Create Operation

Creating a dry-operation

Encapsulate a business workflow in an operation. Each step is explicit — success flows forward, failure short-circuits.

Quick Reference

• Framework: dry-operation for sequential steps, dry-transaction for composed operations with rollback (each step is registered and can be overridden; failed steps trigger rollback of completed steps).
• Return: Always Success(value) or Failure(error).
• DI: Use include Deps[...] for dependencies.
• Test: Pass test doubles through the constructor. Verify step ordering.

HARD-GATE

Write test → Run test → Verify it FAILS → Implement → Verify it PASSES
DO NOT put business logic in actions. Actions delegate to operations.
DO NOT return raw values — always wrap in Success or Failure.

Core Process

1. Plan the workflow — list every step in order. Each step is a method or a callable.
2. Create the operation class in slices/<slice>/operations/<namespace>/:

   module Users
     class CreateUser < Dry::Operation
       include Deps["repositories.user_repo"]
   
       def call(input)
         attrs = step validate(input)
         user  = step persist(attrs)
         step notify(user)
         user
       end
   
       private
   
       def validate(input) = # returns Success(attrs) or Failure(errors)
       def persist(attrs) = # returns Success(user) or Failure(error)
       def notify(user)   = # returns Success(true) or Failure(error)
     end
   end
   

3. Each step — if it returns Failure, the operation stops and returns that failure.
4. Compose operations by injecting them as dependencies. Never call one operation from inside another's private methods.
5. Use operations from actions — the action calls the operation and maps the result to an HTTP response.

Spec Example

RSpec.describe Users::CreateUser do
  subject(:operation) { described_class.new(user_repo: user_repo) }

  let(:user_repo) { instance_double("UserRepo", create: Success(user)) }
  let(:user)      { double("User", id: 1, email: "test@example.com") }

  describe "#call" do
    context "when input is valid" do
      it "returns Success with the created user" do
        result = operation.call(email: "test@example.com", password: "secret")
        expect(result).to be_success
        expect(result.value!).to eq(user)
      end
    end

    context "when validation fails" do
      it "returns Failure with validation errors" do
        result = operation.call(email: "", password: "")
        expect(result).to be_failure
        expect(result.failure).to include(:email)
      end
    end

    context "when persistence fails" do
      before { allow(user_repo).to receive(:create).and_return(Failure(:db_error)) }

      it "returns Failure and does not send a notification" do
        result = operation.call(email: "test@example.com", password: "secret")
        expect(result).to be_failure
        expect(result.failure).to eq(:db_error)
      end
    end
  end
end

Output Style

1. Operation class — complete implementation with include Deps[...].
2. Step methods — each private method with explicit return types.
3. Spec — RSpec with test doubles, verifying Success and Failure paths (see Spec Example above).
4. Action integration — how the action calls this operation.
5. English only unless user requests otherwise.

For extended operation patterns, see OPERATION_PATTERNS.md.

Integration