Roadmap

Elsa Roadmap

Last refreshed: 2026-09-16 (post-3.8.2 operational patches and BPMN authoring status)

This roadmap is a product direction document, not a fixed release calendar. Elsa is developed through a mix of core maintainer work, customer-funded work, and community contributions, so sequencing can change when real-world demand changes. The intent is stable: make Elsa the most productive, dependable, and extensible workflow platform for the .NET ecosystem.

This version is grounded in the current elsa-core, elsa-studio, and elsa-extensions repositories, including source code, open issues, open pull requests, releases, and discussions where available.

North Star

Elsa should feel like the natural workflow engine for .NET teams:

• productive enough for application developers to model real business processes quickly
• dependable enough for production operations, rolling deploys, multi-tenant systems, and distributed workloads
• open enough to embed, customize, extend, and automate without fighting the framework
• powerful enough to connect systems, run long-lived processes, expose human tasks, and observe what is happening

Capability Checklist

Legend: [x] shipped foundation, [~] partially shipped or needs productization, [ ] roadmap candidate.

Engine

• Non-blocking activity execution
• Fork, join, and explicit flowchart merge modes
• State machine core activity
• [~] State machine Studio semantic authoring is released in 3.8.0; maintained docs/examples and broader authenticated browser validation remain
• [~] Extensible activity output conversion: Core contracts, descriptor discovery, binding validation, and Studio selection/settings UX are released in 3.8.0; a maintained extension converter catalog remains productization work
• [~] Graceful shutdown and interrupted recovery
• Atomic workflow admission for configured activation strategies across every start path; correlated and singleton policies need an atomic reservation rather than a check-then-act count (#7948, #8042)
• Full workflow execution recovery UX
• Compensation / saga support
• Variable history tracking
• Native workflow-aware background execution
• Actor-runtime abstraction

Runtime And Operations

• Runtime admin pause, resume, status, and force-drain endpoints
• Distributed runtime package
• Structured logs
• Console logs
• Studio structured-log, console-log, and OpenTelemetry diagnostics foundations
• Durable structured log persistence
• [~] Operational dashboard API and Studio dashboard productization
• [~] Scheduler and message-bus foundations through Quartz, Hangfire, MassTransit, Kafka, and Azure Service Bus
• [~] OpenTelemetry diagnostics backend and default workflow metrics
• Scheduler/message reliability hardening for clustered production workloads
• Production security guide
• Enterprise deployment platform and checklist

Authoring And Studio

• Visual designer foundation
• Modular Studio shell, feature system, menus, widgets, themes, localization, and remote feature gating
• Studio custom elements for embedding definition editors, instance viewers, and workflow lists
• Activity unit testing helpers
• ElsaScript experimental DSL
• [~] React Flow, sequence, and state-machine designer foundations
• [~] Workflow organization with labels/categories/folders
• [~] Workflow progress/timeline surface
• Studio OIDC and identity modules
• [~] External-authentication broker, Studio SSO connection management, and configurable login themes (released in 3.8.0; operational recipes and broader provider verification remain)
• [~] Studio user and role administration (released in 3.8.0; operational verification and authoring-side governance remain)
• [~] Studio diagnostics pages for structured logs, console logs, and OpenTelemetry
• [~] Studio alterations module
• [~] User Tasks and human-workflow workbench: identity-neutral workflow tasks and the paired Studio workbench are on main; release packaging, realtime delivery, and operational validation remain
• Designer reliability/regression hardening
• Input validation and activity version visibility
• Async dispatch/run UX
• User preferences, table state, and layout persistence
• First-class workflow debugging
• Designer extensibility, embedding, and white-label recipes
• Tenant/role-based activity visibility
• [~] AI-assisted workflow generation and copilot foundations

Integrations

• HTTP, scheduling, scripting, and persistence provider foundations
• Connections and Secrets foundations
• Extension packages for SQL, CSV, Email, Slack, Telnyx, GitHub DevOps, Azure Storage, Azure Service Bus, Kafka, MassTransit/RabbitMQ, Quartz, Hangfire, Dapper, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, OpenTelemetry, Logging, Agents, OpenAPI, Webhooks, OrchardCore, IO, compression, and ProtoActor-backed runtime/caching
• [~] MQTT publish and message-trigger foundation (main-only; release and production hardening pending)
• [~] Modular package loading and manifest metadata
• [~] OpenAPI activity/provider foundations
• Connector SDK
• Marketplace/plugin installation
• [~] Agent provider matrix, with MCP/tool lifecycle still roadmap
• Dynamic activity generation from OpenAPI, Azure Functions, registered methods, and schemas
• [~] Azure DevOps connector implementation is under review; Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint, Google Docs, and Google Sheets still need a shared integration strategy (elsa-extensions#199)
• SQL authoring quality: Studio drag/drop reliability and IntelliSense
• [~] Dapper package split and MongoDB secrets parity
• MassTransit v9 strategy
• Azure Functions / worker-service hosting guidance
• WatchFileSystem and command-line automation activities
• Data pipeline / ETL primitives
• [~] BPMN execution and interchange foundations, with main-only Studio schema types, rendering, import/export, nested-scope authoring, guarded document save, and task-to-Elsa-activity binding; broader visual editing, inspection, conformance, and release packaging remain (elsa-studio#1008-#1013, #1031, #1033)

Current Foundations

These are already present in the codebase and should be treated as foundations for the next roadmap slices:

• Multi-targeting for net8.0, net9.0, and net10.0 in src/Directory.Build.props.
• The 3.7.0 release train shipped across Core, Studio, and Extensions in May 2026, promoting shell integration, Studio authentication, workflow diagnostics, and extension package metadata into released foundations. The Core and Studio 3.8.0-preview1 releases on June 1, 2026 then added the next preview slice of graceful shutdown, richer diagnostics, secrets, and newer designer surfaces. The 3.7.1 patch train then shipped across Core, Studio, and Extensions on June 21, 2026, tightening Azure Service Bus startup reliability, aligning Studio with the released Core API client, and hardening Quartz durability and endpoint-name pressure in Extensions. Core, Studio, and Extensions then published 3.8.0-rc2 between August 21 and 23, consolidating the production-operability, security, secrets, SSO, observability, newer designer surfaces, and BPMN package foundations ahead of the final 3.8 release.
• Elsa 3.8.0 stable shipped on September 5, 2026 across Core, Studio, and Extensions. It releases the paired diagnostics, dashboard, Secrets, external authentication, Weaver, and newer Studio designer foundations, plus runtime and security hardening. These opt-in modules still require host configuration. This is a release-status update, not a claim that every feature on main or every broader productization item shipped in this stable branch.
• The 3.8.1 patch train shipped on September 12 across Core, Studio, and Extensions. It restores Studio-selectable activation strategies, corrects terminal-instance interrupted recovery, fixes Studio OIDC/static-feature dashboard/execution-detail regressions, and supplies the MongoDB/Dapper interruption-store companions. The aligned 3.8.2 train on September 15 is a critical package correction for MongoDB/Dapper hosts: upgrade all three repositories together when using those persistence packages (Core, Studio, Extensions). These fixes improve the shipped operational foundation; recovery, atomic admission, and cross-provider confidence remain roadmap work.
• Modular core packages under src/modules, with code-first features and CShells shell features documented in doc/wiki/module-system.md.
• A modular server host using CShells and Nuplane package loading in src/apps/Elsa.ModularServer.Web.
• Runtime admin, quiescence, drain, and interrupted recovery infrastructure in Elsa.Workflows.Runtime and runtime admin endpoints in Elsa.Workflows.Api.
• Distributed runtime support in Elsa.Workflows.Runtime.Distributed.
• Structured diagnostics with recent/live capture plus SQLite persistence in Elsa.Diagnostics.StructuredLogs and Elsa.Diagnostics.StructuredLogs.Persistence.Sqlite.
• Raw stdout/stderr console diagnostics in Elsa.Diagnostics.ConsoleLogs, with the post-3.7 console pipeline now carrying workflow and activity execution context through PR #7536.
• Core 3.8.0 includes Elsa.Diagnostics.OpenTelemetry, which provides OTLP ingestion, bounded in-memory storage, REST APIs, SignalR live updates, collector configuration, permissions, and tests in src/modules/Elsa.Diagnostics.OpenTelemetry. The productization gap is no longer "does a backend exist?" but rather operational recipes, default workflow semantic metrics, and diagnostics correlation.
• Core 3.8.0 includes Elsa.Dashboard.Api, a read-only operational-dashboard backend with overview, trends, attention, recent-activity, and workflow-hotspot endpoints plus independent diagnostics capability states (#7529, #7532). Studio 3.8.0 supplies the operational health, trends, activity, attention, and diagnostics surface through elsa-studio#923; broader operational verification, robust deep links, and unavailable-state handling remain productization work.
• Core main now includes Elsa.AI.Abstractions, Elsa.AI.Host, Elsa.AI.Copilot, and Elsa.AI.Persistence.EFCore through PR #7523, and Studio main now includes Elsa.Studio.AI through elsa-studio#900. That gives Weaver both server and Studio workspace foundations, while proposal actions, broader authoring contracts, and polished product UX remain roadmap work.
• State machine core activity support in Elsa.Workflows.Core/Activities/StateMachine.
• Studio's state-machine designer now has semantic lifecycle slots, a context-aware activity picker, malformed-definition preservation, and nested-designer support through elsa-studio#958 and elsa-studio#959. The semantic-authoring foundation is released in 3.8.0, with further StateMachine runtime and designer fixes in Core #8010 and Studio #985. Maintained documentation/examples and broader authenticated browser validation still keep the product surface partial.
• Core main now has extensible output-converter contracts, registration, definition/runtime validation, privacy-safe conversion faults, and an authorized descriptor API through PR #7902. Studio main consumes that API with unavailable-state handling, converter selection, and schema-driven settings editing in elsa-studio#922. Converters are opt-in at a variable or workflow-output binding, so the activity output and its diagnostics remain native. This foundation is included in 3.8.0; a maintained extension converter catalog is still follow-up work (#7770, elsa-extensions#164).
• ElsaScript DSL and blob storage integration in Elsa.Dsl.ElsaScript and Elsa.WorkflowProviders.BlobStorage.ElsaScript.
• Core main now contains Elsa.Bpmn and Elsa.Bpmn.Interchange: a BPMN process container, persisted execution state, activity bindings, message/signal/timer triggers, and analyze/import/export endpoints (#7938, #7945, #7946, #7954, #7956). The two packages joined Core 3.8.0-rc2 through #7970. Studio main now adds schema-generated BPMN payload types, a canvas-neutral model and X6 renderer, import/export, nested-process-scope authoring, element-keyed execution diagnostics, and guarded document editing: Core's whole-document GET/PUT uses an ETag, and Studio can bind authored BPMN tasks to Elsa activities through its Performed by editor (elsa-studio#1008, #1009, #1010, #1011, #1012, #1013, elsa-core#8060, elsa-studio#1024, #1031, #1033). This Studio slice landed after 3.8.0 and is not a release claim. Publish-time validation, compensation/transaction and event-subprocess conformance, broader visual element/property editing, element-level instance inspection, configured-host verification, and release packaging remain productization work (#7958, #7960, #7909, elsa-studio#1000, elsa-studio#1001, elsa-studio#1004).
• Core and Studio main now provide the paired User Tasks foundation: Core has durable, identity-neutral workflow-bound tasks, authorized lifecycle APIs, guest invitations, workers, and in-memory, EF Core, and VNext persistence; Studio has a capability-gated queue, detail and manager workspace, guest completion page, and polling fallback (#7955, elsa-studio#941). It landed after 3.8.0-rc2, so release packaging, Core realtime invalidation, cross-provider conformance coverage, samples, and operational validation remain.
• Activity unit testing helpers and guidance in src/common/Elsa.Testing.Shared and doc/qa/test-guidelines.md.
• Label infrastructure now spans Core and Studio: Elsa.Labels exposes label and workflow-label endpoints, and Elsa.Studio.Labels adds label management pages plus workflow-definition label editing. Folder views, broader metadata search, and richer organization UX remain roadmap work.
• Elsa Studio is already a modular Blazor product shell with workflow authoring, instance browsing, designer modules, diagnostics, authentication, localization, branding, custom elements, and early React wrapper work in elsa-workflows/elsa-studio.
• Studio 3.7.0 shipped the modern authentication framework, Elsa Identity and OIDC modules, activity call-stack visualization, incident count badges, pending-instance filtering, and custom theme/DataPanel extensibility.
• Studio 3.8.0-preview1 shipped the server logs module, console logs module, structured-log storage diagnostics, the OpenTelemetry diagnostics page from elsa-studio#834, sequence and state-machine designer foundations, the secrets module, and the alterations designer.
• Core 3.8.0-rc1 contains a protocol-neutral external-authentication broker with configuration- or database-backed OIDC connections, PKCE, secret handling, identity linking/JIT users, session management, persistence, and tests (#7889). Its Studio companions add Settings-based SSO connection management and a generic login-method UI ([elsa-studio#920](https://github.com/elsa-workflows/elsa-st