Standalone Activity: DescribeActivityExecution and GetActivityExecutionOutcome #8771

dandavison · 2025-12-07T15:38:57Z

What changed?

Add new public gRPC methods DescribeActivityExecution and GetActivityExecutionOutcome. See New Get-Info / Get-Result / long-poll design api#673
These replace the previous PollActivityExecution
Respond to additional API changes: inlining of ActivityOptions
Configure quota for the new methods in their blocking and non-blocking forms
Update test suite

Why?

Implements agreed Standalone Activity design

How did you test it?

built
covered by existing tests
added new functional test(s)

Note

Introduce DescribeActivityExecution and GetActivityExecutionOutcome APIs (replacing PollActivityExecution), inline ActivityOptions in StartActivityExecution, and update plumbing, quotas, and tests accordingly.

Public API changes:
- Replace workflowservice.PollActivityExecution with DescribeActivityExecution and GetActivityExecutionOutcome (long-poll support via LongPollToken).
- Inline ActivityOptions fields in StartActivityExecutionRequest and propagate via helpers.
Server/Frontend:
- Add handlers, validation (ValidateDescribeActivityExecutionRequest, ValidateGetActivityExecutionOutcomeRequest), and long-poll behavior.
- Update rate limiting, redirection, metadata, and quotas (new poll aliases; priority classifications).
Activity component:
- Rename ScheduledTime → ScheduleTime throughout; adjust retry deadline calc.
- Add outcome helper and buildGetActivityExecutionOutcomeResponse; refactor describe response builder.
Protos/clients (generated):
- Update proto messages/services, gRPC stubs, layered/metric/retryable clients, and mocks to new methods and fields.
Tests:
- Migrate tests from PollActivityExecution to DescribeActivityExecution/GetActivityExecutionOutcome; adapt assertions to new fields.
Deps:
- Bump go.temporal.io/api version.

^{Written by Cursor Bugbot for commit 32cd5cf. This will update automatically on new commits. Configure here.}

common/rpc/interceptor/redirection_test.go

service/frontend/configs/quotas.go

bergundy

All of my comments are very minor. I don't feel like I need to re-review. Please address and merge.

bergundy · 2025-12-08T18:29:08Z

chasm/lib/activity/proto/v1/tasks.proto

-  // The current attempt number for this activity execution. Since task validation/exec happen outside of a lock, we
-  // need to guard against any concurrent operations where the originally intended task may be outdated.
-  int32 attempt = 1;
+    // The current attempt number for this activity execution. Since task validation/exec happen outside of a lock, we


We need a linter/formatter so this doesn't happen again. Maybe open an issue and we'll tackle it at some later point?

bergundy · 2025-12-08T19:20:04Z

chasm/lib/activity/activity.go

+
+// getOutcome retrieves the activity outcome (result or failure) if the activity has completed.
+// Returns (result, failure, error) where at most one of result/failure is non-nil.
+func (a *Activity) getOutcome(ctx chasm.Context) (*commonpb.Payloads, *failurepb.Failure, error) {


Please don't use get for getters in Go: https://go.dev/doc/effective_go#Getters

Thanks! changed to outcome

bergundy · 2025-12-08T19:21:29Z

chasm/lib/activity/activity.go

 		RunId:                   key.RunID,
 		RunState:                runState,
-		ScheduledTime:           a.GetScheduledTime(),
+		ScheduleTime:            a.GetScheduledTime(),


Might as well rename to schedule_time in the internal protos too.

bergundy · 2025-12-08T19:24:52Z

chasm/lib/activity/activity.go

+			return nil, err
+		}
+		if result != nil {
+			response.Outcome = &workflowservice.DescribeActivityExecutionResponse_Result{Result: result}


We can add an Outcome message in the protos and use it in both APIs instead of having a separate oneof in each response.

Thanks, done, pushed to proto repos. Named it ActivityExecutionOutcome but lmk if you want it to be just Outcome.

bergundy · 2025-12-08T19:27:05Z

chasm/lib/activity/activity.go

+		return successful.GetOutput(), nil, nil
+	}
+	// Check for failure in outcome
+	if failure := activityOutcome.GetFailed().GetFailure(); failure != nil {


Please verify that we don't set failure to an empty struct when we fail from an attempt.

We were still doing that (I'd brought it up before but we hadn't removed it). I removed it in 32cd5cf (PTAL).

bergundy · 2025-12-08T19:32:36Z

chasm/lib/activity/frontend.go

+func activityOptionsFromStartRequest(req *workflowservice.StartActivityExecutionRequest) *apiactivitypb.ActivityOptions {
+	return &apiactivitypb.ActivityOptions{
+		TaskQueue:              req.TaskQueue,
+		ScheduleToCloseTimeout: req.ScheduleToCloseTimeout,
+		ScheduleToStartTimeout: req.ScheduleToStartTimeout,
+		StartToCloseTimeout:    req.StartToCloseTimeout,
+		HeartbeatTimeout:       req.HeartbeatTimeout,
+		RetryPolicy:            req.RetryPolicy,
+	}
+}
+
+// applyActivityOptionsToStartRequest copies normalized values from ActivityOptions
+// back to the StartActivityExecutionRequest.
+func applyActivityOptionsToStartRequest(opts *apiactivitypb.ActivityOptions, req *workflowservice.StartActivityExecutionRequest) {


Why not pass in the request into the ValidateAndNormalizeActivityAttributes function instead of using this options struct which isn't part of the API? Is that function used for the workflow command and the activity operator APIs?

Yes, it's because it's shared with workflow code. I did try to say that in the comment above for use with shared validation logic. Anyone got better ideas here?

bergundy · 2025-12-08T19:35:15Z

chasm/lib/activity/handler.go

-		}, req)
-	default:
-		return nil, serviceerror.NewInvalidArgumentf("unexpected wait policy type: %T", waitPolicy)
+	if ctx.Err() != nil {


I thought about it during the weekend and I think we should only do this check if err != nil just in case there's a race and we could potentially fulfill the response.

Done! Looks like Cursorbot agrees (it had taken that position it out in a previous PR)

bergundy · 2025-12-08T19:37:44Z

chasm/lib/activity/validator.go

+			len(req.GetActivityId()), maxIDLengthLimit)
+	}
+	if runID := req.GetRunId(); runID != "" {
+		_, err := uuid.Parse(runID)


Do we typically validate that run IDs are uuids in our API handlers?

Yes, e.g. https://github.com/temporalio/temporal/blob/main/service/frontend/validators.go#L23

bergundy · 2025-12-08T19:43:49Z

service/frontend/configs/quotas.go

 	CompleteNexusOperation                          = "/temporal.api.nexusservice.v1.NexusService/CompleteNexusOperation"
 	// PollWorkflowHistoryAPIName is used instead of GetWorkflowExecutionHistory if WaitNewEvent is true in request.
 	PollWorkflowHistoryAPIName = "/temporal.api.workflowservice.v1.WorkflowService/PollWorkflowExecutionHistory"
+	// PollActivityExecutionAPIName is used instead of GetActivityExecutionOutcome if LongPollToken is set in request.


Suggested change

// PollActivityExecutionAPIName is used instead of GetActivityExecutionOutcome if LongPollToken is set in request.

// PollActivityExecutionAPIName is used instead of DescribeActivityExecution if LongPollToken is set in request.

bergundy · 2025-12-08T19:44:25Z

service/frontend/configs/quotas.go

 	// PollWorkflowHistoryAPIName is used instead of GetWorkflowExecutionHistory if WaitNewEvent is true in request.
 	PollWorkflowHistoryAPIName = "/temporal.api.workflowservice.v1.WorkflowService/PollWorkflowExecutionHistory"
+	// PollActivityExecutionAPIName is used instead of GetActivityExecutionOutcome if LongPollToken is set in request.
+	PollActivityExecutionAPIName = "/temporal.api.workflowservice.v1.WorkflowService/PollActivityExecution"


I think being more specific is preferable here.

Suggested change

PollActivityExecutionAPIName = "/temporal.api.workflowservice.v1.WorkflowService/PollActivityExecution"

PollActivityExecutionAPIName = "/temporal.api.workflowservice.v1.WorkflowService/PollActivityExecutionDescription"

cursor · 2025-12-08T21:42:07Z

chasm/lib/activity/activity.go

+	if shouldHaveFailure {
+		if details := a.LastAttempt.Get(ctx).GetLastFailureDetails(); details != nil {
+			return nil, details.GetFailure(), nil
+		}


Bug: Incorrect outcome returned for terminated/timed-out activities

The getOutcome function incorrectly returns the last attempt's failure for ACTIVITY_EXECUTION_STATUS_TERMINATED and ACTIVITY_EXECUTION_STATUS_TIMED_OUT statuses. As noted in the PR review, terminated and timed out activities should never return outcome from the last attempt - the outcome should only be derived from activityOutcome.GetFailed().GetFailure() for these statuses. Only ACTIVITY_EXECUTION_STATUS_FAILED and ACTIVITY_EXECUTION_STATUS_CANCELED (sometimes) should fall back to reading from LastAttempt.GetLastFailureDetails().

chasm/lib/activity/handler.go

…xpired

cursor · 2025-12-08T22:39:37Z

chasm/lib/activity/handler.go

-				return response, true, err
+	token := req.GetFrontendRequest().GetLongPollToken()
+	if len(token) == 0 {
+		return chasm.ReadComponent(ctx, ref, (*Activity).buildDescribeActivityExecutionResponse, req, nil)


Bug: Deadline buffer applied to non-long-poll describe requests

In DescribeActivityExecution, contextutil.WithDeadlineBuffer is called unconditionally before checking if the request is a long-poll (via LongPollToken). The old PollActivityExecution code returned early for non-long-poll requests BEFORE applying the deadline buffer. Now, non-long-poll describe requests have their context deadline capped at LongPollTimeout and reduced by LongPollBuffer, which could cause unexpected timeouts for regular describe calls that previously had longer deadlines.

dandavison requested review from a team as code owners December 7, 2025 15:38

dandavison requested review from bergundy and fretz12 December 7, 2025 15:39

dandavison changed the title ~~Standalone Activity: DescribeActivityExecution and GetActicityExecutionOutcome~~ Standalone Activity: DescribeActivityExecution and GetActivityExecutionOutcome Dec 7, 2025

cursor bot reviewed Dec 7, 2025

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common/rpc/interceptor/redirection_test.go Show resolved Hide resolved

service/frontend/configs/quotas.go Show resolved Hide resolved

dandavison force-pushed the standalone-activity-describe-and-get-outcome branch 3 times, most recently from 084a15f to 938ff87 Compare December 8, 2025 00:35

fretz12 approved these changes Dec 8, 2025

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bergundy approved these changes Dec 8, 2025

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Base automatically changed from standalone-activity-post-main-merged to standalone-activity-with-main-merged December 8, 2025 20:58

dandavison added 12 commits December 8, 2025 16:32

go get go.temporal.io/api@standalone-activity

92bf941

Remove PollActivityExecution from chasm/lib/activity/proto

9304cd2

make proto

40c97ee

Add DescribeActivityExecution and GetActivityExecutionOutcome

1f6f9d6

make proto && make go-generate

75ba6e7

Remove methods from interceptor/redirection.go

fd77244

Create activity options on-the-fly for shared validator

5d62625

Respond to upstream - get everything compiling

58b5d02

Implement DescribeActivityExecution and GetActivityExecutionOutcome

8f5a94b

Delete non-existent gRPC methods from config

a896e82

Use s.True() in test

ddd2288

Add comment

4ba7671

dandavison changed the base branch from standalone-activity-with-main-merged to standalone-activity December 8, 2025 21:38

dandavison force-pushed the standalone-activity-describe-and-get-outcome branch from 938ff87 to 4ba7671 Compare December 8, 2025 21:38

cursor bot reviewed Dec 8, 2025

View reviewed changes

dandavison added 3 commits December 8, 2025 16:54

Rename: ScheduleTime

f9c842c

Rename: outcome

0650820

go get go.temporal.io/api@standalone-activity

64be5b0

dandavison added 3 commits December 8, 2025 17:13

Respond to upstream proto change: ActivityExecutionOutcome

25e4208

Only send empty response if there has been an error and context has e…

79e0fb0

…xpired

Fix name and comment in quotas.go

9ceefc6

cursor bot reviewed Dec 8, 2025

View reviewed changes

dandavison added 3 commits December 8, 2025 18:04

Don't accept mutable context where not needed

ce531ea

Allow non-canonical proto import alias

a1ea5a6

Don't set failure to empty struct

32cd5cf

dandavison merged commit 8a7d26e into standalone-activity Dec 8, 2025
14 checks passed

dandavison deleted the standalone-activity-describe-and-get-outcome branch December 8, 2025 23:39

	// PollActivityExecutionAPIName is used instead of GetActivityExecutionOutcome if LongPollToken is set in request.
	// PollActivityExecutionAPIName is used instead of DescribeActivityExecution if LongPollToken is set in request.

	PollActivityExecutionAPIName = "/temporal.api.workflowservice.v1.WorkflowService/PollActivityExecution"
	PollActivityExecutionAPIName = "/temporal.api.workflowservice.v1.WorkflowService/PollActivityExecutionDescription"

Standalone Activity: DescribeActivityExecution and GetActivityExecutionOutcome #8771

Standalone Activity: DescribeActivityExecution and GetActivityExecutionOutcome #8771

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dandavison commented Dec 7, 2025 • edited by cursor bot Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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cursor bot Dec 8, 2025

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Bug: Incorrect outcome returned for terminated/timed-out activities

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cursor bot Dec 8, 2025

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Bug: Deadline buffer applied to non-long-poll describe requests

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dandavison commented Dec 7, 2025 •

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