Slickflow

Current Version: NET8

1. 🤖 AI-Powered Workflow Automation

SlickFlow: Intelligent Workflow Automation with Large Language Models

Slickflow integrates cutting-edge Large Language Model (LLM) nodes directly into BPMN workflows, enabling advanced conversational reasoning, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), image understanding and other AI capabilities as first-class workflow steps.
This transforms traditional workflow systems into dynamic, AI-driven orchestration platforms.

1.1 Native LLM Node Integration

1.2 Multi-Provider LLM Support

Flexible integration with leading AI services:

1.3 Image Understanding & RAG

1.4 AI Feature Reference

1.5 AI Demo (Key GIF)

AI Image Classification Process Demo
AI Image Classification Demo

2. 🚀 Code-Defined Auto-Execution Engine

Besides designer-based processes, Slickflow provides a code-first auto-execution model based on Slickflow.Graph and WorkflowExecutor.
You can define workflows in C#, run them fully in memory, and let the engine automatically execute all steps without human interaction.

2.1 Code-First Workflow Definition

Use Slickflow.Graph.Model.Workflow to build BPMN-style flows programmatically:

using Slickflow.Graph.Model;

var wf = new Workflow("Order Process", "OrderProcess_Code");

wf.Start("Start")
  .ServiceTask("Validate Order", "Validate001", "ValidateOrder")   // LocalMethod
  .ServiceTask("Calculate Amount", "Calc001", "CalcAmount")       // LocalMethod
  .RagService("RAG Reply", "RAG001")                              // RAG AI node
  .LlmService("LLM Enrich", "LLM001")                             // General LLM node
  .ServiceTask<SaveOrderService>("Save Order", "Save001")         // Local service class
  .End("End");

Key points:

2.2 Auto-Execution with WorkflowExecutor

Auto-execution loop (conceptual):

  1. Start the process and create an instance.
  2. While there are executable activities:
    • Collect next activities.
    • Execute each activity (local method, service class, AI/RAG/LLM, external API, etc.).
    • Move the process forward to the next activity.
  3. Return execution result (status, message, variables, AI response, etc.).

Typical code pattern:

using Slickflow.Engine.Executor;
using Slickflow.Engine.Core.Result;

var result = await new WorkflowExecutor()
    .UseApp("OrderApp-001", "OrderApp")
    .UseProcess(wf)                      // Use code-defined workflow
    .AddVariable("OrderId", "ORD-2025-001")
    .AddVariable("Quantity", "3")
    .AddVariable("UnitPrice", "99.50")
    .Run();

This mode is ideal for:

2.3 Engine Capabilities (.NET8 Core)

3. ✅ Human Approval Workflows (BPM)

On top of AI and auto-execution, Slickflow remains a full-featured human-centric workflow engine for traditional BPM scenarios: approvals, reviews, multi-level routing, etc.

3.1 Workflow Patterns (Key GIFs/Images)

Supported patterns (BPMN-style):

Workflow Pattern

Multiple Instance Pattern

3.2 Core Human-Task Operations (Brief)

Slickflow manages human tasks with features such as:

Code style (simplified):

// Start a process instance
IWorkflowService wfService = new WorkflowService();
var startResult = wfService.CreateRunner("10", "Jack")
    .UseApp("DS-100", "Book-Order", "DS-100-LX")
    .UseProcess("PriceProcessCode")
    .Start();

// Run to next step
var runResult = wfService.CreateRunner("10", "Jack")
    .UseApp("DS-100", "Book-Order", "DS-100-LX")
    .UseProcess("PriceProcessCode")
    .NextStepInt("20", "Alice")
    .Run();

3.3 Code-Style Modeling for Human Approval

You can also define simple approval processes purely in code (sequence example) using Workflow:

using Slickflow.Graph.Model;

// create a simple sequence process diagram by hand code rather than an HTML designer
var wf = new Workflow("simple-process-name", "simple-process-code");

wf.Start("Start")
  .Task("Task1")
  .Task("Task2")
  .End("End");

simple sequence diagram

This gives developers both designer-based and code-based options for modeling human approval workflows.

4. 📦 Demos, Target Users and License

4.1 Demo Projects

4.2 Target Users

4.3 License & Support

If you have any further inquiry, please feel free to contact:

5. 📚 Resources & Docker Deployment

5.1 Documentation

5.2 Wiki

5.3 CodeProject Articles

5.4 Official Website

5.5 Online Demo

5.6 Docker Hub

Pre-built Docker images are available on Docker Hub. Get started in minutes without building from source.

The easiest way to get started – pull one image and run all three services:

docker pull besley2096/slickflow-all:latest
docker run -d \
  -p 5000:5000 \
  -p 5001:5001 \
  -p 8090:8090 \
  -e WfDBConnectionType=PGSQL \
  -e WfDBConnectionString="Server=host.docker.internal;Port=5432;Database=wfdbbpmn2;User Id=postgres;Password=your-password;TimeZone=UTC;" \
  --name slickflow-all \
  besley2096/slickflow-all:latest

Access:

Docker Hub: https://hub.docker.com/r/besley2096/slickflow-all

Separate Images

For better isolation and scaling, use separate images:

Backend API

docker pull besley2096/slickflow-api:latest
docker run -d -p 5000:5000 \
  -e WfDBConnectionType=PGSQL \
  -e WfDBConnectionString="Server=host.docker.internal;Port=5432;Database=wfdbbpmn2;User Id=postgres;Password=your-password;TimeZone=UTC;" \
  --name slickflow-api \
  besley2096/slickflow-api:latest

Frontend Designer

docker pull besley2096/slickflow-designer:latest
docker run -d -p 8090:8090 \
  --name slickflow-designer \
  besley2096/slickflow-designer:latest

WebTest

docker pull besley2096/slickflow-webtest:latest
docker run -d -p 5001:5001 \
  -e WfDBConnectionType=PGSQL \
  -e WfDBConnectionString="Server=host.docker.internal;Port=5432;Database=wfdbbpmn2;User Id=postgres;Password=your-password;TimeZone=UTC;" \
  --name slickflow-webtest \
  besley2096/slickflow-webtest:latest

Docker Compose

Use docker-compose.hub.yml from this repository:

docker-compose -f docker-compose.hub.yml pull
docker-compose -f docker-compose.hub.yml up -d

Image Tags

Available tags for each image:

Database Configuration

API and WebTest containers require database configuration. Supported databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle.

Database on Host Machine

-e WfDBConnectionString="Server=host.docker.internal;Port=5432;Database=wfdbbpmn2;User Id=postgres;Password=your-password;TimeZone=UTC;"

Database in Docker Container

-e WfDBConnectionString="Server=postgres;Port=5432;Database=wfdbbpmn2;User Id=postgres;Password=your-password;TimeZone=UTC;"

Remote Database

-e WfDBConnectionString="Server=192.168.1.100;Port=5432;Database=wfdbbpmn2;User Id=postgres;Password=your-password;TimeZone=UTC;"

6. 📞 Contact & 💰 Donation

6.1 Contact

6.2 Donation

Your donation will be used for the continuous research and development of the product and community building.
您的捐赠将用于产品的持续研发和社区建设。

Donate with PayPal

This site is open source. Improve this page.