Terminal.skills
Skills/temporal-sdk
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temporal-sdk

You are an expert in Temporal, the open-source durable execution platform for building reliable distributed applications. You help developers write workflows that survive process crashes, network failures, and deployments — with automatic retries, timeouts, cancellation, signals, queries, and versioning — replacing fragile state machines, manual retry logic, and error-prone queue-based orchestration with simple, testable code.

#workflow#orchestration#durable#distributed#microservices#reliability
terminal-skillsv1.0.0
Works with:claude-codeopenai-codexgemini-clicursor
Source

Usage

$
✓ Installed temporal-sdk v1.0.0

Getting Started

  1. Install the skill using the command above
  2. Open your AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, or Cursor)
  3. Reference the skill in your prompt
  4. The AI will use the skill's capabilities automatically

Example Prompts

  • "Review the open pull requests and summarize what needs attention"
  • "Generate a changelog from the last 20 commits on the main branch"

Information

Version
1.0.0
Author
terminal-skills
Category
Backend Development
License
Apache-2.0

Documentation

You are an expert in Temporal, the open-source durable execution platform for building reliable distributed applications. You help developers write workflows that survive process crashes, network failures, and deployments — with automatic retries, timeouts, cancellation, signals, queries, and versioning — replacing fragile state machines, manual retry logic, and error-prone queue-based orchestration with simple, testable code.

Core Capabilities

Workflow and Activities

typescript
// src/workflows.ts — Durable workflow (survives crashes, restarts)
import { proxyActivities, sleep, condition, setHandler, defineSignal, defineQuery } from "@temporalio/workflow";
import type * as activities from "./activities";

const { chargePayment, shipOrder, sendEmail, refundPayment } = proxyActivities<typeof activities>({
  startToCloseTimeout: "30s",
  retry: { maximumAttempts: 3, initialInterval: "1s", backoffCoefficient: 2 },
});

// Signals and queries
const cancelSignal = defineSignal("cancel");
const statusQuery = defineQuery<string>("status");

export async function orderWorkflow(order: Order): Promise<OrderResult> {
  let status = "processing";
  let cancelled = false;

  setHandler(cancelSignal, () => { cancelled = true; });
  setHandler(statusQuery, () => status);

  // Step 1: Charge payment
  status = "charging";
  const paymentId = await chargePayment(order.total, order.paymentMethod);

  // Check for cancellation
  if (cancelled) {
    await refundPayment(paymentId);
    return { status: "cancelled" };
  }

  // Step 2: Ship order (with saga compensation on failure)
  status = "shipping";
  try {
    const tracking = await shipOrder(order.items, order.address);
    status = "shipped";

    // Step 3: Send confirmation
    await sendEmail(order.email, "order-shipped", { tracking });

    // Step 4: Wait for delivery (up to 14 days)
    status = "in-transit";
    const delivered = await condition(() => cancelled, "14 days");

    if (!delivered) {
      status = "delivered";
      await sendEmail(order.email, "delivery-confirmed", {});
    }

    return { status: "completed", tracking, paymentId };
  } catch (err) {
    // Saga: compensate by refunding if shipping fails
    status = "refunding";
    await refundPayment(paymentId);
    await sendEmail(order.email, "order-failed", { reason: "shipping failed" });
    return { status: "failed", reason: "shipping_failed" };
  }
}

// Scheduled workflow
export async function subscriptionWorkflow(userId: string): Promise<void> {
  while (true) {
    await chargeSubscription(userId);
    await sleep("30 days");               // Durable sleep — survives server restarts
  }
}

Activities

typescript
// src/activities.ts — Non-deterministic operations (API calls, DB writes)
export async function chargePayment(amount: number, method: PaymentMethod): Promise<string> {
  const response = await stripe.paymentIntents.create({
    amount: Math.round(amount * 100),
    currency: "usd",
    payment_method: method.id,
    confirm: true,
  });
  return response.id;
}

export async function shipOrder(items: Item[], address: Address): Promise<string> {
  const shipment = await shippingApi.createShipment({ items, destination: address });
  return shipment.trackingNumber;
}

export async function sendEmail(to: string, template: string, data: any): Promise<void> {
  await mailer.send({ to, template, data });
}

Worker and Client

typescript
// src/worker.ts
import { Worker } from "@temporalio/worker";
import * as activities from "./activities";

const worker = await Worker.create({
  workflowsPath: require.resolve("./workflows"),
  activities,
  taskQueue: "orders",
});
await worker.run();

// src/client.ts — Start workflows
import { Client } from "@temporalio/client";
const client = new Client();

const handle = await client.workflow.start(orderWorkflow, {
  taskQueue: "orders",
  workflowId: `order-${orderId}`,         // Idempotent by ID
  args: [order],
});

// Query status
const status = await handle.query(statusQuery);

// Signal cancellation
await handle.signal(cancelSignal);

Installation

bash
npm install @temporalio/client @temporalio/worker @temporalio/workflow @temporalio/activity
# Run Temporal server locally:
temporal server start-dev

Best Practices

  1. Workflows are deterministic — No I/O, randomness, or timestamps in workflows; use activities for side effects
  2. Activities for side effects — All API calls, DB writes, file I/O go in activities; retried independently
  3. Idempotent activities — Activities may retry; use idempotency keys for payments, API calls
  4. Workflow IDs for dedup — Use business IDs (order-123) as workflow IDs; prevents duplicate processing
  5. Saga pattern — Use try/catch for compensation; refund payment if shipping fails
  6. Signals for external input — Use signals for user actions (cancel, approve); workflows wait for signals
  7. Queries for status — Use queries to inspect workflow state without side effects; real-time status checks
  8. Versioning — Use patched() for workflow code changes; running workflows continue with old logic