Workflow Kit - Workflow engine

Overview

Workflow automation has become essential as companies adopt visual workflow builders to automate tasks, orchestrate processes, and integrate systems seamlessly. More teams are turning to React Flow to build these systems, but React Flow is a low-level rendering library that leaves infrastructure challenges unsolved. After developing a workflow engine for Formity UI, I created Workflow Kit—a complete, production-ready foundation that enables teams to ship workflow features in days instead of months.

The Problem

Building a workflow system with React Flow involves far more than connecting nodes. Teams quickly discover they need to solve problems that React Flow doesn't address:

• Nodes need automatic positioning as workflows grow, requiring sophisticated layout algorithms
• Complex state changes demand proper architectural patterns like MVC to stay manageable
• Users expect smooth drag-and-drop interactions with proper feedback and constraints
• Professional tools require full undo/redo systems that track every modification
• Workflows must validate themselves and surface errors clearly to users
• Everything needs to serialize to JSON for saving, versioning, and backend processing

Most teams underestimate this scope, expecting a few weeks of work. In reality, building these systems takes months of dedicated engineering effort, pulling resources away from actual product development.

What I Built

Workflow Kit provides the complete infrastructure layer that sits between React Flow and your product. Instead of building everything from scratch, teams get a proven system that includes:

• A clean abstraction over React Flow that eliminates boilerplate and enforces consistency
• Automatic layout algorithms that handle node positioning intelligently
• MVC architecture that separates concerns and scales with complexity
• Production-grade drag-and-drop with all edge cases handled
• Full undo/redo history that captures every user action
• Validation engine that detects issues and provides clear feedback
• JSON serialization that makes persistence straightforward
• Complete documentation walking through implementation and customization

The kit is already proven in production through Formity UI, where it powers the AI form builder, and has been featured in React Flow's official showcase, demonstrating its production-readiness and architectural quality.

Results

Workflow Kit compresses months of development into days of integration, significantly reducing costs and technical risk. Teams can ship workflow capabilities faster while maintaining code quality and avoiding architectural pitfalls, allowing them to focus engineering effort on their core product instead of rebuilding infrastructure problems that have already been solved.

Takeaway

Building Workflow Kit's engine was one of the most architecturally complex projects I've undertaken. It taught me that building scalable systems requires making the right architectural decisions early and that truly elegant solutions come from understanding the problem deeply before writing code.