Cancel running Workflows via Signal

[Braindea7]

Hey, I'm currently working on workflows that I would like to be able to stop manually. To do this, I'm currently using sagas and an exception. The problem is that the workflow also contains timers, and if a cancellation signal is received while a timer is running, the exception is thrown twice.

I just can't seem to solve this problem... I actually thought that awaitWithTimeout would solve the problem, but that doesn't help either.

Has anyone here done something similar or perhaps have a tip for me?

I've attached the code here in the files. There you'll find the workflow, the corresponding exception thrown, the cancellation activity, and the controller that sends the signal to the workflow.

GetAdReportWorkflow.php
WorkflowCancelledException.php
CancelWorkflowActivity.php
WorkflowControlController.php

[Braindea7]

Okay, I've found a solution. I'm just not sure how clean it is. I'm not using a signal, but going through the cache instead. The webhook route sets a cache entry “workflow_$id_cancelled” with true and, for example, 600s ttl.

In the workflow, I no longer check for $this->cancelled, but now check for this cache entry.

The difference is that a signal causes the workflow to be immediately run again from the start with the new value for $this->cancelled, thus directly throwing the exception. By only entering a cache value, the workflow is not immediately read again, or rather, the workflow is not interfered with at all at first. Only when the cache is checked after a timer, for example, does it abort there.

[Braindea7]

Okay, the good news is that there are no more duplicate throws with the signal method :)
However, I still have to go through an activity to cancel, otherwise the compensation will not be executed.
Throw directly in the workflow => No compensation in the catch
Throw in activity => Compensation in the catch is executed

Personally, I don't see this as a problem, as it looks a bit more elegant with an activity anyway.

What I don't quite understand yet is the "awaitWithTimeout" function. Shouldn't the timer break after sending the signal?
=> yield awaitWithTimeout('60 seconds', fn() => $this->cancelled);

But the timer job get completed, nevertheless I send the signal or not.

Thank you so much for your help so far!

[Braindea7]

Additionally: Without the cancellation activity, the message contained in the first check on $this->cancellation is always thrown. But I think that's just how signals work? After a signal, the workflow is immediately called again with the changed variable => cancellation is now true => throw

[Braindea7]

Okay the question about awaitWithTimeout is dumb :D
I throw an exception before the timer get reached.. clearly the function can't break the timer.

[rmcdaniel]

@Braindea7

Without the cancellation activity, the message contained in the first check on $this->cancellation is always thrown. But I think that's just how signals work?

Ah, I see the problem now.

You have to wrap the check in a sideEffect.

if (yield sideEffect(fn (): bool => $this->cancelled)) {
    throw new RuntimeException('Workflow cancelled by signal.');
}

laravel@65b26dbfc34a:/var/www/html$ php artisan queue:work

   INFO  Processing jobs from the [default] queue.  

  2026-02-20 15:07:21 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow ....................................... RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:22 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow ....................................... 1s DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:22 App\Workflows\Cancel\RequestAdReportActivity ................................... RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:23 App\Workflows\Cancel\RequestAdReportActivity ............................. 294.49ms DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:23 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow ....................................... RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:23 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow .................................. 76.56ms DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:23 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportStatusActivity ................................. RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:23 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportStatusActivity ............................ 55.56ms DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:23 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow ....................................... RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:23 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow .................................. 97.94ms DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:35 Workflow\Timer ................................................................. RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:35 Workflow\Timer ............................................................ 27.37ms DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:35 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow ....................................... RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:35 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow .................................. 88.71ms DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:35 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportStatusActivity ................................. RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:35 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportStatusActivity ............................ 41.15ms DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:35 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow ....................................... RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:35 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow .................................. 67.65ms DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:46 Workflow\Timer ................................................................. RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:46 Workflow\Timer ............................................................ 80.32ms DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:46 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow ....................................... RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:46 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow .................................. 85.08ms DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:46 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportStatusActivity ................................. RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:46 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportStatusActivity ............................ 39.54ms DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:46 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow ....................................... RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:46 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow .................................. 84.82ms DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:49 Workflow\Signal ................................................................ RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:49 Workflow\Signal ........................................................... 31.03ms DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:49 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow ....................................... RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:49 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow ................................. 104.03ms DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:49 App\Workflows\Cancel\DeleteAdReportActivity .................................... RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:49 App\Workflows\Cancel\DeleteAdReportActivity ............................... 55.31ms DONE
  2026-02-20 15:07:49 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow ....................................... RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:49 App\Workflows\Cancel\GetAdReportWorkflow ................................. 127.87ms FAIL
  2026-02-20 15:07:56 Workflow\Timer ................................................................. RUNNING
  2026-02-20 15:07:56 Workflow\Timer ............................................................ 46.26ms DONE

Here you can see the signal being processed and causing the workflow to cancel, the compensation runs and then the workflow is marked as failed. The timer runs on schedule but it does not wake the workflow up and only 1 exception is contained in the log files.

[Braindea7]

Thank you so much :)
That helps a lot to understand the complete process.. it's pretty confusing sometimes 😂

[rmcdaniel]

I updated the docs based on this question: https://durable-workflow.com/docs/features/side-effects/#signals-and-control-flow