Workflow steps are nodes, not a sequence

What workflow.steps is

Workflow steps is the list of named nodes in an orchestration graph.

It is not an ordered transformation list. Runtime groups come from depends_on; independent nodes may run in parallel even when written on different lines.

What it contains

• Identity and kind — Unique name plus job or action type.
• Work target — A job directory or action name with parameters.
• Control — Dependencies, condition, enabled flag, failure policy, and optional retry.

Edges make the schedule

List order keeps YAML readable. Dependency edges create the executable plan, so review depends_on whenever you need to understand sequencing or parallelism.

Run the complete example

Copy this manifest from the verified documentation project, then run it from the repository root.

workflow:
  version: "1.0"
  name: docs_workflow
  description: Two actions used by the DSL documentation.
  trigger: {type: manual}
  steps:
    - name: prepare
      type: action
      action: log
      params: {message: "Preparation complete."}
      retry: {max: 2, delay: 0, backoff: fixed}
    - name: publish
      type: action
      action: log
      params: {message: "Publication complete."}
      depends_on: [prepare]
      when: "1 == 1"
      on_failure: fail

hdrctl workflow run examples/tutorial/dsl-elements/workflow.yaml

  ✓  Step 'prepare' OK (0.0s)
  ✓  Step 'publish' OK (0.0s)

  ✅ Workflow 'docs_workflow' completed in 0.0s — 2/2 steps OK

The relevant command syntax, copied from hdrctl workflow run --help:

hdrctl workflow run PATH
  PATH          path to workflow.yaml
  --lang LANG   interface language
  -h, --help    show command help

Close by

• trigger — starting the graph
• retry — attempts around one node
• step.when — conditional readiness
• workflow.yaml — complete graph
• Reference — all step fields