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Step 5: Workflows

Workflows let you chain multiple steps together — each step processes data and passes it to the next.

Define workflow steps (executors):

using Microsoft.Agents.AI.Workflows;

// Step 1: Convert text to uppercase
Func<string, string> uppercaseFunc = s => s.ToUpperInvariant();
var uppercase = uppercaseFunc.BindAsExecutor("UppercaseExecutor");

// Step 2: Reverse the string and yield output
class ReverseTextExecutor() : Executor<string, string>("ReverseTextExecutor")
{
    public override ValueTask<string> HandleAsync(string message, IWorkflowContext context, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
    {
        return ValueTask.FromResult(string.Concat(message.Reverse()));
    }
}
ReverseTextExecutor reverse = new();

Build and run the workflow:

WorkflowBuilder builder = new(uppercase);
builder.AddEdge(uppercase, reverse).WithOutputFrom(reverse);
var workflow = builder.Build();

await using Run run = await InProcessExecution.RunAsync(workflow, "Hello, World!");
foreach (WorkflowEvent evt in run.NewEvents)
{
    if (evt is ExecutorCompletedEvent executorComplete)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"{executorComplete.ExecutorId}: {executorComplete.Data}");
    }
}

Tip

See here for a full runnable sample application.

The complete sample defines two executors, connects them with an edge, and runs the workflow:

# Copyright (c) Microsoft. All rights reserved.

import asyncio

from agent_framework import (
    Executor,
    WorkflowBuilder,
    WorkflowContext,
    executor,
    handler,
)
from typing_extensions import Never

"""
First Graph Workflow — Chain executors with edges

The graph API gives you full control over execution topology: edges,
fan-out/fan-in, switch/case, and superstep-based checkpointing.

This sample builds a minimal graph workflow with two steps:
1. Convert text to uppercase (class-based executor)
2. Reverse the text (function-based executor)

No external services are required.
"""


# <create_workflow>
# Step 1: A class-based executor that converts text to uppercase
class UpperCase(Executor):
    def __init__(self, id: str):
        super().__init__(id=id)

    @handler
    async def to_upper_case(self, text: str, ctx: WorkflowContext[str]) -> None:
        """Convert input to uppercase and forward to the next node."""
        await ctx.send_message(text.upper())


# Step 2: A function-based executor that reverses the string and yields output
@executor(id="reverse_text")
async def reverse_text(text: str, ctx: WorkflowContext[Never, str]) -> None:
    """Reverse the string and yield the final workflow output."""
    await ctx.yield_output(text[::-1])


def create_workflow():
    """Build the workflow: UpperCase → reverse_text."""
    upper = UpperCase(id="upper_case")
    return WorkflowBuilder(start_executor=upper).add_edge(upper, reverse_text).build()


# </create_workflow>


async def main() -> None:
    # <run_workflow>
    workflow = create_workflow()

    events = await workflow.run("hello world")
    print(f"Output: {events.get_outputs()}")
    print(f"Final state: {events.get_final_state()}")
    # </run_workflow>

    """
    Expected output:
      Output: ['DLROW OLLEH']
      Final state: WorkflowRunState.IDLE
    """


if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

Tip

See the full sample for the complete runnable file.

Define workflow steps (executors) and connect them with edges:

package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "slices"
    "strings"

    "github.com/microsoft/agent-framework-go/workflow"
    "github.com/microsoft/agent-framework-go/workflow/inproc"
)

func main() {
    // Step 1: Convert text to uppercase.
    uppercase := workflow.NewExecutor("UppercaseExecutor", func(input string) string {
        return strings.ToUpper(input)
    }).Bind()

    // Step 2: Reverse the string.
    reverse := workflow.NewExecutor("ReverseExecutor", func(input string) string {
        runes := []rune(input)
        slices.Reverse(runes)
        return string(runes)
    }).Bind()

    // Build the workflow by connecting executors sequentially.
    wf, err := workflow.NewBuilder(uppercase).
        AddEdge(uppercase, reverse).
        WithOutputFrom(reverse).
        Build()
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    // Execute the workflow with sample input.
    run, err := inproc.Default.Run(context.Background(), wf, "Hello, World!")
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    for evt := range run.NewEvents() {
        if evt, ok := evt.(workflow.ExecutorCompletedEvent); ok {
            fmt.Printf("%s: %v\n", evt.ExecutorID, evt.Result)
        }
    }
}

Tip

See the full sample for the complete runnable file.

Next steps

Step 6: Agent Harness

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