Orchestration

Use this pattern when one workflow (the orchestrator) needs to fan out work to one or more worker workflows.

The orchestrator/worker pattern

• Orchestrator: decides what to do next, splits work into units, dispatches workers.
• Worker(s): do the concrete work (triage, code changes, analysis) with scoped permissions/tools.
• Optional monitoring: both orchestrator and workers can update a GitHub Project board for visibility.

Dispatch workers with dispatch-workflow

Allow dispatching specific workflows:

safe-outputs:
 dispatch-workflow:
 workflows: [repo-triage-worker, dependency-audit-worker]
 max: 10

During compilation, gh-aw validates the target workflows exist and support workflow_dispatch, then generates MCP tools the agent can call.

Reference: /reference/safe-outputs/#workflow-dispatch-dispatch-workflow

Passing correlation IDs

If your workers need shared context, pass an explicit input such as tracker_id (string) and include it in worker outputs (e.g., writing it into a Project custom field).

Best practices

• Keep worker workflows single-purpose and easy to retry.
• Make orchestration idempotent (safe to re-run).
• Set conservative max limits on dispatch to prevent accidental fan-out.
• Prefer Projects + status updates for monitoring over ad-hoc labels.

See also: /patterns/monitoring/