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Abstra Workflows — Scale critical business processes with Python + AI
Abstra is a Python-based workflow engine to design and manage custom business processes with no overhead, powered by AI. Merge automated tasks with manual reviews, gain real-time insights into operations, and track history with logs & git-friendly versioning.
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Congratz on the launch! It's so rare to find a tool so powerful and simple at the same time. Abstra rocks!
@brunovcosta nice product! Some questions:
1) Can it be used without the interface? I mean...can it be installed like a library and create the workflows programatically?
2) Do you support for loops?
3) Have you developed the workflow engine from scratch or do you use a library for that? If so, which library?
Congrats for your launch!
@brunovcosta @george_calcea Hey George! I can jump in here:
1 - do you mean creating workflows without GUIs? if so, the answer is yes - you can connect jobs, webhooks and scripts to run workflows automatically without manual user interaction. if you mean the interface for designing workflows, abstra is an open-source python package to orchestrate python scripts, all logic is controlled by python files within your project directory. here's the lib if you'd like to see more: https://github.com/abstra-app/ab...
2 - yes, and every other type of process flow (conditionals, iterators, multithreading, etc)
3 - we developed the engine from scratch :)
Thanks so much for supporting us!
@jonte
I see a few things:
- windmill can’t be as easy to install and simple to use because it’s architecture decisions
- our dynamic forms are pretty unique
- we offer database, file system, granular access control, programmable notifications, kanban, etc.. out of the box
As far as I know, windmill is taking a more “data pipeline” direction and we’re focusing on business processes
Since our focus is business, convenience justify our pricing
@jonte @brunovcosta
Maker of windmill here:
> - windmill can’t be as easy to install and simple to use because it’s architecture decisions
Please expand, we are used by more than 50k+ users everyday and they are able to self-host in a few minutes with our docker-compose and start building powerful flows as fast.
> - our dynamic forms are pretty unique
Ours is too, you use interactive python statement to build forms while we parse the AST of the python program to infer it from the main function parameters.
> As far as I know, windmill is taking a more “data pipeline” direction and we’re focusing on business processes
No that's wrong, we are used for business processes and benefit of being the fastest and most powerful engine, we are used at very large scale for that purpose by some of our customers.
> - we offer database, file system, granular access control, programmable notifications, kanban, etc.. out of the box
Windmill does too (well not the kanban but that seems a bit nitty)
Congrats on the launch and looking forward to some healthy competition
Very nice idea here guys, congrats on the launch!
Couple of notes from checking out the product:
- The notification bar of with the status of “Were LIVE on Product Hunt!” Is a great idea.
- The site is very well laid out, really easily to navigate and there is a lot information there for people to explore and learn about the product.
- Are the workflow script limited in any way? Can I deploy a script completely written by myself or is there a set number of requests that my script could make for example?
- How does ownership/copyright of the custom scripts work?
@davebroio Hi Dave! Thanks for the feedback on the website :)
You can deploy any of the scripts you have already coded to Abstra. You can also enrich your existing code with any Python lib you'd like, we support that.
Our infrastructure is very scalable and well equipped to deal with heavier processing. If you need more memory/CPU than we usually offer off the bat, it's easy to arrange for that.
Also, any script you use or code in Abstra is 100% yours. That is a big principle for us and one of the platform's advantages – no lock-in! You're free to migrate whenever you want (even though we're pretty sure you won't have to ☺️)
Amazing! Congrats on the launch @brunovcosta ! It is crazy how fast you keep shipping.
Congrats with the release! I like the concept behind this product, sounds interesting to try
@sm_solovyev thank you! feel free to reach out with any questions, or even for a quick onboarding session (link for that: https://meet.abstra.app/sophia-s...) :)
My personal favorite feature is the visual editor where business and technical teams will be forced to a common yet simple language during the system definition: one of the toughest challenges during development.
Congratulations on the launch!
The real-time insights and tracking capabilities with logs and git-friendly versioning are particularly intriguing.
It sounds like it could significantly enhance transparency and efficiency in process management.
Could you share some success stories or case studies where Abstra has been implemented?
Also, how does it handle complex workflows that require extensive customization?
@bonvisions Thanks Bon! My personal favorite customer story is from a logistics company who recently implemented Workflows. With a small 3-person squad, they were able to automate an API credential generation process that used to take up to 7 days and involve manual steps from 4 different teams. Now it takes under 24h and is 100% automated, with visibility for all :)
From this first project, the use of Abstra expanded company-wide and they are now using us to centralize multiple critical operations processes, getting autonomy from the engineering team.
About the customizing complex workflows, that's precisely the type of use case we have in mind! By being Python-based, we allow for intricate, tailored processes that leverage Python’s extensive libraries and it's capability to integrate with nearly any service and tool – think databases, CRMs, ERPs and more.
Hi Bruno!
Workflows sounds like a game-changer for businesses looking to scale efficiently! I'd love to understand more about the typical customer journey: at what point do companies usually realize that Abstra is the solution they need? How do they discover and decide to adopt Workflows?
Thanks for sharing this innovation, and congratulations on the launch!
Hi everyone!
I'm SO proud of the team and excited to see Workflows off to the world!
We'll be hanging out here in the comments all day – hit us with any questions 🤩🤠
My cofounder literally cried when he saw Abstra - he said this would've saved him >80h of work at his previous job.
What are some surprising ways you've seen people use Abstra to save time?
@pedro_lucca1 thank you!
We saw many non obvious uses of Abstra
From party games, to astrophysics simulations lol
But even on our core focus of business cases we get surprised with how many different things people are building
Yet another automation tool using python and Ai? or is it a way to democratise the space? Either way, wishing you good luck @brunovcosta
@ayub Hi Ayub! That's exactly right – democratizing access to code is our company's founding principle and what we've been aiming for when developing products, always.
Abstra does that in 2 ways. The design of the building process itself reduces many of the barriers early coders face, such as having to learn how to deal with front-end, back-end and infrastructure all at once 😵💫 Our products focus on providing front-end and infrastructure out-of-box, and simplifying how you code the back-end. Beyond lowering the barriers to entry for junior users, this speeds up senior coders like crazy.
Adding AI just further eases the bits you do still need to code. An example for that is our Smart Console, which is fed with context on our platform and your project, so it can give you a head start when starting a script from scratch and help debug any issue, no matter how hairy.
Hopefully you get to use the platform and see this all for yourself!
Hey Bruno,
Congratulations on launching Abstra Workflows! It sounds like a game-changer for businesses looking to scale their operations efficiently. The integration of Python and AI to streamline processes is a smart move, and the git-friendly versioning is a nice touch for keeping track of changes.
I'm curious, what was the biggest challenge you faced while creating Abstra Workflows, and how did you overcome it?
Wishing you and the team success with this launch!
@alex_dulub Hi Alex! I can jump in to answer this :)
I think one of our toughest challenges – but one of the most fun, honestly – is finding the balance of how technical the tool should be, down to each feature's specification. We iterated previously in no-code and more code-heavy tools. Workflows feels like the perfect and powerful middle!
Congrats on the launch Bruno 🚀
Using AI to help build connector scripts is such a great idea! One of the best applications of AI.
Out of interest, what made you pick Python over other languages?
@jgani thank you!
We choose Python because a few reasons:
- It is the most popular language among non developers
- It is simple to read enough so AI generated code can be understood by people who doesn’t code much
- It is simple to learn
- It’s simple to “meta program” so we can build great dev tool experiences on top
- It has a great automation/data handling library set
And most importantly… it is fun ❤️
Abstra