Catalog / Business processes / Marketing / Objective-to-Commitment / Set Marketing Budget
reference process · marketing · 15 activities · 15 on the roster
Set Marketing Budget
The planning cycle opens and the department has to come out of it with a budget that leadership and finance have both signed. This process settles the money itself. It works out how much marketing has for the year, how that money is divided among the functions, how much is held back for changes during the year, when each function's share becomes available, and who may move money between functions once the year has started. Three neighboring processes handle work this one leaves alone. The annual marketing plan chooses which campaigns and which pieces get made. The media plan commits one campaign's channel mix. The reallocation of media spend moves money between channels while a campaign is running. This process runs ahead of all three and gives each of them the number it has to work inside. Six of the fifteen activities turn on a person. Finance says what marketing has to work within and names the agreements signed outside the department. Leadership sizes the reserve and divides the money among the functions. Leadership and finance together set the rules for moving money and sign the budget. Raising the automation level moves none of those six. The run closes when every function has been told its number and the rules that come with it, and somebody has written down what the budget rests on and what would reopen it.
The walk
The document
One run
Adoption
The activities
What happens in a run
15 activities from the planning cycle opens to the budget is approved and every function holds its share, 5 of them gates a person has to sign. Drag the diagram to move along it.
Set Marketing Budget the planning cycle opens → the budget is approved and every function holds its share
the asks will not reach the goals the requests exceed what there is changes requested a commitment the record did not know about the planning cycle opens 1 Take in the Planning Guid… what finance gives marketing to work within a person signs · never an agent 2 Read Last Year's Spend what each function spent against what it was given 3 List the Money Already Co… contracts and licenses that run into the coming year 4 Collect What Each Functio… one request format and one date, from every function 5 Price the Requests cost and return at each level of spend, with assumptions 6 Test the Asks against the… whether the money asked for can reach the year's goals 7 Size the Reserve how much is held back for changes during the year a person signs · never an agent 8 Settle the Split across F… leadership divides the money among the functions a person signs · never an agent 9 Set the Rules for Moving … who may move money between functions, and when a person signs · never an agent 10 Phase the Money across th… when each function's money becomes available 11 Name What the Budget Is R… the measures each function's money is reported on 12 Get the Budget Approved leadership and finance sign the budget at a version a person signs · never an agent 13 Load the Allocations each function's number recorded where spend is tracked 14 Tell Every Function What … each function hears its number and the rules with it 15 Record What the Budget Re… the assumptions, and what would reopen the budget the budget is approved and every function holds its share
The roster this process needs
Hover a name to see the activities it holds. A dashed one is a person, and stays one.
The document
The document, with the blanks marked
Everything in amber is yours to fill in: who owns it, when it takes effect, which platforms, which numbers, and who holds each activity. Everything else is the process, and it is the same wherever it is run.
Use in LangGraph
Use in Agent Framework
Use in CrewAI
Use in Google ADK
PROCESS: set marketing budget id: <team> /set-marketing-budget v1
from: ref/mkt/set-marketing-budget v1
owner: <who> effective: <date>
trigger: the planning cycle opens on <your finance calendar>
watch: every=<your planning cycle>
concurrency: one run at a time - a budget cycle does not overlap
itself, and an in-year change goes in as a new version
goal: an approved budget for the year, divided across the functions,
with a reserve, a release schedule, rules for moving money
between functions, and every function told what it holds
phases:
take-guidance - human: read what finance says marketing has to
work within, and write down the figure, the
period it covers, and what it leaves out
owner: decision-coordinator after: trigger
automation: never
read-last-spend - runs collect-and-report: what each function spent
last year against what it was given, at the
checked figure for every closed period
owner: reporting-manager after: take-guidance
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
list-commitments - system: the agreements, retainers, licenses and
renewals already signed that run into the coming
year, each with its owner and its renewal date
owner: budget-keeper after: take-guidance
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
collect-requests - runs collect-and-report: one request format and
one due date to every function, saying what it
would spend and what that money would produce
owner: decision-coordinator
after: read-last-spend + list-commitments
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
price-requests - runs build-by-talent: what each request would
cost and return at each level of spend, with the
assumptions written beside every number
owner: forecaster after: collect-requests
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
test-the-asks - human: whether the money the functions are asking
for can reach the goals the year carries, and the
size of the gap where it cannot
owner: decision-coordinator after: price-requests
by: <days> automation: <level>
size-reserve - convenes decide-and-announce: <who> says how much
is held back for changes during the year, and on
what conditions it is released
owner: <your finance role> after: test-the-asks
by: <days> automation: never
settle-split - convenes decide-and-announce: <who> divides the
money among the functions, and says what each
function did not get and why
owner: <your finance role> after: size-reserve
by: <days> automation: never
movement-rules - human: who may move money between functions, up
to what amount, who approves each move, and what
has to be recorded when one is made
owner: <your finance role> after: settle-split
automation: never
phase-money - human: the date each function's money becomes
available, and the share held until a named
condition is met
owner: budget-keeper after: settle-split
by: <days> automation: <level>
name-measures - human: the measure each function's allocation is
reported against, defined so the period report
can produce it without argument
owner: reporting-manager after: phase-money
automation: <level>
approve-budget - convenes approval: <who> and finance sign, as
named signers, against a version of the budget
owner: <your finance role>
after: movement-rules + name-measures
by: <days> automation: never
load-allocations - system: each function's number recorded in the
budget record at the signed version, with what
was already committed against it
owner: budget-keeper after: approve-budget
by: <days> automation: <level>
tell-functions - convenes decide-and-announce: every function
hears its number, its dates and the movement
rules at the same time
owner: decision-coordinator after: load-allocations
by: <days> automation: <level>
record-basis - human: what the budget rests on, and the
conditions that bring it back to be changed
owner: decision-coordinator after: tell-functions
automation: <level>
run-scoped:
status - runs roll-call owner: decision-coordinator
every: <cadence>
from: take-guidance until: approve-budget
allocations - runs allocate-and-reconcile owner: budget-keeper
from: load-allocations until: run close
handoffs:
take-guidance -> read-last-spend / list-commitments
[planning-guidance]: the figure marketing has to work within, what
it covers, and the date the budget is due. Two branches read one
record
read-last-spend -> collect-requests [last-year-spend]: what each
function spent against what it was given, at the checked figure,
with any period that has not closed marked as an estimate
list-commitments -> collect-requests [committed-money]: the money
already committed for the coming year, one line per agreement, with
the date each one renews and the notice a cancellation needs
collect-requests -> price-requests [function-requests]: every request
in one format, saying what the function would spend, on what, and
what that money is meant to produce
price-requests -> test-the-asks [priced-requests]: what each request
would cost and return at each level of spend, with the assumptions
beside the numbers and every rate that could not be sourced marked
unsourced
test-the-asks -> size-reserve [goal-gap]: the gap between what the
requests add up to and what the goals need, written as a figure
size-reserve -> settle-split [reserve]: the amount held back, and the
conditions under which it is released
settle-split -> movement-rules [function-split]: the money against
each function, at the figures the budget will carry
settle-split -> phase-money [split-to-phase]: the same split. Both
branches read one record
movement-rules -> approve-budget [money-movement-terms]: who may move
money between functions, up to what amount, and who approves each
move
phase-money -> name-measures [release-schedule]: the date each
function's money becomes available, and the share held against a
named condition
name-measures -> approve-budget [budget-with-measures]: the budget at
a version, with the measure each allocation will be reported
against
approve-budget -> load-allocations [signed-budget]: the budget at the
signed version. A later change voids the approval and the signers
see it again
load-allocations -> tell-functions [loaded-allocations]: each
function's allocation as the record now holds it, and what was
already committed against it before the year began
tell-functions -> record-basis [function-responses]: what each
function took away, and anything a function said it could not do
inside its number
deviations:
test-the-asks -> collect-requests [asks-miss-the-goals]: the money
the functions are asking for will not reach the goals, so the
requests are collected again with the gap named as a figure
settle-split -> collect-requests [requests-exceed-the-money]: the
requests add up to more than there is, so each function cuts its
own request and both versions stay on the record
approve-budget -> settle-split [signers-want-changes]: a signer will
not sign the budget as it stands, so the money is divided again
load-allocations -> list-commitments [unknown-commitment]: loading
the allocations turns up a commitment the list missed, so the
commitments are listed again and a person decides what pays for it
bindings:
roster: <who holds each role - agents claiming the abstract agents
above, and named people for leadership and finance>
systems: the budget record (write), the decision record (write),
the commitments already made (read),
the supplier record (read),
the reconciliation record (read), the model store (write),
the report store (read), analytics platforms (read),
ad platforms (read), the notification channel (write)
data: the closed periods' reports, the approved plan for the year
at its version, <your finance calendar> ,
<your measure definitions> at a version
policy:
the money is divided by named people and is never delegated to an
agent
no allocation is loaded before <who> and finance have both signed
the version it comes from
a move of money between functions is recorded only after the person
the rules name has approved it
every figure in the budget names the source or the model version it
came from
a rate the model cannot source appears in the budget as unsourced,
and nobody fills it in with a figure that merely looks reasonable
a spend figure from a period that has not closed is marked as an
estimate wherever it appears
a change to an approved budget goes out as a new version saying what
moved and why, and the version it replaces stays where it was
measures:
cycle time: <weeks> from the cycle opening to the approved budget
coverage: <share> of the year's committed spend sitting inside an
allocation with a named owner
quality gate: nothing is allocated without a cost and a return under
it and the assumptions those rest on
Copy
Take it somewhere
Use this process in LangGraph
close
Paste this into an assistant that can read the web, such as Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor. It reads the specification and the current LangGraph documentation, then writes two files: the graph, and a note on what did not survive the translation. Read the note first. What a runtime cannot express is the part worth arguing about, and this process is a draft to argue with.
copy the prompt
304 lines · the document is inside it, so nothing else is needed
Convert the business process below into a runnable LangGraph graph:
one Python file with a TypedDict state, a StateGraph, nodes, edges,
conditional edges and a checkpointer.
The document is a reference process written to the Agent Processes
specification. Read the specification before you start, because it defines
terms that look ordinary and are not:
https://agentcatalog.com/spec/agent-processes
Sections 6 (the phase graph), 6.5.1 (exception edges), 6.7.1 (deviations),
7 (automation) and 8 (handoffs) are the ones this conversion turns on.
Then read the current documentation for the primitives you will need, rather
than relying on what you remember of the API:
https://docs.langchain.com/oss/python/langgraph/interrupts
interrupt() and Command(resume=), which is how a gate stops a run
https://reference.langchain.com/python/langgraph/graph/state/StateGraph
StateGraph, add_edge, add_conditional_edges, defer
WHAT THE DOCUMENT ASKS FOR
These hold wherever the process lands, and they matter more than style.
1. Each phase under `phases:` becomes one step, and keeps its name.
2. `after:` gives the edges. `after: a + b` is a join and waits for BOTH.
Reading it as "either" is the defect the specification calls out by name.
3. Every handoff carries a key in square brackets. Each key becomes one field
on the run's state, named exactly as the key with hyphens turned into
underscores, and the sentence beside it becomes that field's comment. The key
is the stable name; the sentence is prose that may be rewritten.
4. A phase MUST NOT begin before its inbound handoff exists. Where that is
checkable, check it in the step rather than assuming it.
5. `automation: never` is a gate a person signs. The run stops there and does
not continue until a person's decision comes back. Do not turn one into a
notification, a log line, or an automatic transition, whatever the queue
looks like.
6. Each line under `deviations:` is a backward or sideways edge, returning to
the phase named on the right. The key in brackets names it, and that name
belongs in the code.
7. A phase whose `after:` reads like "X or Y, whichever could not finish" is an
exception edge: it is entered when those phases FAIL, not when they succeed.
Do not wire it as an ordinary successor.
8. Anything in angle brackets is a blank the adopting organization fills in.
Leave each one as a named constant at the top of the file with a TODO. Do not
invent a value, a threshold or a date.
9. Record the document's `from:` line at the top of the file, so it says which
reference process and which version it was generated from.
10. Run-scoped lines under `run-scoped:` are work that runs alongside the whole
process rather than at one point in it, and a run may not close while one is
unfinished. Say in the code what you did about them, including if the answer
is that the runtime has nowhere to put them.
HOW THAT LOOKS IN LANGGRAPH
11. A phase is a node added with `add_node`, under the phase's own name.
12. The state is a TypedDict. Each handoff key is one field on it.
13. A join is the trap. `add_edge(["a", "b"], "c")` looks right and releases
once: when a backward edge re-enters ONE arm, the joined node never runs
again, and the run ends early reporting success rather than raising. Mark the
joined node `defer=True` and re-check inside it that both inbound handoffs
exist.
14. A gate is `interrupt()` inside the node, resumed with `Command(resume=...)`.
The platform lets anything at all call resume, so require the resumed value to
name a person and a date and refuse anything else. Say in the fidelity note
that this proves only that whoever resumed typed a name, because
`Command(resume=True)` from a scheduled job is indistinguishable from a person
signing.
15. A deviation is `add_conditional_edges` with a routing function named after
the key in brackets.
16. Pass a durable checkpointer rather than taking the in-memory default. The
gates wait days, and the default loses every paused run on restart.
17. Leave every phase body unimplemented, raising until somebody registers an
implementation. The automation level is a blank, so writing a body would
answer on the adopter's behalf whether an agent may do that work.
Produce a second file alongside it, `FIDELITY.md`, and treat it as the more
important of the two. The code is for whoever builds this. The fidelity note
is for whoever has to decide whether this platform suits the process at all,
and that is usually a different person who will never read the code.
It has three parts.
**What came across.** Briefly: how many phases became steps, how many handoff
keys became state fields, which gates stop the run, which deviations became
edges. Counts and names, not reassurance.
**What did not, and what was done instead.** One entry per gap. For each one,
say what the document requires, what the platform can actually express, what
you did in its place, and what breaks if somebody later removes your
workaround. This last part matters most: a workaround nobody understands is a
workaround somebody deletes.
**What a person still has to decide.** The blanks are not a translation
failure, they are the point of a reference process, so list what has to be
filled in before this could run against anything real, and say which of those
choices the platform constrains.
Write it in plain English for somebody who has not read the specification, and
do not soften it. A translation of a reference process is a draft to argue
with, not a build artifact, and the honest account of what was lost is the most
useful thing you will produce.
Here is the process document.
```
PROCESS: set marketing budget id: <team>/set-marketing-budget v1
from: ref/mkt/set-marketing-budget v1
owner: <who> effective: <date>
trigger: the planning cycle opens on <your finance calendar>
watch: every=<your planning cycle>
concurrency: one run at a time - a budget cycle does not overlap
itself, and an in-year change goes in as a new version
goal: an approved budget for the year, divided across the functions,
with a reserve, a release schedule, rules for moving money
between functions, and every function told what it holds
phases:
take-guidance - human: read what finance says marketing has to
work within, and write down the figure, the
period it covers, and what it leaves out
owner: decision-coordinator after: trigger
automation: never
read-last-spend - runs collect-and-report: what each function spent
last year against what it was given, at the
checked figure for every closed period
owner: reporting-manager after: take-guidance
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
list-commitments - system: the agreements, retainers, licenses and
renewals already signed that run into the coming
year, each with its owner and its renewal date
owner: budget-keeper after: take-guidance
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
collect-requests - runs collect-and-report: one request format and
one due date to every function, saying what it
would spend and what that money would produce
owner: decision-coordinator
after: read-last-spend + list-commitments
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
price-requests - runs build-by-talent: what each request would
cost and return at each level of spend, with the
assumptions written beside every number
owner: forecaster after: collect-requests
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
test-the-asks - human: whether the money the functions are asking
for can reach the goals the year carries, and the
size of the gap where it cannot
owner: decision-coordinator after: price-requests
by: <days> automation: <level>
size-reserve - convenes decide-and-announce: <who> says how much
is held back for changes during the year, and on
what conditions it is released
owner: <your finance role> after: test-the-asks
by: <days> automation: never
settle-split - convenes decide-and-announce: <who> divides the
money among the functions, and says what each
function did not get and why
owner: <your finance role> after: size-reserve
by: <days> automation: never
movement-rules - human: who may move money between functions, up
to what amount, who approves each move, and what
has to be recorded when one is made
owner: <your finance role> after: settle-split
automation: never
phase-money - human: the date each function's money becomes
available, and the share held until a named
condition is met
owner: budget-keeper after: settle-split
by: <days> automation: <level>
name-measures - human: the measure each function's allocation is
reported against, defined so the period report
can produce it without argument
owner: reporting-manager after: phase-money
automation: <level>
approve-budget - convenes approval: <who> and finance sign, as
named signers, against a version of the budget
owner: <your finance role>
after: movement-rules + name-measures
by: <days> automation: never
load-allocations - system: each function's number recorded in the
budget record at the signed version, with what
was already committed against it
owner: budget-keeper after: approve-budget
by: <days> automation: <level>
tell-functions - convenes decide-and-announce: every function
hears its number, its dates and the movement
rules at the same time
owner: decision-coordinator after: load-allocations
by: <days> automation: <level>
record-basis - human: what the budget rests on, and the
conditions that bring it back to be changed
owner: decision-coordinator after: tell-functions
automation: <level>
run-scoped:
status - runs roll-call owner: decision-coordinator
every: <cadence>
from: take-guidance until: approve-budget
allocations - runs allocate-and-reconcile owner: budget-keeper
from: load-allocations until: run close
handoffs:
take-guidance -> read-last-spend / list-commitments
[planning-guidance]: the figure marketing has to work within, what
it covers, and the date the budget is due. Two branches read one
record
read-last-spend -> collect-requests [last-year-spend]: what each
function spent against what it was given, at the checked figure,
with any period that has not closed marked as an estimate
list-commitments -> collect-requests [committed-money]: the money
already committed for the coming year, one line per agreement, with
the date each one renews and the notice a cancellation needs
collect-requests -> price-requests [function-requests]: every request
in one format, saying what the function would spend, on what, and
what that money is meant to produce
price-requests -> test-the-asks [priced-requests]: what each request
would cost and return at each level of spend, with the assumptions
beside the numbers and every rate that could not be sourced marked
unsourced
test-the-asks -> size-reserve [goal-gap]: the gap between what the
requests add up to and what the goals need, written as a figure
size-reserve -> settle-split [reserve]: the amount held back, and the
conditions under which it is released
settle-split -> movement-rules [function-split]: the money against
each function, at the figures the budget will carry
settle-split -> phase-money [split-to-phase]: the same split. Both
branches read one record
movement-rules -> approve-budget [money-movement-terms]: who may move
money between functions, up to what amount, and who approves each
move
phase-money -> name-measures [release-schedule]: the date each
function's money becomes available, and the share held against a
named condition
name-measures -> approve-budget [budget-with-measures]: the budget at
a version, with the measure each allocation will be reported
against
approve-budget -> load-allocations [signed-budget]: the budget at the
signed version. A later change voids the approval and the signers
see it again
load-allocations -> tell-functions [loaded-allocations]: each
function's allocation as the record now holds it, and what was
already committed against it before the year began
tell-functions -> record-basis [function-responses]: what each
function took away, and anything a function said it could not do
inside its number
deviations:
test-the-asks -> collect-requests [asks-miss-the-goals]: the money
the functions are asking for will not reach the goals, so the
requests are collected again with the gap named as a figure
settle-split -> collect-requests [requests-exceed-the-money]: the
requests add up to more than there is, so each function cuts its
own request and both versions stay on the record
approve-budget -> settle-split [signers-want-changes]: a signer will
not sign the budget as it stands, so the money is divided again
load-allocations -> list-commitments [unknown-commitment]: loading
the allocations turns up a commitment the list missed, so the
commitments are listed again and a person decides what pays for it
bindings:
roster: <who holds each role - agents claiming the abstract agents
above, and named people for leadership and finance>
systems: the budget record (write), the decision record (write),
the commitments already made (read),
the supplier record (read),
the reconciliation record (read), the model store (write),
the report store (read), analytics platforms (read),
ad platforms (read), the notification channel (write)
data: the closed periods' reports, the approved plan for the year
at its version, <your finance calendar>,
<your measure definitions> at a version
policy:
the money is divided by named people and is never delegated to an
agent
no allocation is loaded before <who> and finance have both signed
the version it comes from
a move of money between functions is recorded only after the person
the rules name has approved it
every figure in the budget names the source or the model version it
came from
a rate the model cannot source appears in the budget as unsourced,
and nobody fills it in with a figure that merely looks reasonable
a spend figure from a period that has not closed is marked as an
estimate wherever it appears
a change to an approved budget goes out as a new version saying what
moved and why, and the version it replaces stays where it was
measures:
cycle time: <weeks> from the cycle opening to the approved budget
coverage: <share> of the year's committed spend sitting inside an
allocation with a named owner
quality gate: nothing is allocated without a cost and a return under
it and the assumptions those rest on
```
Take it somewhere
Use this process in Microsoft Agent Framework
close
Paste this into an assistant that can read the web, such as Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor. It reads the specification and the current Agent Framework documentation, then writes two files: the workflow, and a note on what did not survive the translation. Read the note first. What a runtime cannot express is the part worth arguing about, and this process is a draft to argue with.
copy the prompt
359 lines · the document is inside it, so nothing else is needed
Convert the business process below into a runnable Microsoft Agent Framework workflow:
one Python file with Executor classes, a WorkflowBuilder, typed edges,
request_info gates and durable checkpoint storage.
The document is a reference process written to the Agent Processes
specification. Read the specification before you start, because it defines
terms that look ordinary and are not:
https://agentcatalog.com/spec/agent-processes
Sections 6 (the phase graph), 6.5.1 (exception edges), 6.7.1 (deviations),
7 (automation) and 8 (handoffs) are the ones this conversion turns on.
Then read the current documentation for the primitives you will need, rather
than relying on what you remember of the API:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/agent-framework/workflows/human-in-the-loop
ctx.request_info, @response_handler, and answering a parked run later
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/agent-framework/workflows/checkpoints
what a checkpoint holds, and allowed_checkpoint_types
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/agent-framework/concepts/workflows/edges
add_edge with condition, add_fan_in_edges, add_switch_case_edge_group
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/agent-framework/concepts/workflows/state
ctx.set_state and ctx.get_state as they actually are today
WHAT THE DOCUMENT ASKS FOR
These hold wherever the process lands, and they matter more than style.
1. Each phase under `phases:` becomes one step, and keeps its name.
2. `after:` gives the edges. `after: a + b` is a join and waits for BOTH.
Reading it as "either" is the defect the specification calls out by name.
3. Every handoff carries a key in square brackets. Each key becomes one field
on the run's state, named exactly as the key with hyphens turned into
underscores, and the sentence beside it becomes that field's comment. The key
is the stable name; the sentence is prose that may be rewritten.
4. A phase MUST NOT begin before its inbound handoff exists. Where that is
checkable, check it in the step rather than assuming it.
5. `automation: never` is a gate a person signs. The run stops there and does
not continue until a person's decision comes back. Do not turn one into a
notification, a log line, or an automatic transition, whatever the queue
looks like.
6. Each line under `deviations:` is a backward or sideways edge, returning to
the phase named on the right. The key in brackets names it, and that name
belongs in the code.
7. A phase whose `after:` reads like "X or Y, whichever could not finish" is an
exception edge: it is entered when those phases FAIL, not when they succeed.
Do not wire it as an ordinary successor.
8. Anything in angle brackets is a blank the adopting organization fills in.
Leave each one as a named constant at the top of the file with a TODO. Do not
invent a value, a threshold or a date.
9. Record the document's `from:` line at the top of the file, so it says which
reference process and which version it was generated from.
10. Run-scoped lines under `run-scoped:` are work that runs alongside the whole
process rather than at one point in it, and a run may not close while one is
unfinished. Say in the code what you did about them, including if the answer
is that the runtime has nowhere to put them.
HOW THAT LOOKS IN MICROSOFT AGENT FRAMEWORK
11. Write for Python, and read those pages before writing a line. This API has
moved: `set_shared_state`, `RequestInfoExecutor`, `RequestInfoMessage` and
`send_responses_streaming` are all in the training data and none of them exist
any more. The .NET workflow API differs in kind rather than in spelling, so a
file written for one does not port by renaming.
12. A phase is a class deriving from `Executor` whose `super().__init__(id=...)`
takes the phase name verbatim. The id is not cosmetic: a checkpoint stores a
signature over the topology and the executor ids, so an id built from a run, a
timestamp or a counter cannot be resumed into.
13. Give each phase a `@handler` method and move work on with
`await ctx.send_message(...)`. A handler that returns without sending is a dead
end: the branch stops, the run converges, and it reports success. So a phase
you are deliberately leaving unimplemented must still send a placeholder
onward. Do not stub with `raise NotImplementedError`, which fails the run
instead of leaving it runnable.
14. `after: a` is `builder.add_edge(a, b)`. `after: a + b` is
`builder.add_fan_in_edges([a, b], target)`, and the target's handler must be
annotated `list[T]`, because a fan-in delivers one aggregated list rather than
the separate messages. A handler typed for the single value is dropped as a
mismatch with nothing raised.
15. The join is the trap here, and it is the opposite of LangGraph's. The
barrier re-arms: it clears its buffer when it fires and then demands a fresh
message from every source. So a deviation that re-enters ONE arm parks the
run forever waiting for an arm that will not run again, and the workflow ends
IDLE reporting success. Wherever a deviation re-enters one arm of a join,
replace the barrier with an ordinary edge from each arm into a small executor
that records each arrival with `ctx.set_state` and only forwards when every
expected key is present, and say in a comment that putting `add_fan_in_edges`
back reintroduces the stall.
16. A phase that is both a join target and a deviation target needs two
handlers, one annotated `list[T]` for the barrier and one annotated `T` for the
backward message. Write only the list handler and every backward edge into it
is discarded as a type mismatch, silently.
17. `automation: never` is `await ctx.request_info(request_data=...,
response_type=...)` inside the phase, answered by a `@response_handler` on the
same executor whose annotations match those exact types. The run parks at
`IDLE_WITH_PENDING_REQUESTS` and the host answers with
`workflow.run(stream=True, responses={request_id: value})`. If no handler
matches the pair, the framework logs a warning and parks anyway, so the gate
reads as working right up until somebody asks why the approval did not take.
18. A gate is only a gate if the wait survives a restart, so pass
`checkpoint_storage=FileCheckpointStorage(...)` to the builder. Checkpointing
is off by default and `InMemoryCheckpointStorage` reads as configured while
persisting nothing. Register every handoff payload type in
`allowed_checkpoint_types`, or the first restore raises. Anything an executor
keeps as an instance attribute is absent after a restore unless you export it
from `on_checkpoint_save` and read it back in `on_checkpoint_restore`, and it
comes back empty rather than missing.
19. Each line under `deviations:` is `builder.add_edge(source, earlier,
condition=fn)` with `fn` named after the key. Cycles are legal and unchecked,
but raise `max_iterations` well above its default of 100, because several live
cycles will exhaust a budget sized for a straight line and fail with a message
about convergence that reads like a broken graph. Keep the ordinary forward
edge unconditional and add each deviation beside it: a condition that returns
false is dropped with no event, so a forward path expressed as a condition
dies silently on every normal run, which is most of them.
20. Handoff values go in `ctx.set_state(key, value)` and come back from
`ctx.get_state(key)`, untyped and unchecked. A write is visible to its writer
at once and to everyone else only in the next superstep, and two writers of one
key in a superstep keep the last write. Never read a key in the same superstep
another phase wrote it.
21. There are no timers, no deadlines and no scheduled wakes. Nothing in
`run-scoped:` becomes an executor and `by:` has no expression at all, so write
them as comments naming where they start and stop, and say plainly in the
fidelity note that a run can close over an unfinished run-scoped line. Do not
fake a deadline with a sleep inside a handler, which blocks the whole superstep
barrier, and never let an expiring wait release a gate.
Produce a second file alongside it, `FIDELITY.md`, and treat it as the more
important of the two. The code is for whoever builds this. The fidelity note
is for whoever has to decide whether this platform suits the process at all,
and that is usually a different person who will never read the code.
It has three parts.
**What came across.** Briefly: how many phases became steps, how many handoff
keys became state fields, which gates stop the run, which deviations became
edges. Counts and names, not reassurance.
**What did not, and what was done instead.** One entry per gap. For each one,
say what the document requires, what the platform can actually express, what
you did in its place, and what breaks if somebody later removes your
workaround. This last part matters most: a workaround nobody understands is a
workaround somebody deletes.
**What a person still has to decide.** The blanks are not a translation
failure, they are the point of a reference process, so list what has to be
filled in before this could run against anything real, and say which of those
choices the platform constrains.
Write it in plain English for somebody who has not read the specification, and
do not soften it. A translation of a reference process is a draft to argue
with, not a build artifact, and the honest account of what was lost is the most
useful thing you will produce.
Here is the process document.
```
PROCESS: set marketing budget id: <team>/set-marketing-budget v1
from: ref/mkt/set-marketing-budget v1
owner: <who> effective: <date>
trigger: the planning cycle opens on <your finance calendar>
watch: every=<your planning cycle>
concurrency: one run at a time - a budget cycle does not overlap
itself, and an in-year change goes in as a new version
goal: an approved budget for the year, divided across the functions,
with a reserve, a release schedule, rules for moving money
between functions, and every function told what it holds
phases:
take-guidance - human: read what finance says marketing has to
work within, and write down the figure, the
period it covers, and what it leaves out
owner: decision-coordinator after: trigger
automation: never
read-last-spend - runs collect-and-report: what each function spent
last year against what it was given, at the
checked figure for every closed period
owner: reporting-manager after: take-guidance
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
list-commitments - system: the agreements, retainers, licenses and
renewals already signed that run into the coming
year, each with its owner and its renewal date
owner: budget-keeper after: take-guidance
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
collect-requests - runs collect-and-report: one request format and
one due date to every function, saying what it
would spend and what that money would produce
owner: decision-coordinator
after: read-last-spend + list-commitments
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
price-requests - runs build-by-talent: what each request would
cost and return at each level of spend, with the
assumptions written beside every number
owner: forecaster after: collect-requests
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
test-the-asks - human: whether the money the functions are asking
for can reach the goals the year carries, and the
size of the gap where it cannot
owner: decision-coordinator after: price-requests
by: <days> automation: <level>
size-reserve - convenes decide-and-announce: <who> says how much
is held back for changes during the year, and on
what conditions it is released
owner: <your finance role> after: test-the-asks
by: <days> automation: never
settle-split - convenes decide-and-announce: <who> divides the
money among the functions, and says what each
function did not get and why
owner: <your finance role> after: size-reserve
by: <days> automation: never
movement-rules - human: who may move money between functions, up
to what amount, who approves each move, and what
has to be recorded when one is made
owner: <your finance role> after: settle-split
automation: never
phase-money - human: the date each function's money becomes
available, and the share held until a named
condition is met
owner: budget-keeper after: settle-split
by: <days> automation: <level>
name-measures - human: the measure each function's allocation is
reported against, defined so the period report
can produce it without argument
owner: reporting-manager after: phase-money
automation: <level>
approve-budget - convenes approval: <who> and finance sign, as
named signers, against a version of the budget
owner: <your finance role>
after: movement-rules + name-measures
by: <days> automation: never
load-allocations - system: each function's number recorded in the
budget record at the signed version, with what
was already committed against it
owner: budget-keeper after: approve-budget
by: <days> automation: <level>
tell-functions - convenes decide-and-announce: every function
hears its number, its dates and the movement
rules at the same time
owner: decision-coordinator after: load-allocations
by: <days> automation: <level>
record-basis - human: what the budget rests on, and the
conditions that bring it back to be changed
owner: decision-coordinator after: tell-functions
automation: <level>
run-scoped:
status - runs roll-call owner: decision-coordinator
every: <cadence>
from: take-guidance until: approve-budget
allocations - runs allocate-and-reconcile owner: budget-keeper
from: load-allocations until: run close
handoffs:
take-guidance -> read-last-spend / list-commitments
[planning-guidance]: the figure marketing has to work within, what
it covers, and the date the budget is due. Two branches read one
record
read-last-spend -> collect-requests [last-year-spend]: what each
function spent against what it was given, at the checked figure,
with any period that has not closed marked as an estimate
list-commitments -> collect-requests [committed-money]: the money
already committed for the coming year, one line per agreement, with
the date each one renews and the notice a cancellation needs
collect-requests -> price-requests [function-requests]: every request
in one format, saying what the function would spend, on what, and
what that money is meant to produce
price-requests -> test-the-asks [priced-requests]: what each request
would cost and return at each level of spend, with the assumptions
beside the numbers and every rate that could not be sourced marked
unsourced
test-the-asks -> size-reserve [goal-gap]: the gap between what the
requests add up to and what the goals need, written as a figure
size-reserve -> settle-split [reserve]: the amount held back, and the
conditions under which it is released
settle-split -> movement-rules [function-split]: the money against
each function, at the figures the budget will carry
settle-split -> phase-money [split-to-phase]: the same split. Both
branches read one record
movement-rules -> approve-budget [money-movement-terms]: who may move
money between functions, up to what amount, and who approves each
move
phase-money -> name-measures [release-schedule]: the date each
function's money becomes available, and the share held against a
named condition
name-measures -> approve-budget [budget-with-measures]: the budget at
a version, with the measure each allocation will be reported
against
approve-budget -> load-allocations [signed-budget]: the budget at the
signed version. A later change voids the approval and the signers
see it again
load-allocations -> tell-functions [loaded-allocations]: each
function's allocation as the record now holds it, and what was
already committed against it before the year began
tell-functions -> record-basis [function-responses]: what each
function took away, and anything a function said it could not do
inside its number
deviations:
test-the-asks -> collect-requests [asks-miss-the-goals]: the money
the functions are asking for will not reach the goals, so the
requests are collected again with the gap named as a figure
settle-split -> collect-requests [requests-exceed-the-money]: the
requests add up to more than there is, so each function cuts its
own request and both versions stay on the record
approve-budget -> settle-split [signers-want-changes]: a signer will
not sign the budget as it stands, so the money is divided again
load-allocations -> list-commitments [unknown-commitment]: loading
the allocations turns up a commitment the list missed, so the
commitments are listed again and a person decides what pays for it
bindings:
roster: <who holds each role - agents claiming the abstract agents
above, and named people for leadership and finance>
systems: the budget record (write), the decision record (write),
the commitments already made (read),
the supplier record (read),
the reconciliation record (read), the model store (write),
the report store (read), analytics platforms (read),
ad platforms (read), the notification channel (write)
data: the closed periods' reports, the approved plan for the year
at its version, <your finance calendar>,
<your measure definitions> at a version
policy:
the money is divided by named people and is never delegated to an
agent
no allocation is loaded before <who> and finance have both signed
the version it comes from
a move of money between functions is recorded only after the person
the rules name has approved it
every figure in the budget names the source or the model version it
came from
a rate the model cannot source appears in the budget as unsourced,
and nobody fills it in with a figure that merely looks reasonable
a spend figure from a period that has not closed is marked as an
estimate wherever it appears
a change to an approved budget goes out as a new version saying what
moved and why, and the version it replaces stays where it was
measures:
cycle time: <weeks> from the cycle opening to the approved budget
coverage: <share> of the year's committed spend sitting inside an
allocation with a named owner
quality gate: nothing is allocated without a cost and a return under
it and the assumptions those rest on
```
Take it somewhere
Use this process in CrewAI Flows
close
Paste this into an assistant that can read the web, such as Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor. It reads the specification and the current CrewAI documentation, then writes two files: the flow, and a note on what did not survive the translation. Read the note first. What a runtime cannot express is the part worth arguing about, and this process is a draft to argue with.
copy the prompt
364 lines · the document is inside it, so nothing else is needed
Convert the business process below into a runnable CrewAI Flow:
one Python file with a Pydantic state model, one Flow subclass, @start,
@listen, @router and a durable human feedback provider.
The document is a reference process written to the Agent Processes
specification. Read the specification before you start, because it defines
terms that look ordinary and are not:
https://agentcatalog.com/spec/agent-processes
Sections 6 (the phase graph), 6.5.1 (exception edges), 6.7.1 (deviations),
7 (automation) and 8 (handoffs) are the ones this conversion turns on.
Then read the current documentation for the primitives you will need, rather
than relying on what you remember of the API:
https://docs.crewai.com/en/concepts/flows
Flow, @start, @listen, @router, and_, or_, state, kickoff, plot
https://docs.crewai.com/en/learn/human-feedback-in-flows
@human_feedback, the provider protocol, from_pending and resume
https://docs.crewai.com/en/guides/flows/mastering-flow-state
@persist and what persistence actually promises, which is less than it sounds
WHAT THE DOCUMENT ASKS FOR
These hold wherever the process lands, and they matter more than style.
1. Each phase under `phases:` becomes one step, and keeps its name.
2. `after:` gives the edges. `after: a + b` is a join and waits for BOTH.
Reading it as "either" is the defect the specification calls out by name.
3. Every handoff carries a key in square brackets. Each key becomes one field
on the run's state, named exactly as the key with hyphens turned into
underscores, and the sentence beside it becomes that field's comment. The key
is the stable name; the sentence is prose that may be rewritten.
4. A phase MUST NOT begin before its inbound handoff exists. Where that is
checkable, check it in the step rather than assuming it.
5. `automation: never` is a gate a person signs. The run stops there and does
not continue until a person's decision comes back. Do not turn one into a
notification, a log line, or an automatic transition, whatever the queue
looks like.
6. Each line under `deviations:` is a backward or sideways edge, returning to
the phase named on the right. The key in brackets names it, and that name
belongs in the code.
7. A phase whose `after:` reads like "X or Y, whichever could not finish" is an
exception edge: it is entered when those phases FAIL, not when they succeed.
Do not wire it as an ordinary successor.
8. Anything in angle brackets is a blank the adopting organization fills in.
Leave each one as a named constant at the top of the file with a TODO. Do not
invent a value, a threshold or a date.
9. Record the document's `from:` line at the top of the file, so it says which
reference process and which version it was generated from.
10. Run-scoped lines under `run-scoped:` are work that runs alongside the whole
process rather than at one point in it, and a run may not close while one is
unfinished. Say in the code what you did about them, including if the answer
is that the runtime has nowhere to put them.
HOW THAT LOOKS IN CREWAI FLOWS
11. Build a Flow, not a Crew. A Crew is a team of roles with no graph, no join,
no persistence handle and no gate, and cannot express this document at all.
Each phase is one method on a single `Flow` subclass, keeping its name with
hyphens turned into underscores. A phase that genuinely needs role-based agents
builds its own Crew inside its own method body, and the Flow stays the graph.
12. Declare the state as a Pydantic model bound as the type parameter,
`class NegotiateTheAgreement(Flow[NegotiationState])`, and read and write
`self.state.field`. Never use the untyped dict form: the handoff keys are this
process's memory, and an untyped dict turns a misspelt key into a handoff that
is silently absent. Keep the auto-injected `id` field, which is what every
resume depends on.
13. `after: a` is `@listen(a)`. `after: a + b` is `@listen(and_(a, b))`. Never
write `or_` where the document writes `+`.
14. Check every inbound handoff at the top of the method and raise if one is
missing. `@listen` says when a method may run and says nothing about what is
in hand when it does.
15. The join is the trap, and it is proven rather than theoretical. `and_()`
empties its accumulator the moment it fires, so re-entering BOTH arms works
forever, and re-entering ONE arm after it has fired leaves it holding a single
trigger and waiting for the other for good. The cascade drains, CrewAI prints
that the flow completed, and `kickoff()` returns normally. So for any joining
phase that a deviation can send work back into, do not use `and_()` at all:
make the join a `@router` that both arms trigger, which reads the state fields
and emits its label only when every inbound handoff is present. A router is
re-evaluated against durable state every time and is never suppressed by the
once-fired set.
16. Do not write a phase as `@listen(or_(and_(a, b), "some_label"))`. There is
one accumulator per listener, shared across every branch of its condition and
wiped when any branch satisfies, so the label firing while the join is half
full erases the arm that had already arrived.
17. `automation: never` is `@human_feedback(message=..., provider=...)` stacked
under the method's `@listen`, with a provider whose `request_feedback` raises
`HumanFeedbackPending`. The run then persists, returns that object from
`kickoff()`, and a different process answers later with `from_pending(flow_id,
persistence)` and `resume(text)`. Do not take the default `ConsoleProvider`,
which calls `input()`: that gate exists only while somebody is watching a
terminal, and a run started by a scheduler either hangs or takes an empty
string.
18. Silence must not approve, and the platform's default is that it does. With
`emit=[...]` set, an empty resume collapses to `default_outcome`, or to the
first label when that is unset, with no model consulted and nobody named. Treat
an empty or unrecognised answer as a refusal in your own router. And write the
approver's name and the time onto the state yourself, because
`HumanFeedbackResult` carries the text, the outcome and a timestamp but has no
field for the person, which the specification requires.
19. Each line under `deviations:` is a `@router` named after the key, returning
a label named after the same key, with the target subscribing as
`@listen(or_(normal_trigger, "the_label"))`. Route rather than listen
directly, because a router is re-evaluated on every cycle while a top-level
`or_` listener is suppressed after it first fires.
20. An exception edge is a `try` and `except` around the failing phase's body,
recording the failure on the state and emitting an exception label from a
router. Wiring it as `@listen(or_(x, y))` fires when those phases SUCCEED, so
the clearing phase would run on every healthy run.
21. An unimplemented phase is a method with the document's own sentence as its
docstring and a bare `pass`, which is safe because listeners still fire on a
`None` return. An unimplemented `@router` is not safe: returning `None` emits
no label, every phase below it disappears from the run including the gates, and
the flow reports success. A stub router must return a hard-coded label with a
TODO beside it, or raise.
22. Turn persistence on with `@persist(SQLiteFlowPersistence(...))`, then treat
every phase that performs a real act as something that will run twice.
Persistence saves the state fields and nothing else, so a restart rehydrates
the data and runs the graph again from `@start`: a flow that had already sent a
written refusal sends a second one. Guard each acting phase with a state field
it checks and sets.
23. There are no timers, no deadlines and no cadences, and `run-scoped:` has no
counterpart at all. Put each `by:` value as a named constant, name the
run-scoped lines in the module docstring as unimplemented obligations, and say
in the fidelity note that no deadline in this document is enforced by anything.
These absences produce no diagnostic whatsoever, which is exactly why they have
to be written down.
Produce a second file alongside it, `FIDELITY.md`, and treat it as the more
important of the two. The code is for whoever builds this. The fidelity note
is for whoever has to decide whether this platform suits the process at all,
and that is usually a different person who will never read the code.
It has three parts.
**What came across.** Briefly: how many phases became steps, how many handoff
keys became state fields, which gates stop the run, which deviations became
edges. Counts and names, not reassurance.
**What did not, and what was done instead.** One entry per gap. For each one,
say what the document requires, what the platform can actually express, what
you did in its place, and what breaks if somebody later removes your
workaround. This last part matters most: a workaround nobody understands is a
workaround somebody deletes.
**What a person still has to decide.** The blanks are not a translation
failure, they are the point of a reference process, so list what has to be
filled in before this could run against anything real, and say which of those
choices the platform constrains.
Write it in plain English for somebody who has not read the specification, and
do not soften it. A translation of a reference process is a draft to argue
with, not a build artifact, and the honest account of what was lost is the most
useful thing you will produce.
Here is the process document.
```
PROCESS: set marketing budget id: <team>/set-marketing-budget v1
from: ref/mkt/set-marketing-budget v1
owner: <who> effective: <date>
trigger: the planning cycle opens on <your finance calendar>
watch: every=<your planning cycle>
concurrency: one run at a time - a budget cycle does not overlap
itself, and an in-year change goes in as a new version
goal: an approved budget for the year, divided across the functions,
with a reserve, a release schedule, rules for moving money
between functions, and every function told what it holds
phases:
take-guidance - human: read what finance says marketing has to
work within, and write down the figure, the
period it covers, and what it leaves out
owner: decision-coordinator after: trigger
automation: never
read-last-spend - runs collect-and-report: what each function spent
last year against what it was given, at the
checked figure for every closed period
owner: reporting-manager after: take-guidance
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
list-commitments - system: the agreements, retainers, licenses and
renewals already signed that run into the coming
year, each with its owner and its renewal date
owner: budget-keeper after: take-guidance
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
collect-requests - runs collect-and-report: one request format and
one due date to every function, saying what it
would spend and what that money would produce
owner: decision-coordinator
after: read-last-spend + list-commitments
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
price-requests - runs build-by-talent: what each request would
cost and return at each level of spend, with the
assumptions written beside every number
owner: forecaster after: collect-requests
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
test-the-asks - human: whether the money the functions are asking
for can reach the goals the year carries, and the
size of the gap where it cannot
owner: decision-coordinator after: price-requests
by: <days> automation: <level>
size-reserve - convenes decide-and-announce: <who> says how much
is held back for changes during the year, and on
what conditions it is released
owner: <your finance role> after: test-the-asks
by: <days> automation: never
settle-split - convenes decide-and-announce: <who> divides the
money among the functions, and says what each
function did not get and why
owner: <your finance role> after: size-reserve
by: <days> automation: never
movement-rules - human: who may move money between functions, up
to what amount, who approves each move, and what
has to be recorded when one is made
owner: <your finance role> after: settle-split
automation: never
phase-money - human: the date each function's money becomes
available, and the share held until a named
condition is met
owner: budget-keeper after: settle-split
by: <days> automation: <level>
name-measures - human: the measure each function's allocation is
reported against, defined so the period report
can produce it without argument
owner: reporting-manager after: phase-money
automation: <level>
approve-budget - convenes approval: <who> and finance sign, as
named signers, against a version of the budget
owner: <your finance role>
after: movement-rules + name-measures
by: <days> automation: never
load-allocations - system: each function's number recorded in the
budget record at the signed version, with what
was already committed against it
owner: budget-keeper after: approve-budget
by: <days> automation: <level>
tell-functions - convenes decide-and-announce: every function
hears its number, its dates and the movement
rules at the same time
owner: decision-coordinator after: load-allocations
by: <days> automation: <level>
record-basis - human: what the budget rests on, and the
conditions that bring it back to be changed
owner: decision-coordinator after: tell-functions
automation: <level>
run-scoped:
status - runs roll-call owner: decision-coordinator
every: <cadence>
from: take-guidance until: approve-budget
allocations - runs allocate-and-reconcile owner: budget-keeper
from: load-allocations until: run close
handoffs:
take-guidance -> read-last-spend / list-commitments
[planning-guidance]: the figure marketing has to work within, what
it covers, and the date the budget is due. Two branches read one
record
read-last-spend -> collect-requests [last-year-spend]: what each
function spent against what it was given, at the checked figure,
with any period that has not closed marked as an estimate
list-commitments -> collect-requests [committed-money]: the money
already committed for the coming year, one line per agreement, with
the date each one renews and the notice a cancellation needs
collect-requests -> price-requests [function-requests]: every request
in one format, saying what the function would spend, on what, and
what that money is meant to produce
price-requests -> test-the-asks [priced-requests]: what each request
would cost and return at each level of spend, with the assumptions
beside the numbers and every rate that could not be sourced marked
unsourced
test-the-asks -> size-reserve [goal-gap]: the gap between what the
requests add up to and what the goals need, written as a figure
size-reserve -> settle-split [reserve]: the amount held back, and the
conditions under which it is released
settle-split -> movement-rules [function-split]: the money against
each function, at the figures the budget will carry
settle-split -> phase-money [split-to-phase]: the same split. Both
branches read one record
movement-rules -> approve-budget [money-movement-terms]: who may move
money between functions, up to what amount, and who approves each
move
phase-money -> name-measures [release-schedule]: the date each
function's money becomes available, and the share held against a
named condition
name-measures -> approve-budget [budget-with-measures]: the budget at
a version, with the measure each allocation will be reported
against
approve-budget -> load-allocations [signed-budget]: the budget at the
signed version. A later change voids the approval and the signers
see it again
load-allocations -> tell-functions [loaded-allocations]: each
function's allocation as the record now holds it, and what was
already committed against it before the year began
tell-functions -> record-basis [function-responses]: what each
function took away, and anything a function said it could not do
inside its number
deviations:
test-the-asks -> collect-requests [asks-miss-the-goals]: the money
the functions are asking for will not reach the goals, so the
requests are collected again with the gap named as a figure
settle-split -> collect-requests [requests-exceed-the-money]: the
requests add up to more than there is, so each function cuts its
own request and both versions stay on the record
approve-budget -> settle-split [signers-want-changes]: a signer will
not sign the budget as it stands, so the money is divided again
load-allocations -> list-commitments [unknown-commitment]: loading
the allocations turns up a commitment the list missed, so the
commitments are listed again and a person decides what pays for it
bindings:
roster: <who holds each role - agents claiming the abstract agents
above, and named people for leadership and finance>
systems: the budget record (write), the decision record (write),
the commitments already made (read),
the supplier record (read),
the reconciliation record (read), the model store (write),
the report store (read), analytics platforms (read),
ad platforms (read), the notification channel (write)
data: the closed periods' reports, the approved plan for the year
at its version, <your finance calendar>,
<your measure definitions> at a version
policy:
the money is divided by named people and is never delegated to an
agent
no allocation is loaded before <who> and finance have both signed
the version it comes from
a move of money between functions is recorded only after the person
the rules name has approved it
every figure in the budget names the source or the model version it
came from
a rate the model cannot source appears in the budget as unsourced,
and nobody fills it in with a figure that merely looks reasonable
a spend figure from a period that has not closed is marked as an
estimate wherever it appears
a change to an approved budget goes out as a new version saying what
moved and why, and the version it replaces stays where it was
measures:
cycle time: <weeks> from the cycle opening to the approved budget
coverage: <share> of the year's committed spend sitting inside an
allocation with a named owner
quality gate: nothing is allocated without a cost and a return under
it and the assumptions those rest on
```
Take it somewhere
Use this process in Google ADK
close
Paste this into an assistant that can read the web, such as Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor. It reads the specification and the current ADK documentation, then writes two files: the workflow, and a note on what did not survive the translation. Read the note first. What a runtime cannot express is the part worth arguing about, and this process is a draft to argue with.
copy the prompt
355 lines · the document is inside it, so nothing else is needed
Convert the business process below into a runnable Google ADK workflow:
one Python file with a Workflow, nodes, routed edges, a JoinNode,
RequestInput gates and a persisting session service.
The document is a reference process written to the Agent Processes
specification. Read the specification before you start, because it defines
terms that look ordinary and are not:
https://agentcatalog.com/spec/agent-processes
Sections 6 (the phase graph), 6.5.1 (exception edges), 6.7.1 (deviations),
7 (automation) and 8 (handoffs) are the ones this conversion turns on.
Then read the current documentation for the primitives you will need, rather
than relying on what you remember of the API:
https://adk.dev/graphs/routes/
nodes, tuple chains, Event(route=), JoinNode, back-edges
https://adk.dev/graphs/human-input/
RequestInput and the rerun_on_resume handoff
https://adk.dev/runtime/resume/
ResumabilityConfig, resuming by invocation id, at-least-once tools
https://adk.dev/graphs/data-handling/
Event.output against state, and the selector syntax in instructions
WHAT THE DOCUMENT ASKS FOR
These hold wherever the process lands, and they matter more than style.
1. Each phase under `phases:` becomes one step, and keeps its name.
2. `after:` gives the edges. `after: a + b` is a join and waits for BOTH.
Reading it as "either" is the defect the specification calls out by name.
3. Every handoff carries a key in square brackets. Each key becomes one field
on the run's state, named exactly as the key with hyphens turned into
underscores, and the sentence beside it becomes that field's comment. The key
is the stable name; the sentence is prose that may be rewritten.
4. A phase MUST NOT begin before its inbound handoff exists. Where that is
checkable, check it in the step rather than assuming it.
5. `automation: never` is a gate a person signs. The run stops there and does
not continue until a person's decision comes back. Do not turn one into a
notification, a log line, or an automatic transition, whatever the queue
looks like.
6. Each line under `deviations:` is a backward or sideways edge, returning to
the phase named on the right. The key in brackets names it, and that name
belongs in the code.
7. A phase whose `after:` reads like "X or Y, whichever could not finish" is an
exception edge: it is entered when those phases FAIL, not when they succeed.
Do not wire it as an ordinary successor.
8. Anything in angle brackets is a blank the adopting organization fills in.
Leave each one as a named constant at the top of the file with a TODO. Do not
invent a value, a threshold or a date.
9. Record the document's `from:` line at the top of the file, so it says which
reference process and which version it was generated from.
10. Run-scoped lines under `run-scoped:` are work that runs alongside the whole
process rather than at one point in it, and a run may not close while one is
unfinished. Say in the code what you did about them, including if the answer
is that the runtime has nowhere to put them.
HOW THAT LOOKS IN GOOGLE ADK
11. Build a `Workflow` from `google.adk.workflow`, and pin `google-adk>=2.0` in
a comment. Do not use `SequentialAgent`, `ParallelAgent` or `LoopAgent`: they
are deprecated in favour of the graph, and they carry their own defects around
state and control flow. The documentation moved to adk.dev, and anything you
remember about nesting agents rather than drawing a graph is out of date.
12. Each phase is one node keeping its name. Take the node kind from how the
phase resolves rather than from taste: a `human:` or `system:` phase is a plain
Python function node, and a `runs` or `convenes` phase is an `Agent`.
13. `after:` gives the edges, written as tuple chains in `edges=[...]`, and the
trigger is the `"START"` keyword. Take the order only from `after:` lines and
never from the order the phases are listed in.
14. `after: a + b` is a `JoinNode`, and it must be guarded, because this is the
worst trap of any runtime here. The join fires when every static predecessor is
marked COMPLETED, nothing ever un-completes a node, and stored outputs are
never cleared. So after a deviation re-runs one arm, the join fires the instant
that arm finishes and hands the next phase LAST PASS'S value for every arm that
did not re-run. It does not stall, it proceeds with stale data, and nothing
logs. Stamp each arm's output with a pass counter or a content hash, and have
the phase after the join compare the stamps and refuse to run when they
disagree.
15. Each line under `deviations:` is a routed back-edge: a router after the
phase on the left returning `Event(route=...)`, named after the key in
brackets, with one arm going back to the phase on the right and one going
forward. An unconditional cycle raises at construction, which is the one place
this model checks your work. Nothing budgets a routed cycle, so add your own
count and stop rather than looping forever.
16. Give every router an explicit `DEFAULT_ROUTE` arm, and route it to a phase
that stops and asks a person. A route value matching no key writes a log
warning, ends that branch, and lets the run finish reporting success with the
rest of the process never having happened.
17. `automation: never` is a `RequestInput` node of its own, never an `Agent`
asking a question. Decorate it `@node(rerun_on_resume=False)` and yield
`RequestInput(message=..., payload=..., response_schema=...)`, so the run
stops, persists, and delivers the person's answer to the node's successor as
its typed input. A resumed workflow runs its tools at least once, so any
irreversible act needs its own duplicate guard.
18. Make the gates durable or say plainly that they are not. Wrap the graph in
`App(..., resumability_config=ResumabilityConfig(is_resumable=True))` and pass
a persisting session service, never the in-memory one. Note in the file that
the command line and the web UI cannot resume a run, so whoever releases these
gates needs an operator surface that somebody has to write.
19. Every `Agent` in the graph gets `mode="single_turn"` and no `sub_agents`.
A non-empty `sub_agents` list silently adds a transfer tool, and a model that
uses it runs a different agent in this node's place while the graph's outgoing
edge fires on schedule regardless: the topology is honoured perfectly and the
work belongs to somebody else.
20. Model failure as a route, not as an exception. A node that raises does not
propagate: the failure is caught, recorded, and shuts the workflow down without
raising to the caller. So a phase that can fail catches its own failure and
returns `Event(route="could-not-finish")`, and the exception phase hangs off
that arm.
21. Keep every blank as a named module-level constant and never interpolate one
into an `instruction=` string. Angle brackets and curly braces are ADK's own
data selector syntax inside instructions, so a blank pasted verbatim stops
being a blank and becomes a selector.
22. `by:` and `not-before:` have no expression, and `@node(timeout=)` is not
one: it is an in-process wall clock that cancels the node and, because failures
are swallowed, ends the run silently rather than recording a missed deadline.
Nothing in `run-scoped:` has an expression either, and it must not be faked as
an ordinary node, because a node has to be reached and has to finish before
anything downstream starts, which is the opposite of what those lines mean.
Leave both out of the graph and name them in the fidelity note.
Produce a second file alongside it, `FIDELITY.md`, and treat it as the more
important of the two. The code is for whoever builds this. The fidelity note
is for whoever has to decide whether this platform suits the process at all,
and that is usually a different person who will never read the code.
It has three parts.
**What came across.** Briefly: how many phases became steps, how many handoff
keys became state fields, which gates stop the run, which deviations became
edges. Counts and names, not reassurance.
**What did not, and what was done instead.** One entry per gap. For each one,
say what the document requires, what the platform can actually express, what
you did in its place, and what breaks if somebody later removes your
workaround. This last part matters most: a workaround nobody understands is a
workaround somebody deletes.
**What a person still has to decide.** The blanks are not a translation
failure, they are the point of a reference process, so list what has to be
filled in before this could run against anything real, and say which of those
choices the platform constrains.
Write it in plain English for somebody who has not read the specification, and
do not soften it. A translation of a reference process is a draft to argue
with, not a build artifact, and the honest account of what was lost is the most
useful thing you will produce.
Here is the process document.
```
PROCESS: set marketing budget id: <team>/set-marketing-budget v1
from: ref/mkt/set-marketing-budget v1
owner: <who> effective: <date>
trigger: the planning cycle opens on <your finance calendar>
watch: every=<your planning cycle>
concurrency: one run at a time - a budget cycle does not overlap
itself, and an in-year change goes in as a new version
goal: an approved budget for the year, divided across the functions,
with a reserve, a release schedule, rules for moving money
between functions, and every function told what it holds
phases:
take-guidance - human: read what finance says marketing has to
work within, and write down the figure, the
period it covers, and what it leaves out
owner: decision-coordinator after: trigger
automation: never
read-last-spend - runs collect-and-report: what each function spent
last year against what it was given, at the
checked figure for every closed period
owner: reporting-manager after: take-guidance
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
list-commitments - system: the agreements, retainers, licenses and
renewals already signed that run into the coming
year, each with its owner and its renewal date
owner: budget-keeper after: take-guidance
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
collect-requests - runs collect-and-report: one request format and
one due date to every function, saying what it
would spend and what that money would produce
owner: decision-coordinator
after: read-last-spend + list-commitments
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
price-requests - runs build-by-talent: what each request would
cost and return at each level of spend, with the
assumptions written beside every number
owner: forecaster after: collect-requests
by: <weeks> automation: <level>
test-the-asks - human: whether the money the functions are asking
for can reach the goals the year carries, and the
size of the gap where it cannot
owner: decision-coordinator after: price-requests
by: <days> automation: <level>
size-reserve - convenes decide-and-announce: <who> says how much
is held back for changes during the year, and on
what conditions it is released
owner: <your finance role> after: test-the-asks
by: <days> automation: never
settle-split - convenes decide-and-announce: <who> divides the
money among the functions, and says what each
function did not get and why
owner: <your finance role> after: size-reserve
by: <days> automation: never
movement-rules - human: who may move money between functions, up
to what amount, who approves each move, and what
has to be recorded when one is made
owner: <your finance role> after: settle-split
automation: never
phase-money - human: the date each function's money becomes
available, and the share held until a named
condition is met
owner: budget-keeper after: settle-split
by: <days> automation: <level>
name-measures - human: the measure each function's allocation is
reported against, defined so the period report
can produce it without argument
owner: reporting-manager after: phase-money
automation: <level>
approve-budget - convenes approval: <who> and finance sign, as
named signers, against a version of the budget
owner: <your finance role>
after: movement-rules + name-measures
by: <days> automation: never
load-allocations - system: each function's number recorded in the
budget record at the signed version, with what
was already committed against it
owner: budget-keeper after: approve-budget
by: <days> automation: <level>
tell-functions - convenes decide-and-announce: every function
hears its number, its dates and the movement
rules at the same time
owner: decision-coordinator after: load-allocations
by: <days> automation: <level>
record-basis - human: what the budget rests on, and the
conditions that bring it back to be changed
owner: decision-coordinator after: tell-functions
automation: <level>
run-scoped:
status - runs roll-call owner: decision-coordinator
every: <cadence>
from: take-guidance until: approve-budget
allocations - runs allocate-and-reconcile owner: budget-keeper
from: load-allocations until: run close
handoffs:
take-guidance -> read-last-spend / list-commitments
[planning-guidance]: the figure marketing has to work within, what
it covers, and the date the budget is due. Two branches read one
record
read-last-spend -> collect-requests [last-year-spend]: what each
function spent against what it was given, at the checked figure,
with any period that has not closed marked as an estimate
list-commitments -> collect-requests [committed-money]: the money
already committed for the coming year, one line per agreement, with
the date each one renews and the notice a cancellation needs
collect-requests -> price-requests [function-requests]: every request
in one format, saying what the function would spend, on what, and
what that money is meant to produce
price-requests -> test-the-asks [priced-requests]: what each request
would cost and return at each level of spend, with the assumptions
beside the numbers and every rate that could not be sourced marked
unsourced
test-the-asks -> size-reserve [goal-gap]: the gap between what the
requests add up to and what the goals need, written as a figure
size-reserve -> settle-split [reserve]: the amount held back, and the
conditions under which it is released
settle-split -> movement-rules [function-split]: the money against
each function, at the figures the budget will carry
settle-split -> phase-money [split-to-phase]: the same split. Both
branches read one record
movement-rules -> approve-budget [money-movement-terms]: who may move
money between functions, up to what amount, and who approves each
move
phase-money -> name-measures [release-schedule]: the date each
function's money becomes available, and the share held against a
named condition
name-measures -> approve-budget [budget-with-measures]: the budget at
a version, with the measure each allocation will be reported
against
approve-budget -> load-allocations [signed-budget]: the budget at the
signed version. A later change voids the approval and the signers
see it again
load-allocations -> tell-functions [loaded-allocations]: each
function's allocation as the record now holds it, and what was
already committed against it before the year began
tell-functions -> record-basis [function-responses]: what each
function took away, and anything a function said it could not do
inside its number
deviations:
test-the-asks -> collect-requests [asks-miss-the-goals]: the money
the functions are asking for will not reach the goals, so the
requests are collected again with the gap named as a figure
settle-split -> collect-requests [requests-exceed-the-money]: the
requests add up to more than there is, so each function cuts its
own request and both versions stay on the record
approve-budget -> settle-split [signers-want-changes]: a signer will
not sign the budget as it stands, so the money is divided again
load-allocations -> list-commitments [unknown-commitment]: loading
the allocations turns up a commitment the list missed, so the
commitments are listed again and a person decides what pays for it
bindings:
roster: <who holds each role - agents claiming the abstract agents
above, and named people for leadership and finance>
systems: the budget record (write), the decision record (write),
the commitments already made (read),
the supplier record (read),
the reconciliation record (read), the model store (write),
the report store (read), analytics platforms (read),
ad platforms (read), the notification channel (write)
data: the closed periods' reports, the approved plan for the year
at its version, <your finance calendar>,
<your measure definitions> at a version
policy:
the money is divided by named people and is never delegated to an
agent
no allocation is loaded before <who> and finance have both signed
the version it comes from
a move of money between functions is recorded only after the person
the rules name has approved it
every figure in the budget names the source or the model version it
came from
a rate the model cannot source appears in the budget as unsourced,
and nobody fills it in with a figure that merely looks reasonable
a spend figure from a period that has not closed is marked as an
estimate wherever it appears
a change to an approved budget goes out as a new version saying what
moved and why, and the version it replaces stays where it was
measures:
cycle time: <weeks> from the cycle opening to the approved budget
coverage: <share> of the year's committed spend sitting inside an
allocation with a named owner
quality gate: nothing is allocated without a cost and a return under
it and the assumptions those rest on
```
One run
A simulation of one run
The activities are on the left, whoever is doing the active one is on the right, and the record of the run builds up as it goes.
This run is built from the same rows as the diagram above: the left column is the activity list, the captions are the activity lines, the cast is the roster, and the labels on the wires are what the handoffs say actually passes.
Adoption
What you fill in
39 blanks to fill. Everything else is the process.
this process
from: ref/mkt/set-marketing-budget v1
Copy this line into your own document. It never claims this process is running anywhere; it records which draft yours started from, and it is what lets the catalog tell you when this one changes.
The header. Your own id, an owner, and the date it takes effect. One line records where it came from, and that line is what lets the catalog tell you when this reference process changes.
The roster. Which agent takes each activity, and which person takes each of the human ones. The process already names what it needs, so this is a lookup rather than a design exercise.
The numbers. Dates, budgets, cadences, and the targets in the measures block. Nothing here can be a reference value, because a target nobody chose is a target nobody meets.