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Flow control steps

Flow control steps shape a workflow's logic. They decide what runs, what gets skipped, when the workflow loops, and where it pauses. 9.4 ships the full set of 8 step types: if, foreach, while, switch, wait, loop.break, loop.continue, and waitForInput.

Pattern Step
Branch on a condition if
Iterate over an array foreach
Loop until a condition is false while
Multi-way dispatch on a value switch
Pause for a fixed duration wait
Exit a loop early loop.break
Skip to the next loop iteration loop.continue
Pause for human input (human-in-the-loop) waitForInput

For fan-out across independent workflow executions, refer to workflow.executeAsync in the composition reference.

Conditional branching. Evaluates a Kibana Query Language (KQL) or boolean expression and runs the steps block if true, or the optional else block if false.

- name: route_severity
  type: if
  condition: "event.alerts[0].kibana.alert.risk_score >= 70"
  steps:
    - name: high_priority
      type: console
      with: { message: "High priority alert" }
  else:
    - name: low_priority
      type: console
      with: { message: "Standard alert" }

For expression syntax and additional examples, refer to If step.

Iterate over an array, running nested steps once per item. Inside the loop, the current item is available as foreach.item, the zero-based position as foreach.index, and the total count as foreach.total.

- name: process_alerts
  type: foreach
  foreach: "${{ event.alerts }}"
  steps:
    - name: log_alert
      type: console
      with:
        message: "[{{ foreach.index }}/{{ foreach.total }}] {{ foreach.item._id }}"

For the full parameter reference, refer to Foreach step.

Loop while a KQL condition evaluates to true. Optional max-iterations caps the number of iterations. Without it, the loop continues as long as the condition holds.

- name: poll_until_ready
  type: while
  condition: "steps.check.output.status : pending"
  max-iterations:
    limit: 60
    on-limit: fail
  steps:
    - name: check
      type: elasticsearch.search
      with:
        index: "jobs"
        size: 1
    - name: backoff
      type: wait
      with:
        duration: "5s"

For the full parameter reference and gotchas, refer to While step.

Multi-way branching. The engine evaluates an expression once and routes to the matching case. Each case has a match value and a steps array. An optional default runs when no case matches.

- name: dispatch_by_category
  type: switch
  expression: "{{ steps.classify.output.category }}"
  cases:
    - match: "malware"
      steps:
        - name: handle_malware
          type: console
          with: { message: "malware path" }
    - match: "phishing"
      steps:
        - name: handle_phishing
          type: console
          with: { message: "phishing path" }
  default:
    - name: handle_other
      type: console
      with: { message: "other" }

For the full parameter reference, refer to Switch step.

Pause execution for a specified duration, then continue to the next step.

- name: backoff
  type: wait
  with:
    duration: "30s"

For the full parameter reference, refer to Wait step.

Exit the innermost enclosing loop (foreach or while) immediately. Takes no parameters.

- name: stop_on_match
  type: if
  condition: "foreach.item.severity : critical"
  steps:
    - name: exit
      type: loop.break

For the full reference, refer to Loop break step.

Skip to the next iteration of the innermost enclosing loop. Takes no parameters.

- name: skip_empty
  type: if
  condition: "foreach.item.empty : true"
  steps:
    - name: next
      type: loop.continue

For the full reference, refer to Loop continue step.

Pause the workflow until a human submits input through the resume API or the Kibana UI. The primary human-in-the-loop primitive.

- name: review
  type: waitForInput
  with:
    message: "Review the AI classification and confirm the action."
    schema:
      type: object
      properties:
        approved:
          type: boolean
          title: "Approve"
        notes:
          type: string
          title: "Notes"
      required: ["approved"]

For the complete HITL pattern, refer to Human-in-the-loop. For the step parameter reference, refer to waitForInput step.