Set Assignee

setAssignee Mutation

Audience: Programmer

Updates or sets the assignee for a running workflow instance using Temporal's synchronous workflow update mechanism.

Arguments

Name	Type	Description
input	SetAssigneeInput!	Input data for setting the workflow assignee

Return Type

SetAssigneeResponse - Contains the updated assignee information for the workflow.

Input Fields

SetAssigneeInput:

Field	Type	Description
id	String!	The unique identifier of the workflow instance
runID	String!	The run ID of the workflow instance
assigneeID	ID	Optional user ID to assign. If null, defaults to the current user

Return Fields

SetAssigneeResponse:

Field	Type	Description
assignee	String!	The ID of the assigned user after the update

Usage Example

Setting a specific assignee

mutation {
  setAssignee(
    input: {
      id: "order-fulfillment-wf-12345",
      runID: "abc123de-f456-7890-ghij-klmnopqrstuv",
      assigneeID: "user_987654"
    }
  ) {
    assignee
  }
}

Setting the current user as assignee

mutation {
  setAssignee(
    input: {
      id: "inventory-check-wf-67890",
      runID: "xyz987fe-d321-6543-mnop-qrstuvwxyzab"
      # assigneeID is omitted, defaults to current user
    }
  ) {
    assignee
  }
}

JavaScript Example

const SET_ASSIGNEE = gql`
  mutation SetAssignee($input: SetAssigneeInput!) {
    setAssignee(input: $input) {
      assignee
    }
  }
`;

// Example 1: Assign a specific user
const { data: specificUser } = await client.mutate({
  mutation: SET_ASSIGNEE,
  variables: {
    input: {
      id: "order-fulfillment-wf-12345",
      runID: "abc123de-f456-7890-ghij-klmnopqrstuv",
      assigneeID: "user_987654"
    }
  }
});

console.log(`Workflow assigned to: ${specificUser.setAssignee.assignee}`);

// Example 2: Assign to current user (omit assigneeID)
const { data: currentUser } = await client.mutate({
  mutation: SET_ASSIGNEE,
  variables: {
    input: {
      id: "inventory-check-wf-67890",
      runID: "xyz987fe-d321-6543-mnop-qrstuvwxyzab"
    }
  }
});

console.log(`Workflow assigned to current user: ${currentUser.setAssignee.assignee}`);

Error Handling

The mutation will return an error in the following cases:

• Invalid ID: When the id field is empty or missing

• Invalid RunID: When the runID field is empty or missing

• Invalid workflowClient: When the workflow client cannot be obtained for the tenant

• Update failure: When the Temporal workflow update operation fails

Error Response Example

try {
  const { data } = await client.mutate({
    mutation: SET_ASSIGNEE,
    variables: {
      input: {
        id: "", // Empty workflow ID will cause error
        runID: "xyz987fe-d321-6543-mnop-qrstuvwxyzab"
      }
    }
  });
} catch (error) {
  console.error("Failed to set assignee:", error.message);
  // Output: "invalid WorkflowID"
}

Important Notes

• This mutation uses Temporal's synchronous workflow update mechanism (UpdateWorkflow)

• The update is applied immediately to the running workflow instance

• When assigneeID is not provided (null), the mutation automatically assigns the workflow to the current authenticated user

• Both id and runID are required to uniquely identify the workflow instance

• The workflow must be running and accessible in the Temporal cluster for the update to succeed

• This operation updates the workflow's internal state and may trigger workflow logic based on assignee changes

• The returned assignee field contains the user ID string after the update is applied

• To clear an assignee, you would need to pass an empty string as assigneeID (though the current implementation defaults to current user when null)