Run a workflow locally

operion run validates a workflow file and runs it against an event in memory. It needs no database and no server, so it is the fastest way to try a workflow while you write it, in a terminal or in CI.

Get the binary

Build it from source with Go 1.27 or later:

git clone https://github.com/operion-flow/operion.git
cd operion
go build -o operion ./cmd/operion

Or use the container image and mount the current directory:

docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/work" -w /work ghcr.io/operion-flow/operion:0.1 run --workflow workflow.json --event event.json

Run a workflow

Take the workflow.json from the quick start and save the event the trigger receives as event.json. For a webhook trigger it is the request as Operion sees it:

{"body": {"name": "Ana"}}

Then run:

./operion run --workflow workflow.json --event event.json

It prints the execution as JSON, with "status": "completed" and "result": "hello Ana" under node_results.greet.data. When the execution fails, it prints it too and exits with an error, so a script or a CI job can rely on the exit code.

What differs from serve

• Waits and retries do not wait. A wait node, a wait_until node or a retry continues right away.
• Remote nodes cannot answer later. A remote node that answers 202 fails at once, because there is no server to call back. Pass --node-types to resolve remote node types from a file instead of the database; see remote nodes.
• One trigger at a time. When the workflow has more than one trigger node, pick one with --trigger <node-id>.

All flags are in the CLI reference.