.NET Workflows - Support input parameters for declarative workflows

Prompt agents support "structured inputs", but workflows do not.

Support this feature when/if the agent services api and sdk support structured inputs for workflows.

Note: Need to consider how this is supported for non-hosted case.

Original discussion:

From: Ravi Teja Pidaparthi
Re: Workflows Input Customization - Will workflows support for customizing the input message (i.e., support variable)

This is an interesting ask. I would like to understand more about what the use case is.

As @Chris Rickman said, we support structured inputs for prompt agents and these inputs participate in prompt/instruction templates.
And I believe similarly we should support structured inputs and outputs for workflows as well though it is not spec'ed out yet. But I would imagine that these runtime inputs will be accessible though some new system variables and can be used in expressions and be passed as inputs to inner agents.

Thanks,

Ravi.

Original ask from site core team (sarakandil@microsoft.com):

Will workflows support for customizing the input message (i.e., support variable)

This is an interesting question and I don't believe its on our radar. Currently a hosted workflow doesn't support the specification of inputs (variables). For a PromptAgent, the instructions can be parameterized...but a workflow isn't based on any instruction...so the modality is a bit divergent. @Ravi Teja Pidaparthi, any thoughts or comment on this?

If we were to pursue this, I'd very much desire that non-hosted and hosted workflows are able to provide the same level of support.

If possible, I'd like to deepen my understanding of the specific use-cases behind this question. For example, what is preventing the caller from customizing their input message in any manner the choose?

No files, tests, or entry points are named. First clarify structured-input support in the agent services API and SDK, including parity between hosted and non-hosted workflows; done means declarative workflows accept structured input parameters when those dependencies support them.