Referencing Workflow state in a block

Each Workflow, when run, will build up a state object. This state can be referenced throughout the Workflow and allows blocks to reference both the top-level state (e.g., who initiated a Workflow) and the state of a previous block.

The Workflow state object includes top-level context, actions, and variables keys:

• context is immutable, set at the beginning, and available to all blocks.

  • If an entity changes during Workflow execution, those changes will not be represented in context.entity.

  • If secrets change during a Workflow, those changes will not be represented in context.secrets.

  • You can examine the context object via the Run context tab when viewing a Workflow run.

  • Read more about the context key below.

• actions is built up as actions execute via blocks.

  • Each block will have an inputs and outputs key, but their format differs based on the block type.

• variables contains the current values of any variables declared on the workflow. If a variable does not have a default value and hasn't been set yet, its value will be null.

  • Note: since variables are mutable, the variable values can change over time. Depending on the ordering of blocks in your workflow, different blocks may have access to different variable values.

The state object looks similar to the following:

Workflow state object example

{
  "context": {
    "initiatedBy": {
      "name": "Henry Hippocampus",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "identityMappings": {
        "github": "hhippocampus"
      },
      "identityMappingsByAlias": {
        "github": {
          "cortex": "hhippocampus",
          "other-config": "hippo"
        }
      }
    },
    "workflowRunId":"a607c73f-b8e2-44b7-aa20-e23de7cf7af7",
    "initiatedAtIso8601Timestamp": "2025-05-16T21:42:37.642+00:00", // ISO8601 timestamp
    "secrets": {
      "secret-tag": "********"
    },
    "entity": { // only present for entity-scoped workflows
      "id": "en0123456789abcdef",
      "tag": "test-entity",
      "name": "Test Entity",
      "descriptor": { 
        "info": { ... }
      }
    }
  },
  "actions": {
    "action-slug-1": {
      "inputs": {},
      "outputs": {}
    }, 
    "action-slug-2": {
      "inputs": {},
      "outputs": {}
    }
    ...
  },
  "variables": {
    "variable1": true,
    "variable2": null,
    "variable3": { 
      "isObject": true
    }
  }
}

The Workflow state context key

The context object always has the following keys:

• {{context.workflowRunId}}: The Workflow run ID

• {{context.initiatedAtIso8601Timestamp}}: The timestamp at which this block was initiated

• {{context.initiatedBy}}: The user object of the initiator

  • email: The user's email

  • name: The initiator's name

  • identityMappings: A mapping of the identity providers listed below to the initiating user's corresponding external ID. The external ID will be pulled from identity provider's default configuration when there is more than one configuration.

    • azure_devops

    • bitbucket

    • clickup

    • github

    • gitlab

    • jira

    • microsoft_teams

    • opsgenie

    • pagerduty

    • service_now

    • slack

  • identityMappingsByAlias: Similar to identityMappings, but each provider maps to an object of configuration alias to external ID. This field is useful when users have different external IDs across an integration's configurations.

• {{context.secrets}} An object of Cortex secret tags to their values.

Access configured secrets

You can access your configured secrets by tag: {{context.secrets.SECRET_TAG}}.

Note that Mustache performs HTML escaping by default, so if your configured secret contains a reserved HTML character, use triple braces to use raw content: {{{context.secrets.SECRET_TAG}}}.

Secret values are redacted in inputs and outputs of the workflow state.

Accessing a secret in the context object is not supported for Slack blocks.

Access entity data

If the block is being run in the context of a catalog entity, the template context will contain data about the entity in the {{context.entity}} key:

• id

• tag

• name

• descriptor (this is the cortex.yaml, as an object)

These can be accessed under the {{context.entity}} key, for example {{context.entity.tag}} or {{context.entity.descriptor.info.x-cortex-git.github.repository}}

Referencing a block or workflow state in a workflow

You can reference a previous block or a workflow state in several ways:

• Templated into block schemas via Mustache ({{}})

• Accessed directly from JQ actions

• Referenced to define "User input" block overrides

• Referenced in "Branch" block path expressions using CEL syntax

Block and workflow state reference example

Assume a Workflow was created where you gather names from an "HTTP request" block, a "data transformation" block parses the array of names, the names are surfaced to users in a "user input" block where they can select a name, then a "branch" block runs a different path based on which name was selected during the previous "user input" block. In one of the branch paths, there is a "Slack" block that sends a templated message based on the output of previous blocks.

The workflow contains the following blocks:

• HTTP request block called users

  • In this example, the block sends a GET request to gather user names from a URL containing sample data.

• Data transformation block called names

  • It contains a JQ query referencing the output of the users block: [.actions.users.outputs.body[] | .name]

• User input block called pick-name

  • It contains an override that references the output of the names block: actions.names.outputs.result

• Branch block called create-services

  • There are multiple paths in this branch, depending on which name you chose in the previous block. One of the name options is Ervin, and there is a conditional path called Ervin within this block that contains the following path expression. It references Ervin as the output of the pick-names block: actions['pick-name'].outputs.name == 'Ervin' && context.entity.descriptor.info['x-cortex-type'] == 'team'.

  • The Ervin path contains a Slack block to send a templated message via Slack, referencing the output of the pick-name block and referencing the workflow state by including the email address of the user who initiated the workflow: We created a service for {{actions.pick-name.outputs.name}}. [message from workflow triggered by {{context.initiatedBy.email}}]

When you run the workflow, the following chain of events occurs:

1. The HTTP request block gathers user names.

   • In the "Inputs" tab of this block, you can see where the data was pulled from.

   • In the "Outputs" tab of this block, you can see the list of names under the body.

2. The data transformation block parses an array of names from the HTTP request block.

   • In the "Outputs" tab of this block, you can see the list of names.

3. The Workflow is paused while awaiting user input. The user input block surfaces a name field where the user can select a name from the list. The names are from the array parsed in the previous block.

4. The user selects the name Ervin, and the Workflow continues to the next block.

5. The branch block runs a path depending on which name you chose in the previous block. In this example, the Ervin path runs because the CEL expression for that conditional path was configured to run when the pick-name block's output is Ervin.

   • In the "Outputs" tab of this block, you can see the conditions that were checked to verify which path to run.

6. The Ervin path contains a Slack block that sends a templated message referencing the output the previous block and the user who initiated the Workflow. The message is sent to the user with the templated references translated: We created a service for Ervin. [message from workflow triggered by [email protected]]