Workflow Builder is a visual editor for workflow graphs in React apps. For a long time it was a strong editor that had not yet grown into an SDK. The 2.0 release closes that gap. Same canvas, palette, and properties panel as before – but now it is something you adopt as a library, not a codebase you grow your product inside.
The difference between an editor and an SDK turned out not to be features. It was boundaries. This post is about the three we drew.
In short
A UI component library and an SDK differ by their boundaries, not their features. Workflow Builder could draw, configure, validate, and serialize a workflow graph, but adopting it meant taking the codebase, extending it meant reaching into internals, and running it meant building your own execution. Workflow Builder 2.0 draws three contracts – for installing, extending, and running it – that make it a library you build against.
From editor to SDK: what adoption actually takes
