Temporal

Temporal Operations

Establish Current CLI And Service State

Temporal CLI commands evolve. Before relying on remembered flags, inspect the installed version and the relevant command group:

temporal --version
temporal worker deployment --help

export TEMPORAL_ADDRESS=temporal-grpc.ide-newton.ts.net:7233
export TEMPORAL_NAMESPACE=default

temporal --address "$TEMPORAL_ADDRESS" --namespace "$TEMPORAL_NAMESPACE" operator cluster health

Always pass the address and namespace explicitly. This skill was revalidated against Temporal CLI 1.8.2 on 2026-08-23. If the installed CLI differs, use its --help and the official command reference before adapting a command.

Inspect Workflows

temporal --address "$TEMPORAL_ADDRESS" --namespace "$TEMPORAL_NAMESPACE" workflow list --limit 20

temporal --address "$TEMPORAL_ADDRESS" --namespace "$TEMPORAL_NAMESPACE" workflow describe \
  --workflow-id "$WORKFLOW_ID" --run-id "$RUN_ID"

temporal --address "$TEMPORAL_ADDRESS" --namespace "$TEMPORAL_NAMESPACE" workflow show \
  --workflow-id "$WORKFLOW_ID" --run-id "$RUN_ID" --output json > /tmp/workflow-history.json

For Atlas, the only ingestion workflow type is reconcileAtlasRepository:

temporal --address "$TEMPORAL_ADDRESS" --namespace "$TEMPORAL_NAMESPACE" workflow list \
  --query 'WorkflowType="reconcileAtlasRepository" and ExecutionStatus="Running"'

Start Atlas Reconciliation

bun run atlas:rebuild --repository proompteng/lab --ref main

This starts one full current-main reconciliation and waits for its result. Per-file and partial-repository workflow entrypoints no longer exist. Do not start a second rebuild while a live one can still write.

Inspect Worker Deployment Routing

Use the CLI first for read-only routing, version, drainage, and task-queue evidence:

TEMPORAL_TASK_QUEUE=bumba
TEMPORAL_WORKER_DEPLOYMENT=bumba-deployment

temporal --address "$TEMPORAL_ADDRESS" --namespace "$TEMPORAL_NAMESPACE" worker deployment describe \
  --name "$TEMPORAL_WORKER_DEPLOYMENT" --output json | jq '{name, routingConfig, versionSummaries}'

CURRENT_BUILD_ID="$(
  temporal --address "$TEMPORAL_ADDRESS" --namespace "$TEMPORAL_NAMESPACE" worker deployment describe \
    --name "$TEMPORAL_WORKER_DEPLOYMENT" --output json |
    jq -er '.routingConfig.currentVersionBuildID | select(length > 0)'
)"

temporal --address "$TEMPORAL_ADDRESS" --namespace "$TEMPORAL_NAMESPACE" worker deployment describe-version \
  --deployment-name "$TEMPORAL_WORKER_DEPLOYMENT" \
  --build-id "$CURRENT_BUILD_ID" \
  --report-task-queue-stats \
  --output json

temporal --address "$TEMPORAL_ADDRESS" --namespace "$TEMPORAL_NAMESPACE" task-queue describe \
  --task-queue "$TEMPORAL_TASK_QUEUE" \
  --select-build-id "$CURRENT_BUILD_ID"

Then use the repository command as the Bumba/Jangar application-specific propagation check:

bun run packages/scripts/src/jangar/sync-temporal-routing.ts \
  --address "$TEMPORAL_ADDRESS" \
  --namespace "$TEMPORAL_NAMESPACE" \
  --task-queue "$TEMPORAL_TASK_QUEUE" \
  --deployment-name "$TEMPORAL_WORKER_DEPLOYMENT" \
  --dry-run

Bumba and Jangar start their poller, select their exact configured build, and wait for routingConfigUpdateState=COMPLETED before readiness. The CLI proves Temporal's routing, version, drainage, and task-queue state; the dry-run proves the repository-specific propagation contract for the selected build. Require both plus a ready live worker and recent successful workflow-task execution when validating a rollout. An empty CLI poller table is not, by itself, proof that no Worker is active.

Mutation Boundary

Worker Deployment routing changes, version deletion, workflow cancellation, termination, reset, and versioning-override changes mutate live Temporal state. Execute them only when the user has authorized that exact outcome and the target has been read back immediately beforehand.

Before deleting a Worker Deployment Version, prove all of the following:

• it is neither the Current nor Ramping Version;
• its drainage state is drained, not draining or unspecified;
• it has no active pollers on any associated task queue;
• no pinned workflow still requires it;
• the exact deployment name and Build ID were independently verified.

Unused versions are normally garbage-collected. Do not use --skip-drainage, --allow-no-pollers, or --ignore-missing-task-queues as incident shortcuts. Do not infer zero active pollers from one empty task-queue describe result; pair it with current Kubernetes worker inventory, recent Worker logs, and version drainage.

Cancel Or Terminate

Cancel cooperative work:

temporal --address "$TEMPORAL_ADDRESS" --namespace "$TEMPORAL_NAMESPACE" workflow cancel \
  --workflow-id "$WORKFLOW_ID"

Terminate only when the exact run must stop and the reason is documented:

temporal --address "$TEMPORAL_ADDRESS" --namespace "$TEMPORAL_NAMESPACE" workflow terminate \
  --workflow-id "$WORKFLOW_ID" --run-id "$RUN_ID" --reason '<incident reason>'

Failure Interpretation

• Cluster health not SERVING: diagnose Temporal service and persistence before worker routing.
• No workflow-task start: inspect the Current/Ramping Version, active pollers, and task-queue backlog.
• ScheduleToStart timeout: verify task-queue and Worker Deployment routing before retrying the workflow.
• Heartbeat timeout after worker exit: crash detection; the activity should retry with its last details.
• Running activity with heartbeat timeout 0 after a worker death: pre-hardening dead attempt; prove it is dead, terminate that exact run, deploy the current worker, and start one reconciliation.
• Nondeterminism: inspect history and docs/temporal-nondeterminism.md; reset only to a proven safe event.
• A drained version is a decommissioning signal, not proof that the current version has healthy pollers or application readiness.

Resources

• Command reference and authorized mutation templates: references/temporal-cli.md
• Runner: scripts/temporal-run.sh
• Triage template: assets/temporal-triage.md
• Bumba incidents: docs/runbooks/bumba-temporal-failure-modes.md
• Official Worker Versioning guide: https://docs.temporal.io/production-deployment/worker-deployments/worker-versioning
• Official Temporal CLI worker command reference: https://docs.temporal.io/cli/worker
• Official CLI releases: https://github.com/temporalio/cli/releases