A Standardized Workflow Schema for Automation

As I took on this challenge to make a 100% automated business, I tried many of the AI/Automation workflow tools out there. I found that while each had it’s own quirks they all shared similar “Workflows” but had no standard schema.

Nearly all of these drag-and-drop workflow tools operate the same backbone. It’s flow-chart like, with a series of nodes and edges. Despite that, there’s no great standard for defining these workflows in a portable way.

Enter FlowSpec.

As each platform has it’s own take on how to run workflows, a workflow on one doesn’t necessarily equate to exactly the same workflow on another; still, in essence they are the same.

For my challenge I need a way to express these workflows, so I’ve created this schema (FlowSpec).

I intend to rework this schema as I work through my challenge, so please do follow/star the repo.

I appreciate any and all feedback, please do comment below or add an issue/PR to the github repo.

Free FlowSpec Tools:

As I build out stuff with FlowSpec I expect to make several tools to make it easier for us to share our Workflows. Where possible I’ll write these into the FlowSpec repo, but I’ll also include some online FlowSpec tools here, for our ease 🙂

• FlowSpec -> Markdown Todo’s Convertor

FlowSpec Examples:

More to follow as the challenge unfolds!

Who is FlowSpec For?

FlowSpec is designed to help anyone who’s automating stuff (with AI). I intend it to be a shared language which is machine/human readable, capturing our business/project intent and breaking it down into actionable steps for AI tools.

So probably tech entrepreneurs, AI automation consultants, and later other people seeking to automate.

Benefits of Standardizing a Workflow Schema

This started as a schema for me to detail what I’m doing better for my challenge newsletter subscribers, but it seems a no-brainer as we move more and more into automated processes, and as AI agents get smarter and smarter.

Here are som key benefits I can see:

• Portability: If we write our automations in FlowSpec first, we can then port these two various Workflow tools (think n8n, Gumloop, Relevance AI etc.) – this makes us freer to find better tooling, and reduces replication work.
• AI generation friendly: If we create a shared schema which gets adopted, AI tooling can be built around it; effectively supporting AI’s generating AI workflows.
• Easy version control: Making these Schema just JSON makes it easy to collab/version control.
• Understandability: This spec is designed to be simple to understand, but complex enough to cover a variety of use cases. If we adopt this standardized approach we can have a common language for creating these flows.
• Shared progress: Having 1 language means we can develop workflows once and then all benefit. Each workflow tool has it’s own list of templates, but imagine having a system-agnostic workflow template list!
• Fancy stuff: I will make a tool which can draw the flow’s from FlowSpec, but I suspect we can make really fancy tools for workflow generation, inspection, sharing etc; given a standardized format.

In the end this AI/Automation era is well and truly upon us, and we’re going to benefit by formally adopting a schema; whether we consult on automation, DIY it for our businesses, or manage it day-to-day.

How You Can Contribute to FlowSpec

FlowSpec has started as a standard for me to express my workflows to my audience, but if it’s to be adopted it needs your help. Please do contribute in any of these ways 🙂

• Share this page or the repo with your friends/colleagues/followers
• Contribute ideas via issue or PR on the repo, or comment below
• Build tools around FlowSpec (and let me know so I can list them here!)
• FlowSpec could do with a logo

Thanks for reading.