Multi-Stage Temporal Workflows: Activities, Child Workflows, and Error Propagation

February 22, 2026

Multi-Stage-Workflow-Design, Child-Workflow-Patterns, Error-Compensation, Timeout-Strategy

Temporal, Workflows, Child-Workflows, Error-Handling, Compensation, Timeouts, Retry-Policies

Multi-Stage Temporal Workflows#

The HelloWorkflow from Temporal Go Workflow Basics calls one activity and returns. Real workflows are not that simple. A deployment pipeline provisions infrastructure, configures networking, deploys the application, runs health checks, and updates DNS. Each step depends on the previous one. Any step can fail. Some failures require undoing earlier steps.

This article covers the patterns you need for production multi-stage workflows: sequential activities with data passing, retry policies, timeouts, child workflows, error propagation, and compensation.

Temporal Signals: Human-in-the-Loop and Manual Approval Workflows

February 22, 2026

Workflow-Orchestration

Intermediate

Temporal-Signal-Handling, Approval-Workflow-Design, Human-in-the-Loop-Patterns

Temporal, Signals, Human-in-the-Loop, Approval, Workflow-Communication, Timeouts

Temporal, Go

Temporal Signals#

Workflows often need input after they have started. A deployment workflow pauses for human approval. An expense workflow waits for a manager’s signature. An incident response workflow escalates after a timeout. Temporal signals are the mechanism for delivering external input to a running workflow.

A signal is a message sent to a workflow from outside – from another workflow, from a CLI command, from an HTTP endpoint, or from any system that has the Temporal client. The workflow receives the signal, processes it, and continues execution. Signals are durable: if the worker crashes after a signal is sent but before the workflow processes it, the signal is replayed when the worker restarts.