Skip to content
Kindgi

Pin a flow's version

View as Markdown

This guide pins a flow at a version, tries a newer version without putting it in use, moves the pin, and reads the history.

A run that names no flow version takes the newest version its project reaches, so a version you publish is in use at once. A pin holds the flow at a version you choose, for a project, an org or the whole workspace. Runs there take the pinned version until you move the pin, and a version you publish meanwhile runs only when a run names it.

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”
  • A flow with a published version (runtime 0.3.0 or later). This guide uses acme.process-order from Write a flow, at 1.0.0, and publishes a 1.1.0.
  • A project's id: kindgi projects list lists them.
  • For your app: Node 22.12 or later, Python 3.11 or later, or Java 17 or later, with Kindgi 0.3's client, and KINDGI_API_URL and KINDGI_API_TOKEN set.

Which version a run takes

Section titled “Which version a run takes”

A run that names its version (flowVersion) runs that version. A run that names none takes the first of these:

  1. The project's own pin.
  2. The pin of the project's org.
  3. The workspace's pin.
  4. With none of those, the newest version the project reaches.

A pin counts only while its version is registered and active. A pin whose version doesn't reach the run's project is passed over, and the run takes the newest version the project reaches. A version reaches the project it was made in, and a project a deployment shipped it to.

A run keeps the version it started with, also when it resumes. A pin doesn't change what a version's steps run: each tool and agent step runs the version it was locked to when the flow version was published. The one exception is an agent step that names no version, in a run whose segment a release gate of that agent set on a segment covers: it runs the agent's pinned version for that segment, as a run started in that segment would. A release gate for the project, its org or the workspace doesn't change what the step runs.

Try a new version without putting it in use

Section titled “Try a new version without putting it in use”
  1. Pin the version in use, 1.0.0, for the project.
  2. Publish the new version, 1.1.0, as you published 1.0.0. Runs in the project still take 1.0.0. On a self-hosted runtime with one pack service, 1.0.0 runs only while your pack still has the tool versions it locked (A self-hosted runtime runs what your pack has).
  3. Try it by naming it: a run with flowVersion 1.1.0 runs it; every other run there still takes 1.0.0.
  4. Move the pin to 1.1.0 once it does what you want. Runs take it from the next run.

Ask your coding agent: "I want to pin my flow's version in a project, then try a new version there without putting it in use." For reference, the script looks like this, with the project's id as its argument, after step 2:

pin-a-flow.ts
import { createClient } from '@kindgi/sdk/client';


const kindgi = createClient(); // KINDGI_API_URL, KINDGI_API_TOKEN, or the running kindgi dev
const projectId = process.argv[2];
const flow = 'acme.process-order';


// Hold the project's runs on 1.0.0.
await kindgi.flows.pinned.pin(flow, {
  version: '1.0.0',
  scope: { kind: 'project', projectId },
  reason: '1.0.0 is the version we checked',
});


// Which version would a run there take, and why?
const inUse = await kindgi.flows.pinned.resolve(flow, { projectId });
console.log(inUse.version, inUse.via, inUse.pinnedScope?.kind);


// A run that names no version takes the pin; one that names 1.1.0 tries it.
const held = await kindgi.runs.start({ flow, projectId, input: { orderId: 'A-100' } });
const tried = await kindgi.runs.start({
  flow,
  flowVersion: '1.1.0',
  projectId,
  input: { orderId: 'A-100' },
});
console.log(held.flowVersion, held.flowVersionVia);
console.log(tried.flowVersion, tried.flowVersionVia);

It prints the version a run there would take, then the version each run ran and how it was chosen:

1.0.0 pinned project
1.0.0 pinned
1.1.0 explicit

To move the pin, pin 1.1.0 for the same scope. Pinning the version the scope already pins changes nothing.

From the CLI, kindgi flows pin acme.process-order 1.0.0 --project=<project-id> pins, and kindgi flows pinned acme.process-order --project=<project-id> says which version a run there would take, and why.

Pin for an org or the whole workspace

Section titled “Pin for an org or the whole workspace”

A pin's scope is { kind: 'project', projectId }, { kind: 'org', orgId } or { kind: 'tenant' }. On the CLI, the scope is --project=<project-id>, --org=<org-id> or --tenant. An org's pin covers its projects that have no pin of their own, and the workspace's pin covers every project that has neither.

In a workspace with environment orders (the projects a version goes through on its way to production, such as staging, then production), a flow in an order can't be pinned for an org or the workspace: such a pin would act in every environment of the order at once. The pin is refused with 409 pin-scope-spans-environments; pin it for each project instead. A pin for a later environment of an order is fine: runs there take it.

A promotion into the next environment with pin pins each agent version it carries in that project, and each flow version too: the answer lists the flows in pinnedFlows. Once a flow is pinned in a project, a promotion without pin keeps the pinned flow in use there: move the pin, or promote with pin.

Remove a pin

Section titled “Remove a pin”

kindgi.flows.pinned.unpin(flow, { scope }) (kindgi flows unpin on the CLI) removes the scope's own pin. The scope then follows the next scope up, and with no pin above it, the newest version its projects reach. A scope with no pin of its own answers 409 not-pinned.

A pinned version can't be unregistered: unregistering it answers 409 flow-version-pinned, with the scopes that pin it in details.scopes. Move or remove those pins first.

Read the pins and their history

Section titled “Read the pins and their history”

kindgi.flows.pinned.list(flow) (kindgi flows pinned-versions) lists every scope with a pin: its version, when it was set and by whom. kindgi.flows.pinned.history(flow) (kindgi flows pin-history list) lists every pin and unpin, newest first: the scope, the version before and after, who asked, and their reason.

Deleting an org removes its pins and records an unpin for each, by the deletion. Deleting a project removes its pins.

Who can pin

Section titled “Who can pin”

Pinning and unpinning need pin on the flow, which its admins have. For a flow more than one project serves (an environment order carries it to later environments), a project's pin needs admin on that project, and an org's or the workspace's pin admin on each of the flow's projects. Reading the pins needs read on the flow.

Next

Section titled “Next”