Workflow Formations

A workflow formation is not a first-class object in Foundry. It is the logical result of which blocks sink on which events — a chain that emerges when you emit a particular entry event. All blocks live in one engine. The formation that fires depends entirely on the entry event and the payload values that flow through it.

This page documents the formations that exist today and explores how the current block library could be recombined for different purposes.

The Block Library at a Glance

Every block declares its sinks (what triggers it), its emits (what it produces), and its kind (Observer or Mutator). The engine does the rest.

Shared Infrastructure

These blocks appear in multiple formations:

Iteration Blocks

Maintenance Blocks

Vulnerability Blocks

Prompt Workflow Blocks

Strategic Loop Blocks

Orchestration Blocks

Current Formations

These are the formations that fire today, depending on which entry event you emit.

The Full Nightly Run

Entry event: maintenance_run_started

This is the broadest formation. It validates the project, routes to iteration and/or maintenance based on the project's registry flags, and chains the two sub-workflows together when both are enabled.

flowchart TD
    A([maintenance_run_started]) --> B[[Validate Project]]
    B --> C[[Route Project Workflow]]
    C -->|iterate=true| D([iteration_requested])
    C -->|maintain=true| E([maintenance_requested])
    D --> F[Iterate Formation]
    F -->|success + maintain=true| E
    E --> G[Maintain Formation]

Iterate Formation

Entry event: iteration_requested

The full assessment-to-execution pipeline with gate verification and bounded retry.

flowchart TD
    A([iteration_requested]) --> B[[Check Charter]]
    B -->|passed| C[[Resolve Gates]]
    C --> D[[Run Preflight Gates]]
    D -->|passed| E[[Assess Project]]
    E --> F[[Triage Assessment]]
    F -->|accepted| G[[Create Plan]]
    G --> H[[Execute Plan]]
    H --> I[[Run Verify Gates]]
    I --> J[[Route Gate Result]]
    J -->|pass| K([project_iteration_completed])
    J -->|fail, retries left| L[[Retry Execution]]
    L --> I
    K --> M[[Summarize Result]]
    K --> N[[Commit and Push]]

Prompt Formation

Entry event: prompt_execution_requested

A streamlined formation that executes an arbitrary user-provided prompt with gate verification. It skips assessment, triage, and plan creation — the user's prompt IS the plan.

flowchart TD
    A([prompt_execution_requested]) --> B[[Check Charter]]
    B -->|passed| C[[Resolve Gates]]
    C --> D[[Run Preflight Gates]]
    D -->|passed| E[[Direct Prompt]]
    E --> F[[Execute Plan]]
    F --> G[[Run Verify Gates]]
    G --> H[[Route Gate Result]]
    H -->|pass| I([project_iteration_completed])
    H -->|fail, retries left| J[[Retry Execution]]
    J --> G
    I --> K[[Summarize Result]]
    I --> L[[Commit and Push]]

Usage:

foundry emit prompt_execution_requested my-project \
  --payload '{"prompt": "Pick the highest priority interaction from et and implement it."}'

Strategic Iterate Formation

Entry event: iteration_requested with strategic: true

A nested loop that wraps the iterate formation. The strategic assessor identifies multiple areas for improvement, then the loop controller enters the inner iterate formation for each area. After each inner iteration completes, an AI assessment decides whether to continue. Changes are committed per iteration.

flowchart TD
    A([iteration_requested<br/>strategic=true]) --> B[[Strategic Assessor]]
    B --> C([strategic_assessment_completed])
    C --> D[[Strategic Loop Controller]]
    D --> E([iteration_requested<br/>with loop_context])
    E --> F[Iterate Formation<br/>inner loop]
    F --> G([inner_iteration_completed])
    G --> H[[Commit and Push]]
    G --> D
    D -->|continue| E
    D -->|done| I([project_iteration_completed])
    I --> J[[Summarize Result]]
    I --> K[[Commit and Push]]

The inner iterate formation runs exactly as documented above, with one difference: Route Gate Result emits inner_iteration_completed instead of project_iteration_completed when loop_context is present in the payload. This allows the strategic loop controller to intercept the completion and decide whether to continue.

Terminal blocks (Summarize Result and Commit and Push) self-filter on loop_context — they skip intermediate completions and only fire on the final project_iteration_completed emitted by the strategic loop controller (which strips loop_context before emitting it).

Maintain Formation

Entry event: maintenance_requested

Dependency updates and general maintenance. Preflight gates are skipped (the codebase may be in a pre-maintenance state), but verification gates run after execution.

flowchart TD
    A([maintenance_requested]) --> B[[Resolve Gates]]
    B --> C[[Run Preflight Gates]]
    C -->|skipped| D[[Execute Maintain]]
    D --> E[[Run Verify Gates]]
    E --> F[[Route Gate Result]]
    F -->|pass| G([project_maintenance_completed])
    F -->|fail, retries left| H[[Retry Execution]]
    H --> E
    G --> I[[Summarize Result]]
    G --> J[[Commit and Push]]

Vulnerability Remediation Formation

Entry event: vulnerability_detected

Two paths through the same blocks, governed by the dirty payload flag.

flowchart TD
    A([vulnerability_detected]) --> B[[Audit Release Tag]]
    B --> C[[Audit Main Branch]]
    C --> D{dirty?}
    D -->|true| E[[Remediate Vulnerability]]
    E --> F[[Commit and Push]]
    F --> G[[Install Locally]]
    D -->|false| H[[Cut Release]]
    H --> I[[Watch Pipeline]]
    I --> J[[Install Locally]]

Scan Formation

Entry event: scan_requested

A broader entry point that discovers vulnerabilities and feeds them into the remediation formation. Scan Dependencies emits one vulnerability_detected event per CVE found, so a single scan can trigger multiple parallel remediation chains.

flowchart TD
    A([scan_requested]) --> B[[Scan Dependencies]]
    B -->|per CVE| C([vulnerability_detected])
    C --> D[Remediation Formation]

Validation Formation

Entry event: validation_requested

A read-only health check. No Mutator blocks fire — it just resolves gates, runs them, and reports the results.

flowchart TD
    A([validation_requested]) --> B[[Resolve Gates]]
    B --> C[[Run Preflight Gates]]
    C --> D[[Route Validation Result]]
    D --> E([validation_completed])

Possible Formations

The block library already supports formations that aren't part of the nightly run. Because the engine routes by event type and blocks self-filter on payload, you can trigger these directly.

Iterate Without Maintenance

Emit iteration_requested with actions.maintain=false. The iterate formation runs, and on success Route Gate Result emits project_iteration_completed without chaining to maintenance_requested.

foundry emit iteration_requested my-project \
  --payload '{"actions":{"iterate":true,"maintain":false}}'

This is useful when you want to improve code quality without touching dependencies — a focused structural improvement pass.

Maintenance Without Iteration

Emit maintenance_requested directly. The maintain formation runs on its own, skipping assessment, triage, and planning entirely.

foundry emit maintenance_requested my-project

This is a pure dependency update pass — update libraries, run gates, commit if they pass.

Scan Without Remediation

Emit scan_requested with audit_only throttle. Scan Dependencies and the audit blocks run (they are Observers), but Remediate Vulnerability and Cut Release (Mutators) suppress their output.

foundry emit scan_requested my-project --throttle audit_only

This tells you what vulnerabilities exist and whether main is dirty, without making any changes.

Remediation Without Scanning

Emit vulnerability_detected directly with the CVE details. This skips the scan entirely and jumps straight into the audit-and-fix chain.

foundry emit vulnerability_detected my-project \
  --payload '{"cve":"CVE-2026-1234","vulnerable":true,"dirty":true}'

This is how you would handle a vulnerability reported through a channel other than Foundry's scanner — a security advisory, a colleague's finding, or a CI notification.

Post-Push Audit

The Audit Release Tag block also sinks on project_changes_pushed. This means that after an iterate or maintain formation commits and pushes, the release tag is automatically re-audited. If the push introduced a vulnerability (or resolved one), the audit chain picks it up without a separate scan.

Strategic Iteration

Emit iteration_requested with strategic: true to enter the nested loop. The strategic assessor analyses the codebase holistically and the loop controller runs multiple inner iterate cycles until the AI determines the codebase has plateaued.

foundry emit iteration_requested my-project \
  --payload '{"strategic":true,"max_iterations":5}'

The max_iterations field caps the loop to prevent runaway iterations. Each inner cycle commits its changes independently.

Gate Check Only

Emit validation_requested to run all gates without modifying anything. This is the lightest formation — it tells you whether the project is healthy right now.

foundry emit validation_requested my-project

Designing New Formations

The current block library is a toolkit. The formations above are the ones we use today, but the same blocks can participate in formations we haven't built yet. A few principles guide what's possible:

1. Entry events define scope. The deeper into a chain you emit, the narrower the formation. Emitting maintenance_run_started runs everything; emitting plan_completed skips assessment entirely and just executes a plan you provide.

2. Payload values steer routing. Blocks self-filter on payload fields like dirty, accepted, workflow, and actions. Changing a payload value changes which blocks fire without changing any code.

3. Throttle controls depth. The same formation behaves differently under full, audit_only, and dry_run. This gives you three versions of every formation for free.

4. Shared blocks multiply formations. Commit and Push sinks on three different event types. Install Locally sinks on two. Every block that participates in multiple formations is a junction point where chains can converge or diverge.