ChainSharp

A .NET workflow engine built on Railway Oriented Programming. Each workflow is a chain of discrete steps with automatic error propagation—if a step fails, the rest are skipped.

Success Track:  Input → [Step 1] → [Step 2] → [Step 3] → Output
                            ↓
Failure Track:          Exception → [Skip] → [Skip] → Exception

The Problem

Error handling buries your business logic:

public async Task<OrderReceipt> ProcessOrder(OrderRequest request)
{
    var inventory = await _inventory.CheckAsync(request.Items);
    if (!inventory.Available)
        return Error("Items out of stock");

    var payment = await _payments.ChargeAsync(request.PaymentMethod, request.Total);
    if (!payment.Success)
        return Error("Payment failed");

    var shipment = await _shipping.CreateAsync(request.Address, request.Items);
    if (shipment == null)
        return Error("Shipping setup failed");

    return new OrderReceipt(payment, shipment);
}

With ChainSharp

public class ProcessOrderWorkflow : EffectWorkflow<OrderRequest, OrderReceipt>, IProcessOrderWorkflow
{
    protected override async Task<Either<Exception, OrderReceipt>> RunInternal(OrderRequest input)
        => Activate(input)
            .Chain<CheckInventoryStep>()
            .Chain<ChargePaymentStep>()
            .Chain<CreateShipmentStep>()
            .Resolve();
}

Each step is a single-responsibility class with constructor-injected dependencies. If CheckInventoryStep throws, ChargePaymentStep and CreateShipmentStep never run.

Features

Railway Oriented Programming — Two-track execution with Either<Exception, T> from LanguageExt
Effect System — Atomic workflows where effects (database writes, logs) only persist on success
Metadata Tracking — Every execution recorded with timing, inputs/outputs, and failure details
Roslyn Analyzer — Compile-time validation that step input/output types chain correctly
IDE Extensions — Inlay hints showing TIn → TOut types for each chain call (VSCode, Rider/ReSharper)
Workflow Discovery — Register workflows once, dispatch by input type via IWorkflowBus
Job Scheduling — Manifest-based scheduling with retries and dead-lettering via Hangfire
Web Dashboard — Blazor UI for inspecting registered workflows and execution history

Installation

dotnet add package Theauxm.ChainSharp.Effect

Add packages as you need them — persistence, workflow discovery, scheduling, etc. See Packages below.

Quick Setup

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

builder.Services.AddChainSharpEffects(o => o.AddEffectWorkflowBus(typeof(Program).Assembly));

var app = builder.Build();
app.Run();

Packages

Package	Description	Version
Theauxm.ChainSharp	Core workflow engine
Theauxm.ChainSharp.Effect	Effects, metadata tracking, DI
Theauxm.ChainSharp.Effect.Data	Persistence abstractions
Theauxm.ChainSharp.Effect.Data.Postgres	PostgreSQL persistence
Theauxm.ChainSharp.Effect.Data.InMemory	In-memory persistence (testing)
Theauxm.ChainSharp.Effect.Orchestration.Mediator	Workflow discovery and routing
Theauxm.ChainSharp.Effect.Orchestration.Scheduler	Manifest-based job scheduling
Theauxm.ChainSharp.Effect.Orchestration.Scheduler.Hangfire	Hangfire integration
Theauxm.ChainSharp.Effect.Dashboard	Blazor web dashboard
Theauxm.ChainSharp.Effect.Provider.Json	JSON effect logging
Theauxm.ChainSharp.Effect.Provider.Parameter	Parameter serialization
Theauxm.ChainSharp.Effect.StepProvider.Logging	Step-level structured logging