4.8.12. Cancel a Workflow Execution

In this chapter, you'll learn how to cancel a workflow execution and revert its steps.

How to Cancel a Workflow Execution?#

Every workflow you create with createWorkflow has a cancel method. When you cancel a workflow execution, Medusa runs the compensation function of every step that ran, in reverse order, then sets the execution's state to reverted.

You can cancel a workflow execution while it's still running, such as a Long-Running Workflow, or after it finished.

To cancel a workflow execution, pass its transaction to the cancel method:

Code
1import { helloWorkflow } from "../workflows/hello"2
3const { transaction } = await helloWorkflow(container).run({4  input: {},5})6
7await helloWorkflow(container).cancel({8  transaction,9})

Medusa compensates the steps that ran in helloWorkflow, then marks the execution as reverted.

Cancel by Transaction ID#

Instead of the transaction, you can pass the ID of the execution's transaction to the cancel method. This is useful when you cancel the execution in a different request or process than the one that ran the workflow:

Code
1await helloWorkflow(container).cancel({2  transactionId: "123",3})

Medusa loads the execution from the database, so this only works if the workflow stores its executions. Otherwise, Medusa removes the execution once it's done, and the cancel method throws a Transaction {id} could not be found error.

To cancel a completed execution by its transaction ID, set the store and retentionTime options when you create the workflow:

Code
1export const helloWorkflow = createWorkflow(2  {3    name: "hello-workflow",4    retentionTime: 3600,5    store: true,6  },7  () => {8    step1()9  }10)

Medusa enables the store option by default for long-running workflows, workflows with a timeout, and idempotent workflows. Even then, you still need the retentionTime option to cancel an execution after it's done.