Workflows, memory, and safe operations
Words made simple
A few useful meanings before you read the explanation.
- AI
- Software techniques for tasks such as recognizing patterns, understanding language or generating content.
- Deterministic
- Following steps or rules defined by code. The model does not decide which step should run next in a deterministic workflow.
- Checkpoint
- A saved snapshot of workflow progress that can help it continue later.
More words from this lesson
- Durable
- Able to retain progress and recover across interruptions. Durable workflows require appropriate storage and retry behavior.
- Idempotency
- Making a repeated request have the same intended business effect as one request. It helps avoid duplicate submissions or payments.
- Deterministic: known rules and transitions. Best for permission, arithmetic, approvals, and business commits.
- Agentic: bounded model-selected information steps. Best for language-driven variability.
- Hybrid: AI interprets/proposes; deterministic services validate/commit.
- Queue: isolated background jobs. Durable workflow: long-lived coordination, timers, external events, and review.
- Idempotency: scoped key + payload hash + atomic uniqueness + durable receipt. Unknown timeout outcome → reconcile before retry.
- Compensation: a permitted offsetting business action; it cannot erase all external effects or disclosures.
- Memory: selected scoped continuity. Context is current input; checkpoint is execution recovery; profile is curated user data; claims DB is business truth.
- Approval: authenticated decision tied to exact action/version/hash and expiry; revalidate before commit.
Can you explain it without the notes?
Workflows, memory, and safe operations
Use your own words. Explain an example and one limitation before checking the explanation.
Check your explanation
- Deterministic: known rules and transitions. Best for permission, arithmetic, approvals, and business commits.
Turn this concept into a clear answer.
Practice this conceptAdapted from 13_AI.MD · “Workflows, memory, and safe operations”. Examples are study fragments; framework behavior can depend on your version.