[DX] Why use directives for steps?

[adriangalilea]

Hey,

I’m curious of why would this:

// Workflow function (orchestrates the steps)
export async function greetingWorkflow(name: string) {
  "use workflow";
  const message = await greet(name);
  return { message };
}
// Step function (does the actual work)
async function greet(name: string) {
  "use step”;
...
}

Be preferred over a simple step function like:

// Workflow function (orchestrates the steps)
export async function greetingWorkflow(name: string) {
  "use workflow”;
-  const message = await greet(name);
+  const message = await step(greet(name));
  return { message };
}
// Step function (does the actual work)
async function greet(name: string) {
-  "use step”;
...
}

The former adds clutter to the function or forces you to create a wrapper on functions you can’t modify such as in external libraries.

So I’m wondering, what is the adventage of directives?

Don’t mean to nitpick I’m just curious.

Looking forward to using this library, thanks.

[pranaygp]

There's a full post here on our docs about directives including a section on "use step" - https://useworkflow.dev/docs/how-it-works/understanding-directives#how-directives-solve-these-problems

Please lemme know if there's anything missing on that doc once you've read through it

[adriangalilea]

Oh, going through it now.

I failed to find it on the usual places, didn’t see any FAQ, perhaps a link from workflows and steps where directives are presented and the why surfaces would work rather than nesting under How it works but it sort of makes sense. Naming you know… :P

Thanks!