Conditional Workflow Router

The Problem

Business logic is rarely linear. Customer requests need different handling based on:

• Who they are - VIP customers get priority treatment
• What they want - Orders, refunds, and complaints need different teams
• How urgent it is - Critical issues need escalation
• Combinations - VIP + complaint + urgent = immediate manager attention

Hard-coding these rules leads to unmaintainable spaghetti logic.

Pain Points We’re Solving

• Complex branching - Multiple nested if/else statements
• Inconsistent routing - Different agents make different decisions
• Missed escalations - Important cases fall through cracks
• Hard to modify - Changing rules requires code changes

Thinking Process

Let’s model the business rules as a decision tree:

flowchart TD
    Start["Customer Request"]

    Start --> VIP{"Lifetime Value<br/>≥ $1000?"}

    VIP -->|Yes| VIPPath["VIP Treatment<br/>SLA: 4 hours"]
    VIP -->|No| StandardPath["Standard Treatment<br/>SLA: 24 hours"]

    VIPPath --> TypeRoute
    StandardPath --> TypeRoute

    TypeRoute{"Request Type?"}

    TypeRoute -->|order| OrderTeam["Orders Team"]
    TypeRoute -->|refund| FinanceTeam["Finance Team<br/>+ Approval Required"]
    TypeRoute -->|inquiry| SupportTeam["Support Team"]
    TypeRoute -->|complaint| EscalationTeam["Escalation Team"]

    EscalationTeam --> PriorityCheck{"Priority?"}

    PriorityCheck -->|urgent/high| NotifyManager["Notify Manager"]
    PriorityCheck -->|medium/low| Normal["Normal Processing"]

Two-Level Decision Making

1. Conditional - Binary yes/no decisions (VIP check)
2. Router - Multi-way branching (request type)

Solution Architecture

flowchart TB
    subgraph Input["📥 Customer Request"]
        I1["request_type"]
        I2["priority"]
        I3["customer_data"]
        I4["message"]
    end

    subgraph VIPCheck["⭐ VIP Classification"]
        V1{"lifetime_value >= 1000?"}
        V2["VIP Path<br/>SLA: 4h"]
        V3["Standard Path<br/>SLA: 24h"]
    end

    subgraph Router["🔀 Request Router"]
        R1{"request_type"}
        R2["process-order"]
        R3["process-refund"]
        R4["process-inquiry"]
        R5["process-complaint"]
    end

    subgraph Escalation["⚠️ Escalation Check"]
        E1{"urgent OR high?"}
        E2["notify-manager"]
    end

    subgraph Response["💬 Response"]
        RE1["Generate AI response"]
        RE2["Format output"]
    end

    Input --> VIPCheck
    V1 -->|Yes| V2
    V1 -->|No| V3
    V2 --> Router
    V3 --> Router

    R1 -->|order| R2
    R1 -->|refund| R3
    R1 -->|inquiry| R4
    R1 -->|complaint| R5

    R5 --> Escalation
    E1 -->|Yes| E2

    Router --> Response
    Escalation --> Response

Pipeline Stages

Stage 1: VIP Status Check

Binary conditional based on lifetime value:

{
  "id": "check-vip",
  "component": "conditional",
  "config": {
    "condition": "{{input.customer_data.lifetime_value}} >= 1000",
    "then_stages": ["set-vip-treatment"],
    "else_stages": ["set-standard-treatment"]
  }
}

Stage 2a: VIP Treatment

{
  "id": "set-vip-treatment",
  "component": "json_transform",
  "config": {
    "data": "{{input.customer_data}}",
    "expression": "merge(@, {treatment: 'vip', dedicated_support: `true`, sla_hours: `4`})"
  }
}

Stage 2b: Standard Treatment

{
  "id": "set-standard-treatment",
  "component": "json_transform",
  "config": {
    "data": "{{input.customer_data}}",
    "expression": "merge(@, {treatment: 'standard', dedicated_support: `false`, sla_hours: `24`})"
  }
}

Stage 3: Route by Request Type

Multi-way branching with the router:

{
  "id": "route-by-type",
  "component": "router",
  "depends_on": ["check-vip"],
  "config": {
    "expression": "{{input.request_type}}",
    "routes": {
      "order": ["process-order"],
      "refund": ["process-refund"],
      "inquiry": ["process-inquiry"],
      "complaint": ["process-complaint", "escalate-check"]
    }
  }
}

Note: Complaints trigger both processing AND escalation check!

Team Processing Stages

Each team has specific handling:

flowchart LR
    subgraph OrderTeam["Orders"]
        O1["team: orders_team"]
        O2["action: track_order"]
    end

    subgraph FinanceTeam["Finance"]
        F1["team: finance_team"]
        F2["requires_approval: true"]
    end

    subgraph SupportTeam["Support"]
        S1["team: support_team"]
        S2["action: answer_inquiry"]
    end

    subgraph EscalationTeam["Escalation"]
        E1["team: escalation_team"]
        E2["high_priority: true"]
    end

{
  "id": "process-refund",
  "component": "json_transform",
  "config": {
    "data": {
      "request_type": "{{input.request_type}}",
      "customer": "{{input.customer_data}}"
    },
    "expression": "{team: 'finance_team', action: 'process_refund', requires_approval: `true`, priority_boost: customer.lifetime_value >= `5000`}"
  }
}

Stage 4: Escalation Check (Complaints Only)

Nested conditional for urgent complaints:

{
  "id": "escalate-check",
  "component": "conditional",
  "config": {
    "condition": "{{input.priority}} == 'urgent' || {{input.priority}} == 'high'",
    "then_stages": ["notify-manager"]
  }
}

Stage 5: Manager Notification

{
  "id": "notify-manager",
  "component": "logger",
  "config": {
    "level": "warn",
    "message": "ESCALATION: {{input.customer_data.name}} - {{input.request_type}}",
    "data": {
      "priority": "{{input.priority}}",
      "lifetime_value": "{{input.customer_data.lifetime_value}}",
      "requires_immediate_attention": true
    }
  }
}

Stage 6: Generate Response

{
  "id": "generate-response",
  "component": "generator",
  "depends_on": ["route-by-type"],
  "config": {
    "system_prompt": "You are a customer service agent. Write brief, empathetic acknowledgments.",
    "prompt": "Write a 2-3 sentence acknowledgment for:\nCustomer: {{input.customer_data.name}}\nRequest: {{input.request_type}}\nMessage: {{input.message}}\n\nBe empathetic and set expectations.",
    "temperature": 0.7,
    "max_tokens": 150
  }
}

Routing Decision Table

flowchart LR
    subgraph Decision["Complete Routing Logic"]
        D1["VIP Check"] --> D2["Type Router"]
        D2 --> D3["Team Assignment"]
        D3 --> D4["Escalation Check"]
        D4 --> D5["Response Generation"]
    end

Request Type	Team	Special Handling
order	orders_team	Track order status
refund	finance_team	Requires approval
inquiry	support_team	Standard response
complaint	escalation_team	Check for escalation

Priority + Type	Action
urgent + complaint	Notify manager immediately
high + complaint	Notify manager
any + enterprise	VIP treatment, 4h SLA

Sample Input: VIP Complaint

{
  "request_type": "complaint",
  "priority": "urgent",
  "customer_data": {
    "name": "Sarah Johnson",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "account_type": "enterprise",
    "lifetime_value": 15000
  },
  "message": "I am extremely disappointed with the service outage that affected our entire team yesterday. We lost 4 hours of productivity and this is unacceptable for an enterprise customer paying premium rates."
}

Expected Output

{
  "workflow_path": "vip → complaint → escalation",
  "customer_treatment": {
    "treatment": "vip",
    "dedicated_support": true,
    "sla_hours": 4
  },
  "assigned_team": "escalation_team",
  "escalated": true,
  "manager_notified": true,
  "auto_response": "Dear Sarah, I sincerely apologize for the service disruption your team experienced. As a valued enterprise customer, this falls far below our standards. I've escalated this to our management team and you'll receive a detailed incident report within 4 hours, along with a discussion of compensation for the productivity loss."
}

Key Learnings

1. Conditional vs Router

flowchart LR
    subgraph Conditional["conditional"]
        C1["Binary choice"]
        C2["if/else"]
        C3["Boolean condition"]
    end

    subgraph Router["router"]
        R1["Multiple choices"]
        R2["switch/case"]
        R3["Expression matching"]
    end

2. Route to Multiple Stages

The router can trigger multiple stages for one route:

"complaint": ["process-complaint", "escalate-check"]

3. Nested Control Flow

You can nest conditionals inside routes for complex logic trees.

Try It Yourself

# VIP complaint (triggers escalation)
fm run pipelines/07-conditional-workflow.pipeline.json \
  --input inputs/07-workflow-complaint.json

# Standard order (simple routing)
fm run pipelines/07-conditional-workflow.pipeline.json \
  --input inputs/07-workflow-order.json