> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://yukta.infenia.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction

> Yukta is a reactive, DAG-based workflow orchestration server. Define a workflow once as JSON and run it from a script, a CI pipeline, a web UI or an AI agent.

Yukta runs **workflows**: graphs of small steps that pass messages to one another. You describe a workflow as JSON, store it on the server, and start it from anywhere that can make an HTTP request. While it runs you can watch it live, pause it, skip a step, approve a decision, retry a failure or stop it.

<Note>
  Yukta is pre-beta (`0.0.1-SNAPSHOT`). The workflow JSON, the REST API, the MCP tools and the plugin contract may change before v0.1.0, and there are no tagged releases yet, so you run Yukta from source.
</Note>

## What a workflow looks like

```mermaid theme={"system"}
%%{init: {'theme':'base','themeVariables':{'primaryColor':'#E4EFFF','primaryBorderColor':'#2F6BFF','primaryTextColor':'#11161F','secondaryColor':'#EEF2F9','tertiaryColor':'#FBFCFE','lineColor':'#6A7A9B','fontFamily':'Inter, sans-serif'}}}%%
flowchart LR
  T["Trigger<br/>starts the flow"] --> P1["Processor<br/>call an API"]
  P1 -- success --> P2["Processor<br/>transform"]
  P1 -- error --> D["Terminal<br/>dead letter"]
  P2 --> E["Terminal<br/>notify"]
  classDef trigger fill:#FFE9DB,stroke:#E85D0C,stroke-width:2px,color:#11161F
  classDef terminal fill:#EEF2F9,stroke:#6A7A9B,stroke-width:2px,color:#11161F
  class T trigger
  class D,E terminal
```

A **trigger** starts the flow, **processors** transform, route and call out, and **terminals** end each branch. Processors can have named output ports such as `success` and `error`, so one node can send messages down different paths.

## Why Yukta

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Workflows are data" icon="diagram-project">
    A workflow is a JSON graph. There is no language to learn, and a graph is easy for people, tools and AI agents to generate, diff and review.
  </Card>

  <Card title="One definition, many callers" icon="plug">
    Start the same workflow from the REST API, the web UI, the command-line client or an MCP client such as Claude.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Streaming, with back-pressure" icon="bolt">
    Messages stream through the graph. A slow node slows the nodes feeding it, so memory stays bounded without queues between steps.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Observable and steerable" icon="gauge">
    Live graph view, log and status streams, and run controls: pause, resume, step, breakpoints, skip, retry, restart and stop.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Failure is a first-class path" icon="shield-halved">
    Retries with backoff, error routing to dead-letter nodes, failure budgets and five independent time limits are built in around every node.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Safe to start with" icon="lock">
    The server listens on loopback only, refuses to run operating-system commands until you allow them, and requires an API key before it accepts remote connections.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## What it is good for

* **CI/CD and quality gates:** run build and test stages, route on exit codes, stop a pipeline on failure.
* **Data pipelines:** split a batch, filter, map and load, with retries and dead letters.
* **Operations automation:** health checks with alert paths, scheduled jobs, fan-out notifications.
* **AI agents:** model calls, tool use over MCP, per-user memory, approval steps and budgets that stop runaway loops.

## Where to go next

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Quickstart" icon="rocket" href="/quickstart">
    Run the server and your first workflow in five minutes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="How Yukta works" icon="sitemap" href="/concepts/how-it-works">
    Sessions, workflows, nodes, messages and executions.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Defining a workflow" icon="code" href="/building/defining-a-workflow">
    The full JSON shape and the options every node accepts.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Plugins" icon="puzzle-piece" href="/plugins/overview">
    Every built-in trigger, processor and terminal.
  </Card>

  <Card title="MCP server" icon="robot" href="/interfaces/mcp">
    Let an AI agent create and run workflows.
  </Card>

  <Card title="REST API" icon="terminal" href="/api/overview">
    Endpoints, authentication, paging and streams.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>


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