read_workflow — Read workflow YAML

read_workflow — Read workflow YAML

Fetch one workflow draft and its version and timestamps.

Stable Viat 1.1.0. Start with MCP configuration and result handling. The examples below are synthetic, source-derived expected shapes, not executed responses. No service, provider or device was contacted to prepare this page.

Prerequisites and permissions

Requires membership in the selected project (any project role, including Viewer). A platform role alone is not project membership. The PAT must be valid and its scope must permit the route.

Use an activated isolated instance, configured server/bearer, and an existing mcp-lab project except for list_projects. Examples using existing assets/IDs assume the fixtures in the overview; replace synthetic IDs with the IDs returned there. They are not self-provisioning.

Complete input fields

Required is the exported input contract’s structural requirement, not the full conditional API validation. For optional fields, explicit JSON null deserializes like omission, including unconstrained JSON fields. Empty strings/arrays/objects are actual values, not omission. Numeric formats describe serialization bounds; runtime clamps/defaults are separate. Schema default:null on args is not its effective runtime default {}.

Field	Type	Required	Omission / explicit null	Constraints and meaning
folder	string / null	no (may be conditional)	Not supplied to API; conditional rules below.; null = omitted.	Resource/script/workflow folder path; empty string selects root; omission/null uses name lookup. Nonempty: at most 255 bytes / 8 levels, segments [A-Za-z0-9_-]+, no leading/trailing/repeated slash.
name	string	yes	No default; missing/null is invalid.	Exact asset name; see tool-specific identity and folder rules.
project	string / null	no (may be conditional)	VIAT_PROJECT / current_project; else project_required; null = omitted.	Project slug; omission/null uses VIAT_PROJECT/current_project, otherwise project_required.

Behavior and validation

Optional folder is forwarded as a query parameter. Use the folder from list_workflows; an explicit empty string selects the root. The definition is returned as text, not parsed step objects.

Output and pagination

Workflow object: string name, definition (YAML text), created_at, updated_at; integer version; optional string folder, omitted at the root.

No pagination or continuation cursor.

The value is JSON serialized inside one MCP content text block. Parse result.content[0].text as JSON. There is no promised structuredContent or outputSchema. Optional fields documented as omitted must not be assumed to exist with null.

Synthetic request and expected shape

After MCP initialize/initialized, send this tools/call request as one JSON line over stdio (pretty-printed here for readability).

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 3,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "read_workflow",
    "arguments": {
      "project": "mcp-lab",
      "name": "mcp_flow",
      "folder": ""
    }
  }
}

Expected MCP envelope shape (IDs, timestamps, headers and computed values are illustrative, not deterministic assertions).

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 3,
  "result": {
    "content": [
      {
        "type": "text",
        "text": "{\"name\":\"mcp_flow\",\"version\":1,\"definition\":\"inputs:\\nsteps:\\n  - id: hello\\n    script: mcp_demo\\n    args: {}\\noutputs:\\n  result: \\\"$hello.output\\\"\\n\",\"created_at\":\"2026-01-01T00:00:00Z\",\"updated_at\":\"2026-01-01T00:00:00Z\"}"
      }
    ],
    "isError": false
  }
}

Decoded JSON value in the text block:

{
  "name": "mcp_flow",
  "version": 1,
  "definition": "inputs:\nsteps:\n  - id: hello\n    script: mcp_demo\n    args: {}\noutputs:\n  result: \"$hello.output\"\n",
  "created_at": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z"
}

Failures and recovery

Missing workflows return 404; ambiguous bare names can return 409. Read does not validate that all referenced scripts/resources will run successfully.

All upstream tools can fail with expired/revoked tokens, PAT confinement, project access denial, activation, network or timeout errors. Missing project/default gives project_required; control-plane non-2xx gives http_4xx/http_5xx. See the exact shared error envelope and retry rules. Input deserialization/unknown tool failures can be JSON-RPC protocol errors before the tool-layer envelope; do not assume every failure has isError. A retryable flag is not an idempotency guarantee.

Side effects, verification and cleanup

Read-only: no asset is changed and no cleanup is required. Keep returned source, logs and identifiers private.

Verification is observational: inspect the documented result fields and use the corresponding read tools before and after any authorized mutation. Do not verify by sending production traffic or deleting unrelated objects.

Maintenance evidence

Input inventory: contracts/1.1.0/mcp-tools.json, tool read_workflow. Implementation/tests under the pinned product source: workflows.rs; handlers/workflows.rs; tests/it/tool_read_workflow.rs. Tool module filenames refer to crates/viat-mcp/src/tools/; API handlers refer to crates/viat-api/src/handlers/. Shared transport/error evidence: crates/viat-mcp/src/tools/service.rs, http.rs, error.rs; tests were inspected, not run for this documentation change.