Plan a workflow

Planning is separate from execution. A planning session freezes a workflow version and an infrastructure/network scope, runs one or more scheduling algorithms against the same inputs, and preserves their candidate plans for comparison.

Only a selected candidate becomes a canonical schedule plan that can be executed.

Sessions, algorithms, and candidates

A session records its workflow version, execution scope, network topology, selected algorithms, optional deadline and budget, progress, and final selection. Its status is queued, running, completed, failed, or cancelled.

The Desktop currently offers PRISM time and cost objectives plus HEFT when those algorithms are returned by the server. Always use GET /planning-algorithms/ as the authoritative list for an installed instance. PRISM accepts an option count and beam width; an optional directed interference matrix can also be attached to the session. HEFT does not use that matrix while planning.

Each candidate reports:

• algorithm, objective, and rank;
• Pareto-optimal/dominated and feasible flags;
• predicted makespan and cost;
• a complete schedule with activity-to-resource assignments.

Assignments include predicted ready, start, finish, runtime, transfer time, cost, core/slot placement, and order on the resource. Plans can also contain infrastructure lifecycle actions when cloud capacity is involved.

Using AkôFlow Desktop

1. Open a workflow definition and choose Generate plan. Planning sessions are created from that workflow so the session stays bound to its immutable version.
2. Choose Automatic planning.
3. Select an execution or simulation scope and its network topology.
4. Select one or more algorithms. Configure PRISM search options if applicable.
5. Optionally set a deadline, budget, or import an interference matrix.
6. Choose Generate candidate plans.
7. Follow each algorithm run's progress. Expand candidates to inspect their Gantt timelines and assignments.
8. Compare predicted time, cost, feasibility, and Pareto status, then select a candidate. AkôFlow creates the executable schedule plan from that candidate.

Choose Generate plans to compare candidate schedules. The target selector keeps real execution scopes separate from simulation-only scopes; PRISM Cost and PRISM Time are exclusive objectives, while HEFT is a comparison baseline.

Manual plans

Choose the manual planning mode when placement is known in advance. Select a scope and topology, then assign every activity to a compatible runtime and resource and provide its expected duration. The Desktop computes a dependency-aware schedule and submits the complete plan for validation.

Imported plans

The plans API also accepts a complete plan as imported data. Imported IDs must refer to an existing workflow version, execution scope, topology, and resources; the server validates the plan before saving it.

Using the API

First discover the algorithms available in the running instance:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $AKOFLOW_API_TOKEN" \
  "$AKOFLOW_API_URL/planning-algorithms/"

Create an automatic planning session. The IDs below match the repository's simulation example:

curl --fail-with-body \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AKOFLOW_API_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "id": "planning-simulation-example",
    "workflowVersionId": "simulation-example-workflow-v1",
    "executionScopeId": "simulation-example-v1-scope",
    "networkTopologyId": "simulation-network-v1",
    "algorithms": [
      {"id": "prism-time", "configuration": {"optionCount": 25, "beamWidth": 120}},
      {"id": "prism-cost", "configuration": {"optionCount": 25, "beamWidth": 120}},
      {"id": "heft", "configuration": {}}
    ],
    "deadlineSeconds": 0,
    "budget": 0
  }' \
  "$AKOFLOW_API_URL/planning-sessions/"

Creation returns 202 Accepted. Poll the session and list its candidates:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $AKOFLOW_API_TOKEN" \
  "$AKOFLOW_API_URL/planning-sessions/planning-simulation-example/"

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $AKOFLOW_API_TOKEN" \
  "$AKOFLOW_API_URL/planning-sessions/planning-simulation-example/candidates/"

Read a candidate before selecting it, then promote it to a plan:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $AKOFLOW_API_TOKEN" \
  "$AKOFLOW_API_URL/planning-sessions/planning-simulation-example/candidates/<candidate-id>/"

curl --fail-with-body -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AKOFLOW_API_TOKEN" \
  "$AKOFLOW_API_URL/planning-sessions/planning-simulation-example/candidates/<candidate-id>/select/"

Selection returns 201 Created with the canonical schedule plan.

For a manual plan, send the complete validation envelope used by examples/simulation/plan-request.yaml to POST /schedule-plans/. To import an already assembled plan whose referenced objects are registered, send { "plan": ... } to POST /schedule-plans/import/; the server sets its source to imported and validates it.

Next step

Review the selected plan and start and monitor an execution.