Refactor: Remove activeWorkflow and use single source of truth (nodes/edges)

[breaking-brake]

Background

Currently, the workflow state is duplicated in two places:

1. nodes / edges in workflow-store - Updated when canvas changes
2. activeWorkflow in workflow-store - Updated only at specific points (load, open panel, AI success)

This dual-state architecture has caused synchronization issues:

• AI Refinement: Conversation history disappears when collapsing panel #384 - Conversation history not synced between refinement-store and activeWorkflow (fixed)
• AI Refinement: Canvas changes while panel is open are not reflected in AI context #388 - Canvas changes not reflected in activeWorkflow (fixed with sync useEffect)

Current State (After #384 and #388)

Both issues are fixed by adding useEffect hooks that sync:

• refinementStore.conversationHistory → activeWorkflow.conversationHistory
• nodes/edges → activeWorkflow

While functional, this approach maintains two sources of truth with synchronization logic.

Proposed Refactoring

Remove activeWorkflow entirely and use nodes/edges as the single source of truth:

Changes Required

1. Remove activeWorkflow from workflow-store
2. Add missing metadata fields to the store:
   • workflowId (currently only in activeWorkflow)
   • workflowVersion (currently only in activeWorkflow)
   • workflowCreatedAt / workflowUpdatedAt (currently only in activeWorkflow)
3. Update all consumers (7 files, 65 occurrences):
   • App.tsx
   • Toolbar.tsx
   • RefinementChatPanel.tsx
   • DescriptionPanel.tsx
   • SubAgentFlowDialog.tsx
   • SlackShareDialog.tsx
   • workflow-store.ts
4. Serialize workflow on-demand when needed (save, export, AI refinement)

Benefits

• Single source of truth
• No synchronization issues
• Simpler mental model
• Reduced risk of stale data bugs

Considerations

• Larger refactoring effort (~65 occurrences)
• Need to ensure all metadata is preserved
• May require migration logic for existing workflows

Priority

Low - The current sync approach works correctly. This is a code quality improvement.

Related

• AI Refinement: Conversation history disappears when collapsing panel #384 - Conversation history sync (fixed)
• fix: sync conversation history to workflow-store on every change #387 - PR that fixed AI Refinement: Conversation history disappears when collapsing panel #384
• AI Refinement: Canvas changes while panel is open are not reflected in AI context #388 - Canvas changes sync (fixed)

[breaking-brake]

Current Status (as of March 2026)

Sync bugs are resolved

• AI Refinement: Conversation history disappears when collapsing panel #384 (conversation history sync) and AI Refinement: Canvas changes while panel is open are not reflected in AI context #388 (canvas sync) have been fixed via useEffect hooks in App.tsx.

Dual-state architecture remains

activeWorkflow is still referenced in 7 files (~69 occurrences), with state distributed as follows:

Data	Location
Nodes/Edges	nodes / edges (React Flow format)
Name/Description	workflowName / workflowDescription (store fields)
Conversation History	activeWorkflow.conversationHistory
Metadata (id, version, timestamps)	activeWorkflow
SubAgentFlows	subAgentFlows (store field)
SlashCommand options	slashCommandOptions (store field)

Two useEffect hooks keep activeWorkflow in sync with canvas changes and conversation history updates.

Additional context

The chat UI-based AI editing (RefinementChatPanel) has been discontinued in favor of MCP server-based editing. This means ~18 occurrences of activeWorkflow in RefinementChatPanel.tsx may become removable in the future, potentially reducing the scope of this refactoring.

Decision

Keeping this issue open as a low-priority improvement. The current sync approach works correctly, and the refactoring scope may shrink as deprecated features are cleaned up.