Add TemporalScheduledStartTime and TemporalScheduledById to the NewWorkflowExecutionInfo message

[dhiaayachi]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. A user would like to validate the originating starter for WFs started by a schedule. Using Search Attributes is problematic. The ideal solution is to add a similar field for cron, cron_schedule, for Schedules.

Describe the solution you'd like We would like to add TemporalScheduledStartTime and TemporalScheduledById to the NewWorkflowExecutionInfo message

Describe alternatives you've considered The user tried using Search Attributes but found them problematic for 2 reasons:

• it's feasible that the schedule Search Attributes could be spoofed
• the WFID in the Schedule Search Attributes includes a timestamp which breaks client logic

Additional context

[dhiaayachi]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

A user is looking for a way to validate the originating starter for Workflows started by a schedule. Currently, using Search Attributes is problematic because:

• It's possible to spoof the schedule Search Attributes.
• The Workflow ID (WFID) in the Schedule Search Attributes includes a timestamp, which breaks client logic.

Describe the solution you'd like

We would like to add the following fields to the NewWorkflowExecutionInfo message to provide information about the scheduled Workflow start:

• TemporalScheduledStartTime: The time at which the schedule was created to start the Workflow.
• TemporalScheduledById: The ID of the schedule that triggered the Workflow.

Describe alternatives you've considered

The user has already considered using Search Attributes, but found it problematic for the reasons mentioned above.

Additional context

Adding these fields to NewWorkflowExecutionInfo would provide a more secure and reliable way to track the origins of scheduled Workflows. This would be helpful for a variety of use cases, such as:

• Auditing: Tracking the origin of Workflows to meet compliance requirements.
• Security: Preventing unauthorized access to Workflows.
• Workflow management: Identifying and managing scheduled Workflows more effectively.

This feature could be implemented as part of the existing Schedule functionality. The TemporalScheduledStartTime and TemporalScheduledById fields could be added to the Schedule information and propagated to the NewWorkflowExecutionInfo message when a Workflow is started by a schedule.

For reference, you can check out the existing NewWorkflowExecutionInfo message structure here.

[dhiaayachi]

Thank you for your feature request!

This is a great idea and we appreciate you bringing it to our attention. It would be really helpful to be able to validate the originating starter for WFs started by a schedule.

For now, as a workaround, you can use a custom search attribute for your scheduled workflows. You can set this search attribute to the ID of the starter that triggered the workflow. You can then query for workflows using this search attribute to identify the originating starter.

We will consider adding this feature to our future releases.

[dhiaayachi]

Thank you for your feature request.

We understand the need to validate the originating starter for WFs started by a schedule. While adding TemporalScheduledStartTime and TemporalScheduledById to the NewWorkflowExecutionInfo message is a good idea, it requires a change to Temporal's core functionality and is not currently on our roadmap.

In the meantime, you can work around this limitation by:

• Using a unique prefix in your schedule IDs. You can use a prefix like schedule- to clearly identify workflows started by a schedule.
• Leveraging Workflow Search Attributes. While you've mentioned concerns about spoofing and timestamped WFs, you can mitigate these issues with careful design. For example, you could:
  • Use a unique namespace for schedule-related workflows.
  • Add a custom field to search attributes that indicates the schedule ID.
  • Use secure hash functions to generate the workflow ID from the schedule ID and a random value.

We appreciate your feedback and will keep it in mind as we plan future enhancements to Temporal.

[dhiaayachi]

Thanks for reporting this! It looks like you are asking for a feature request to add the ability to query by schedule. Currently, this feature is not available.

As a workaround, you can try using search attributes, however, you mentioned that it might not be ideal for you.

You are welcome to create a GitHub issue for this feature request so we can discuss this further.

[dhiaayachi]

Thank you for the feature request!

Adding TemporalScheduledStartTime and TemporalScheduledById to the NewWorkflowExecutionInfo message would be a valuable addition for workflows started by schedules. This would allow users to more easily identify and filter workflows based on their originating schedule.

While we are currently not working on implementing this feature, you can work around this limitation by using Search Attributes to store information about the originating schedule.

Here are some points to keep in mind:

• You can store the schedule ID and other relevant details in Search Attributes to easily query workflows based on their origin.
• You can also create a custom field within your workflow to store the schedule ID, which you can then use to identify the originating schedule.

We appreciate your feedback and will consider your suggestion for future enhancements.

[dhiaayachi]

Thank you for the feature request!

While Temporal does not currently support directly including the originating scheduler ID and start time within the NewWorkflowExecutionInfo message, you can achieve a similar outcome using Search Attributes.

You mentioned concerns about spoofing and timestamp-based WFIDs. To address those:

• Spoofing: Consider using more complex and less easily spoofed search attributes. For example, you could include a hash of the scheduler ID and start time as a search attribute.
• WFID Timestamp: You can separate the scheduler ID and start time into two distinct search attributes. This avoids issues with the timestamp being part of the WFID.

By carefully crafting your search attributes, you can effectively identify and verify the source of workflow executions triggered by schedules.