Workflow Executions API

Name: Workflow Executions API API
Brand: Workflow Executions API
Availability: InStock

✓ Official Vendor SpecCloud InfrastructureServerlessoauth29 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Trigger Cloud Workflows executions, watch step entries, cancel runs, and read final results. Runtime control plane for serverless orchestrations defined in the Workflows API.

Quickstart

Get started with Workflow Executions API in minutes using your preferred integration method.

# Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf)
{
  "jentic": {
    "url": "https://api.jentic.com/mcp",
    "auth": "oauth"
  }
}

# Then ask your agent:
"trigger a cloud workflow execution"

# → Jentic returns the GET /events tool with parameter schema, agent executes.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Workflow Executions API API.

Trigger a workflow execution with a JSON arguments payload

List executions for a workflow with state filters such as ACTIVE, SUCCEEDED, or FAILED

Cancel a running execution mid-flight

Retrieve step entries to see the input, output, and timing of every workflow step

GET STARTED

Start building with Workflow Executions API API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Workflow Executions API API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Event-driven serverless orchestration

Run a multi-step workflow in response to an event such as a file upload or a Pub/Sub message. The Workflow Executions API exposes triggerPubsubExecution so a workflow can be wired directly to a Pub/Sub topic without an intermediate Cloud Function. Execution state can be polled or watched through stepEntries to drive downstream UI updates.

POST to /v1/{+workflow}:triggerPubsubExecution with a Pub/Sub message envelope and return the resulting execution name.

Synchronous workflow invocation from a backend

A backend service triggers a workflow with POST /v1/{+parent}/executions, polls the execution by name until state is SUCCEEDED, then reads the result field for the structured output. This pattern replaces ad-hoc step functions or hand-coded retry loops with a declarative workflow definition. The stepEntries endpoint provides observability that an opaque function call cannot.

Create an execution under parent projects/{project}/locations/{loc}/workflows/{workflow} with argument payload {"orderId":"abc"}, poll until state=SUCCEEDED, and return the result field.

Operational debugging and audit

When a workflow fails, the stepEntries endpoint exposes input, output, exception, and routine name for every step, giving engineers a precise replay of execution flow. Combined with deleteExecutionHistory and exportData, teams can keep recent runs queryable while archiving older execution traces. This is essential for SRE postmortems and compliance auditing.

List stepEntries under a failed execution, find the step where exception is non-empty, and return its routine and exception fields.

Agent-driven workflow control through Jentic

Operations agents can launch, monitor, and cancel Cloud Workflows runs through Jentic without engineers writing client glue. The agent searches Jentic for trigger a cloud workflow, loads the executions create operation, and executes with the JSON arguments built from a user request. State changes can be polled through the same client.

Through Jentic, create an execution on a named workflow with arguments derived from the user's request, then poll the execution until state is SUCCEEDED or FAILED.

Key Endpoints

9 endpoints — the google workflow executions api runs workflows defined in google cloud workflows and exposes the lifecycle of each execution.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

POST

/v1/{+parent}/executions

Create a new workflow execution

GET

/v1/{+name}

Get execution details

POST

/v1/{+name}:cancel

Cancel an active execution

GET

/v1/{+parent}/stepEntries

List step entries for an execution

POST

/v1/{+workflow}:triggerPubsubExecution

Trigger an execution from a Pub/Sub message

POST

/v1/{+name}:exportData

Export historical execution data

POST

/v1/{+parent}/executions

Create a new workflow execution

GET

/v1/{+name}

Get execution details

POST

/v1/{+name}:cancel

Cancel an active execution

GET

/v1/{+parent}/stepEntries

List step entries for an execution

POST

/v1/{+workflow}:triggerPubsubExecution

Trigger an execution from a Pub/Sub message

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

OAuth 2.0 credentials for the Google Cloud project are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Agents execute with scoped access tokens; client secrets and refresh tokens never enter the model context.

Intent-based discovery

Agents call Jentic search with intents like trigger a workflow or cancel a workflow run and Jentic returns the executions create or executions cancel operation with its full input schema.

Time to first call

Direct integration: half a day for OAuth setup, execution polling, and step-entry parsing. Through Jentic: under 30 minutes to trigger and read back a result.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Complementary

Workflows API

Defines and versions the workflow YAML that this API executes

Use Workflows for definitions and Workflow Executions for runtime invocation; together they form the full Cloud Workflows control surface.

Alternative

Cloud Tasks API

Lightweight task queue when a full multi-step workflow is overkill

Choose Cloud Tasks for single-step deferred execution. Choose Workflow Executions when steps need conditional logic or external service orchestration.

Complementary

Pub/Sub API

Event source that triggers workflow executions through triggerPubsubExecution

Pair Pub/Sub with Workflow Executions for serverless event-driven orchestration.

FAQs

Specific to using Workflow Executions API API through Jentic.

What authentication does the Workflow Executions API use?

It uses OAuth 2.0 (Oauth2 and Oauth2c schemes) scoped to https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform. Through Jentic the OAuth credentials are stored encrypted and exchanged for access tokens at execution; the agent runtime never holds the refresh token.

Where do I define the workflow itself?

Workflow definitions are managed by the separate Workflows API. Workflow Executions only handles run-time concerns: creating, listing, getting, cancelling executions and reading stepEntries. The execution endpoints reference workflows by their fully qualified name like projects/{project}/locations/{loc}/workflows/{workflow}.

What are the rate limits for the Workflow Executions API?

Per-project quotas for execution creation and concurrent active executions are configured in the Cloud Console under APIs and Services. The published default is enough for most workloads; teams running thousands of concurrent runs request a quota increase. Step throughput within a single execution is governed separately by the Workflows runtime.

How do I trigger a workflow execution through Jentic?

Search Jentic for trigger a cloud workflow, load the schema for POST /v1/{+parent}/executions, and execute it with the parent set to the workflow name and an argument JSON payload. Jentic returns the execution name; poll GET /v1/{+name} until state is SUCCEEDED or FAILED.

Can I trigger workflows from Pub/Sub directly?

Yes. POST /v1/{+workflow}:triggerPubsubExecution accepts a Pub/Sub envelope and starts an execution without needing an intermediary Cloud Function. Configure your Pub/Sub subscription to push to this endpoint for fully serverless event-driven workflows.