Neuron Dependent Workflows

This example answers a common agentic question:

Can one workflow decide that another workflow should only continue after an earlier workflow finishes?

Yes. The important nuance is that Queuety already supports this with await_workflow() and await_workflows().

That means:

workflow X can be dispatched now
X can park in waiting_workflow
X only resumes when workflow Y completes

Example: research first, writing second

Use one top-level workflow to build a research packet, and a second top-level workflow to draft the final copy.

Research workflow

use Queuety\Enums\WaitMode;
use Queuety\Queuety;

$research_agent = Queuety::workflow('research_agent')
    ->then(ResearchTopicStep::class);

$research_id = Queuety::workflow('research_packet')
    ->then(PlanResearchTasksStep::class)
    ->spawn_agents('agent_tasks', $research_agent)
    ->await_agents(mode: WaitMode::All, result_key: 'agent_results')
    ->then(SynthesizeResearchPacketStep::class)
    ->dispatch([
        'brief_id' => 42,
        'provider' => 'anthropic',
    ]);

Writing workflow

Queuety::workflow('write_brief')
    ->await_workflow('research_workflow_id', 'research')
    ->then(WriteBriefWithNeuronStep::class)
    ->await_decision(result_key: 'editor_review')
    ->then(PublishBriefStep::class)
    ->dispatch([
        'brief_id' => 42,
        'research_workflow_id' => $research_id,
        'provider' => 'openai',
    ]);

When the writing workflow starts, it immediately pauses in waiting_workflow until the research workflow has completed successfully.

The Neuron writing step

namespace App\Workflow\Steps;

use App\Neuron\WriterAgent;
use NeuronAI\Chat\Messages\UserMessage;
use Queuety\Step;

final class WriteBriefWithNeuronStep implements Step
{
    public function handle(array $state): array
    {
        $agent = new WriterAgent(
            providerName: $state['provider'] ?? 'openai',
        );

        $message = $agent->chat(
            new UserMessage(sprintf(
                "Write the final brief for brief %d using this research packet:\n\n%s",
                $state['brief_id'],
                json_encode($state['research'], JSON_PRETTY_PRINT),
            ))
        )->getMessage();

        return [
            'draft_markdown' => $message->getContent(),
        ];
    }

    public function config(): array
    {
        return [];
    }
}

$state['research'] is available because await_workflow() copied the completed public state from the dependency workflow into the current workflow under the research key.

When to use this instead of one giant workflow

Prefer separate top-level workflows when:

the stages have different owners or operational lifecycles
you want to inspect and retry them independently
a later stage should be dispatchable even before the earlier stage is finished

Prefer one workflow when:

the stages are tightly coupled
they share one lifecycle and one state bag

One important distinction

This pattern means:

X exists now, but waits for Y

It does not mean:

X is not created until Y is done

If you want the second behavior, have a parent workflow wait for Y and only then call spawn_workflows() or spawn_agents() for X.

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