IBM Business Automation Workflow API

Name: IBM Business Automation Workflow API API
Brand: IBM Business Automation Workflow API
Availability: InStock

✓ Official Vendor SpecProductivityTask Managementbasic19 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Start, query, and act on IBM BAW process instances, human tasks, and cases — claim, reassign, suspend, resume, and complete work programmatically.

Connect the IBM Business Automation Workflow API to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the IBM Business Automation Workflow API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.

Install Jentic One Beta (Self-Hosted)

Jentic One Host machine

# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh

Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register       # connects your agent to your Jentic One instance

Jentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with IBM Business Automation Workflow API API.

Start a new process instance from a BPMN definition via /processes

Suspend or resume a running process instance via /process/{instanceId}/suspend and /resume

Claim a human task on behalf of a user via /task/{taskId}/claim

Reassign a task to another user or group via /task/{taskId}/reassign

GET STARTED

Start building with IBM Business Automation Workflow API API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

IBM Business Automation Workflow (BAW) is the workflow and case management engine in IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation, used to coordinate long-running business processes such as loan approvals, claims handling, and onboarding. The REST API exposes process instances, human tasks, and case folders so external systems and agents can start, suspend, claim, reassign, and complete work without going through the BAW web client. It targets enterprise process owners who need to embed BAW operations inside larger automations or expose them to AI agents.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use IBM Business Automation Workflow API API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Process Instance Orchestration

Trigger BAW processes from external systems — for example, kick off an onboarding workflow when a CRM deal closes, or suspend a process when an exception is raised in another system. The API supports starting, suspending, resuming, and inspecting process instances by ID, so an agent can orchestrate long-running workflows without operating the BAW Process Portal.

Start a process named LoanApproval with the applicant ID and loan amount, then poll /process/{instanceId} until status is Completed.

Human Task Routing

Route, claim, and reassign human tasks created by BAW processes. An agent can list outstanding tasks for a queue, claim a task on behalf of a worker, or reassign overdue work to a backup approver. This makes it possible to integrate BAW work into a unified inbox or a Slack-driven approval flow.

Find the oldest unclaimed task in the credit-review queue, claim it for user jdoe, then mark it complete with the approval decision.

Case Management Integration

Open and update BAW case folders from external systems so a single case can carry documents, tasks, and process activity from CRM, ECM, and email channels. The API exposes /cases for create and list operations and /case/{caseId} for read and update, letting an agent maintain case state without manual data entry in the BAW UI.

Create a case of type ClaimsIntake with the policy number and claimant details, then attach a list of related task IDs.

AI Agent Workflow Operations

An AI agent monitors BAW for stuck or overdue tasks and takes corrective action — reassigning tasks, suspending processes pending input, or escalating cases. Through Jentic, the agent searches by intent, loads the BAW operation schema, and executes calls against the BAW REST endpoint without owning BAW credentials directly. Typical agent integration is under an hour.

Search Jentic for 'reassign a BAW task', load the /task/{taskId}/reassign schema, and reassign every task older than 48 hours to the backup approver.

Key Endpoints

19 endpoints — ibm business automation workflow (baw) is the workflow and case management engine in ibm cloud pak for business automation, used to coordinate long-running business processes such as loan approvals, claims handling, and onboarding.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/processes

List process instances

GET

/process/{instanceId}

Get a process instance by ID

POST

/process/{instanceId}/suspend

Suspend a running process

POST

/process/{instanceId}/resume

Resume a suspended process

POST

/task/{taskId}/claim

Claim a human task

POST

/task/{taskId}/reassign

Reassign a task to another user

GET

/cases

List case folders

POST

/search/query

Run a BAW search query

GET

/processes

List process instances

GET

/process/{instanceId}

Get a process instance by ID

POST

/process/{instanceId}/suspend

Suspend a running process

POST

/process/{instanceId}/resume

Resume a suspended process

POST

/task/{taskId}/claim

Claim a human task

Why though Jentic?

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

Credential isolation

BAW basic auth credentials are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Agents call BAW via Jentic-scoped credentials and never receive the raw username and password in their context.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search by intent (for example 'reassign a BAW task') and Jentic returns the matching BAW operation with its parameter schema, so the agent does not have to navigate the BAW REST docs.

Time to first call

Direct BAW integration: 3-7 days for auth, basic auth handling, and process/task model mapping. Through Jentic: under one hour — search, load schema, execute.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Complementary

IBM Operational Decision Manager API

ODM executes business rules; BAW orchestrates the long-running processes that call those rules.

Use ODM when the agent needs a deterministic decision (rate, eligibility, routing). Use BAW when the agent needs to drive a multi-step process or human-task flow.

Complementary

IBM webMethods Integration API

webMethods integrates BAW with external SaaS systems via flow services and connectors.

Use webMethods to move data between BAW and other systems via prebuilt connectors. Use BAW directly when the operation is on a process, task, or case.

Alternative

Camunda API

Camunda is a developer-focused BPMN/DMN engine; BAW is the IBM enterprise workflow and case platform.

Choose Camunda for cloud-native, developer-led process automation. Choose BAW when the organisation already runs IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation.

FAQs

Specific to using IBM Business Automation Workflow API API through Jentic.

What authentication does the IBM Business Automation Workflow API use?

The BAW REST API uses HTTP basic authentication against a BAW user account. Through Jentic, those BAW credentials are stored in the Jentic vault and exposed to agents only through scoped Jentic credentials — the basic auth header never appears in the agent's prompt context.

Can I claim and reassign human tasks with the IBM BAW API?

Yes. Use POST /task/{taskId}/claim to claim a task on behalf of a user, POST /task/{taskId}/release to release it back to the queue, and POST /task/{taskId}/reassign to move it to another user or group. These match the actions available in the BAW Process Portal task list.

How do I start a BAW process through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'start a BAW process', load the /processes POST schema, and execute the call with the process definition name and the input variables. Use pip install jentic and the async search, load, and execute pattern to drive the call from Python.

Does the IBM BAW API support case management?

Yes. The /cases and /case/{caseId} endpoints cover creating, listing, retrieving, and updating case folders, which is the BAW case management surface introduced as part of the Cloud Pak for Business Automation suite.

What are the rate limits for the IBM BAW API?

BAW does not publish a fixed public rate limit; throughput depends on the deployment topology, the configured thread pool, and the underlying database. Treat 429 and 503 responses as backpressure signals and retry with exponential backoff.

How do I search across BAW processes and tasks?

POST a query to /search/query with the BAW saved-search ID or an ad-hoc filter expression. The endpoint returns matching processes, tasks, or cases depending on the search definition, which is useful for building queue dashboards over the API.