title: Human Guide description: Human-maintained guidance for @lastshotlabs/slingshot-orchestration-temporal

What This Package Is For

@lastshotlabs/slingshot-orchestration-temporal is the Temporal provider package for Slingshot orchestration. It keeps the task/workflow authoring surface portable while delegating durable execution, timers, retries, schedules, visibility, and worker coordination to Temporal.

When To Use It

• Use it when orchestration runs must survive process restarts and execute across multiple machines.
• Use it when a workflow needs Temporal-native scheduling, signals, or queryable history.
• Prefer memory or SQLite for local-only development where you do not need external infrastructure.
• Prefer BullMQ when Redis is already your queue backbone and you do not need Temporal semantics.

Minimum Setup

• A Temporal service or Temporal Cloud namespace
• @temporalio/client on the server side
• @temporalio/worker on the worker side
• @lastshotlabs/slingshot-orchestration for the portable task/workflow definitions

import { Client, Connection } from '@temporalio/client';
import { z } from 'zod';
import {
  defineTask,
  defineWorkflow,
  step,
  stepResult,
} from '@lastshotlabs/slingshot-orchestration';
import {
  createTemporalOrchestrationAdapter,
  createTemporalOrchestrationWorker,
} from '@lastshotlabs/slingshot-orchestration-temporal';

const sendWelcomeEmail = defineTask({
  name: 'send-welcome-email',
  input: z.object({ email: z.string().email() }),
  output: z.object({ ok: z.boolean(), email: z.string().email() }),
  async handler(input) {
    return { ok: true, email: input.email };
  },
});

const onboardUser = defineWorkflow({
  name: 'onboard-user',
  input: z.object({ email: z.string().email() }),
  output: z.object({ ok: z.boolean(), email: z.string().email() }),
  outputMapper(results) {
    return stepResult(results, 'send-email', sendWelcomeEmail)!;
  },
  steps: [step('send-email', sendWelcomeEmail)],
});

const connection = await Connection.connect({ address: 'localhost:7233' });
const client = new Client({ connection, namespace: 'default' });

const adapter = createTemporalOrchestrationAdapter({
  client,
  connection,
  namespace: 'default',
  workflowTaskQueue: 'slingshot-workflows',
  defaultActivityTaskQueue: 'email-activities',
  ownsConnection: false,
});

const worker = await createTemporalOrchestrationWorker({
  connection,
  namespace: 'default',
  workflowTaskQueue: 'slingshot-workflows',
  defaultActivityTaskQueue: 'email-activities',
  buildId: 'dev-build-1',
  definitionsModulePath: new URL('./definitions.ts', import.meta.url).pathname,
});

void worker.run();

What You Get

• createTemporalOrchestrationAdapter() for server-side orchestration control
• createTemporalOrchestrationWorker() for Node worker bootstrap
• generated workflow-module support for handlers-directory and manifest worker bootstraps
• deterministic run ID derivation and Temporal search-attribute helpers
• adapter and worker validation schemas for plugin config

Enterprise fit

• Choose Temporal when workflow state is a system of record, not just a job queue.
• Choose Temporal when long-running quoting, underwriting, ordering, approval, or fulfillment flows need durable timers, signals, and queryable execution history.
• Keep domain services outside the adapter. Temporal still runs the same portable task and workflow definitions from @lastshotlabs/slingshot-orchestration; your worker loads those definitions and task handlers call your real service layer.

Common Customization

• Choose separate workflowTaskQueue and defaultActivityTaskQueue values when workflow execution and activity execution should scale independently.
• Use namespace per environment or deployment boundary.
• Use taskNames and workflowNames on the worker when a process should poll only part of the orchestration surface.
• Set generatedWorkflowsDir when you want generated workflow bundles in a predictable location.
• Attach an eventSink if workflow/task lifecycle events should be mirrored back into Slingshot.

Gotchas

• Temporal workers must run on real Node.js. Bun is not supported for worker startup.
• The adapter does not start workers for you. Server and worker lifecycle are intentionally separate.
• If the adapter owns the Temporal connection, make sure shutdown responsibility is clear.
• Manifest mode still needs task/workflow code in handler modules or definitions modules.
• Search attributes and visibility depend on the Temporal cluster being configured correctly.

Key Files

• packages/slingshot-orchestration-temporal/src/index.ts
• packages/slingshot-orchestration-temporal/src/adapter.ts
• packages/slingshot-orchestration-temporal/src/worker.ts
• packages/slingshot-orchestration-temporal/src/workflowModuleGenerator.ts