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#1061 allowFailure not honored on workflow-task steps - parent run aborts, downstream steps stay pending

Opened by catjen · 7/10/2026· Shipped 7/10/2026

Description

allowFailure: true on a step whose task is type: workflow is not honored. When the child workflow run fails, the parent run aborts immediately: the failed step is not marked allowedFailure, and downstream steps - including ones that depend on it with condition: completed - stay pending forever.

The docs ("Allow Failure" section) say: the step is recorded as failed but the failure is not propagated, and downstream dependsOn: completed steps will run. That holds is what I expected; it did not happen for workflow-task steps.

Steps to reproduce

  1. A child workflow whose single model-method step throws (any model whose method throws on a bad input works).
  2. A parent workflow with one job and two sequential steps invoking child workflows:
jobs:
  - name: main
    steps:
      - name: first
        task:
          type: workflow
          workflowIdOrName: child-that-fails
          inputs: { some: input }
        dependsOn: []
        allowFailure: true
      - name: second
        task:
          type: workflow
          workflowIdOrName: child-that-succeeds
          inputs: { some: input }
        dependsOn:
          - step: first
            condition:
              type: completed
        allowFailure: true
  1. swamp workflow run parent ...

Expected

first = failed with allowedFailure: true; second runs (its completed condition is satisfied).

Actual

Run status failed; first = failed with no allowedFailure flag in the run output; second = pending. Same behavior whether the child fails at launch (input expression error) or after launching (model method throws).

Workaround

Restructure to ONE JOB PER CHILD WORKFLOW and chain the jobs with dependsOn: [{ job: previous, condition: { type: completed } }]. Job-level chaining honors completed after a failed job, so all providers still run (verified live).

Environment

swamp 20260710.093422.0-sha.05ac9e7f, Windows 11 x64.

02Bog Flow
OPENTRIAGEDIN PROGRESSSHIPPED+ 1 MOREASSIGNED+ 2 MOREREVIEW+ 4 MOREPR_MERGED+ 1 MORECONTRIBUTOR_NOTIFIED

Shipped

7/10/2026, 5:47:48 PM

Click a lifecycle step above to view its details.

03Sludge Pulse
stack72 assigned stack727/10/2026, 3:40:51 PM
Editable. Press Enter to edit.

catjen commented 7/10/2026, 9:29:51 AM

Related: #1062 (nested workflow invocation does not apply the child's input defaults) - both surfaced from the same parent-orchestrating-child-workflows setup, and both hit anyone composing workflows via task type: workflow.

stack72 commented 7/10/2026, 5:47:56 PM

Thanks @catjen for reporting this! The fix has been merged and a release is on its way. We appreciate your contribution to swamp.

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