Creating / Updating Task Definitions

A task definition specifies a task’s general implementation details:

• Timeout policy
• Retry logic
• Rate limit and execution limit
• Input/output keys
• Input template

This definition applies to all instances of the task across workflows.

You can create task definitions using the Conductor UI or APIs for the following scenarios:

• Worker tasks—All Worker tasks (SIMPLE) must be registered to the Conductor server as a task definition before it can execute in a workflow.
• System tasks—System tasks don't require a task definition, but you can create one with the same name to customize retry, timeout, and rate limit behavior.

Using Conductor UI

With the UI, you can create or update task definitions visually.

Creating task definitions

To create a task definition:

1. In Executions > Tasks, select + New Task Definition.
2. Configure the task definition JSON. Refer to Task Definitions for the full parameters.
3. Select Save > Save.

Updating task definitions

To update a task definition:

1. In Executions > Tasks, select the task definition to be updated.
2. Modify the task definition JSON. Refer to Task Definitions for the full parameters.
3. Select Save > Save.

Using the CLI

You can create task definitions using the Conductor CLI. Save your task definitions to a JSON file and run:

conductor task create tasks.json

The file should contain an array of task definitions. Refer to Task Definitions for a reference guide on the full parameters.

Using APIs

Refer to Task Definitions for a reference guide on the full parameters.

Creating task definitions

You can also create task definitions using the Create Task Definition API (POST api/metadata/taskdefs). The API accepts an array of task definitions, allowing you to create them in bulk.

Example using cURL

curl '{{ server_host }}/api/metadata/taskdefs' \
  -H 'accept: */*' \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  --data-raw '[{"createdBy":"user","name":"sample_task_name_1","description":"This is a sample task for demo","responseTimeoutSeconds":10,"timeoutSeconds":30,"inputKeys":[],"outputKeys":[],"timeoutPolicy":"TIME_OUT_WF","retryCount":3,"retryLogic":"FIXED","retryDelaySeconds":5,"inputTemplate":{},"rateLimitPerFrequency":0,"rateLimitFrequencyInSeconds":1}]'

Updating task definitions

You can update task definitions using the Update Task Definition API (PUT api/metadata/taskdefs). This API can only be used to update a single task definition at a time.

Example using cURL

curl '{{ server_host }}/api/metadata/taskdefs' \
  -X 'PUT' \
  -H 'accept: */*' \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  --data-raw '{"createdBy":"user","name":"sample_task_name_1","description":"This is a sample task for demo","responseTimeoutSeconds":10,"timeoutSeconds":30,"inputKeys":[],"outputKeys":[],"timeoutPolicy":"TIME_OUT_WF","retryCount":3,"retryLogic":"FIXED","retryDelaySeconds":5,"inputTemplate":{},"rateLimitPerFrequency":0,"rateLimitFrequencyInSeconds":1}'

Using SDKs

Conductor offers client SDKs for popular languages which have library methods for making the API call. Refer to the SDK documentation to configure a client in your selected language to create or update task definitions.

Refer to Task Definitions for a reference guide on the full parameters.

Creating task definitions - Example using JavaScript

In this example, the JavaScript Fetch API is used to create the task definition sample_task_name_1.

fetch("{{ server_host }}/api/metadata/taskdefs", {
    "headers": {
        "accept": "*/*",
        "content-type": "application/json",
    },
    "body": "[{\"createdBy\":\"user\",\"name\":\"sample_task_name_1\",\"description\":\"This is a sample task for demo\",\"responseTimeoutSeconds\":10,\"timeoutSeconds\":30,\"inputKeys\":[],\"outputKeys\":[],\"timeoutPolicy\":\"TIME_OUT_WF\",\"retryCount\":3,\"retryLogic\":\"FIXED\",\"retryDelaySeconds\":5,\"inputTemplate\":{},\"rateLimitPerFrequency\":0,\"rateLimitFrequencyInSeconds\":1}]",
    "method": "POST"
});

Updating task definitions - Example using JavaScript

In this example, the JavaScript Fetch API is used to update the task definition sample_task_name_1.

fetch("{{ server_host }}/api/metadata/taskdefs", {
    "headers": {
        "accept": "*/*",
        "content-type": "application/json",
    },
    "body": "{\"createdBy\":\"user\",\"name\":\"sample_task_name_1\",\"description\":\"This is a sample task for demo\",\"responseTimeoutSeconds\":10,\"timeoutSeconds\":30,\"inputKeys\":[],\"outputKeys\":[],\"timeoutPolicy\":\"TIME_OUT_WF\",\"retryCount\":3,\"retryLogic\":\"FIXED\",\"retryDelaySeconds\":5,\"inputTemplate\":{},\"rateLimitPerFrequency\":0,\"rateLimitFrequencyInSeconds\":1}",
    "method": "PUT"
});

Reusing tasks

Once a task is defined in Conductor, it can be reused numerous times:

• In the same workflow — use the same task with different task reference names.
• Across workflows — any workflow can reference any registered task definition.

When reusing tasks in a multi-tenant system, all work assigned to a task goes into the same queue by default. If a noisy neighbor causes polling delays, you can scale up the number of workers or use task-to-domain to route task load into separate queues.