows and steps descriptively (e.g., reserve-inventory-step)
• Use transform for data reshaping -- do not create steps that only transform data

Fetch the Medusa workflow documentation for exact createStep/createWorkflow signatures, hook names, and built-in workflow list before implementing.