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Workflow Transactions and Save Boundaries

Summary​

Commands normally call one unit-of-work save after staging aggregate, audit and timeline changes. DbContext adds mapped outbox records immediately before that save.

Transaction boundary diagram​

Command boundary​

Definition and instance commands stage all normal changes before one save. No explicit transaction object or cross-context transaction is created.

Multi-save behavior​

Outbox status updates each save independently after the original command. Development seeding saves each missing definition separately.

Failure handling​

Definition commands translate domain validation before save. Workflow code does not define persistence retries or compensating transactions. Relay failures are represented through outbox status/error updates by the processing boundary.

Requires Confirmation​

Database retry policy, atomicity expectations for relay status and seed partial-failure recovery require confirmation.

Source References​

  • microservices/src/workflow-service/Infrastructure/WorkflowDbContext.cs
  • microservices/src/workflow-service/Infrastructure/Persistence.cs
  • microservices/src/workflow-service/Application/Commands/WorkflowInstanceCommands.cs
  • microservices/src/workflow-service/Infrastructure/DevelopmentSeeder.cs

See Also​

Keywords​

Workflow database, EF Core, Workflow schema.

Revision Information​

  • Status: Draft
  • Last reviewed: 2026-07-20
  • Next review: 2026-10-20