How to Run Agentic Workflows With WebSockets

This comprehensive guide outlines how to effectively run agentic workflows using WebSockets, highlighting the benefits of a persistent connection for sending ordered workflow events back to clients as agents operate. It emphasizes treating WebSockets as event transports rather than unstructured log pipes, detailing a practical pattern for implementation that includes maintaining a single authenticated connection per workflow run, ordering events with sequence numbers, supporting reconnections, handling backpressure, and providing debug traces for failed steps. The article discusses when to opt for WebSockets over HTTP, particularly in scenarios requiring multiple client updates during long-running workflows, and it advises against using WebSockets for simple request-response tasks. It emphasizes the importance of a structured event contract, recommending the use of structured events with fields like workflow_id, run_id, and event types for better order, traceability, and rendering. Additionally, it provides architectural recommendations, including using Redis Streams or Postgres for storing events, and it highlights the necessity of secure connections, authentication, and authorization. The guide also covers handling disconnections, implementing heartbeats, and managing backpressure to prevent clients from falling behind. It concludes by underscoring the importance of a production checklist for ensuring robust and reliable WebSocket-driven agent workflows, offering insights into how PromptLayer can help manage and improve LLM workflows in such environments.