# How to cascade workflow cancellation to related workflows in golang

**URL:** <https://community.temporal.io/t/how-to-cascade-workflow-cancellation-to-related-workflows-in-golang/16021>\
**Category:** Developer Corner\
**Tags:** go-sdk\
**Created:** [January 10, 2025, 12:02pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/how-to-cascade-workflow-cancellation-to-related-workflows-in-golang/16021 "2025-01-10T12:02:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nickm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/nickm/32/6669_2.png) [@nickm](https://community.temporal.io/u/nickm)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 12:02pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/how-to-cascade-workflow-cancellation-to-related-workflows-in-golang/16021/1 "2025-01-10T12:02:20Z")

</div>

I’ve been reading @maxim 's articles [1](https://community.temporal.io/t/when-a-workflow-is-cancelled-how-is-the-ongoing-execution-handled/62/3) & [2](https://community.temporal.io/t/cancellation-equivalent-of-golang-sdk/1279/3) on how to implement a cleanup() method when a cancellation occurs but I’m stuck. The documentation (too many links for a new user) seems to only talk about passing that cancellation to the activity which is different from what I want.

The pseudo code what I’m trying to do is something like this:

```go
func MyWorkflow(ctx workflow.Context, request MyWorkflowRequest) error {
	// Register signal channels
	// ...

	// Related workflows
	relatedWorkflowIds := []string{
		//...
	}

	// Handle cancellation from this point forward, anywhere in the workflow
	go func(ctx workflow.Context) {
		for {
			select {
			case <-ctx.Done():
				// Cascade cancellation to related workflows
				fmt.Println("Context cancelled:", ctx.Err())
				newCtx, _ := workflow.NewDisconnectedContext(ctx)
				client, err := clients.NewClient() 
				for _, workflowId := range relatedWorkflowIds {
					err = client.CancelWorkflow(newCtx.Background(), workflowId, "")
					if err != nil {
						log.Fatalln("Unable to cancel Workflow Execution", err)
					}
				}
				return
			}
		}
	}(ctx)

	// Do some activities

	// sleep for set period

	// Do some more activities
	return nil
}

```

This doesn’t seem to work because of something @maxim said about the context is not the same as the go-lang’s standard context I think.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![maxim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/maxim/32/8_2.png) [@maxim](https://community.temporal.io/u/maxim)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 6:24pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/how-to-cascade-workflow-cancellation-to-related-workflows-in-golang/16021/2 "2025-01-10T18:24:53Z")

</div>

You cannot use the client in the workflow code as it performs direct IO. All calls through the client must be done from activities.

Are you trying to cancel a child workflow or some unrelated workflow?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nickm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/nickm/32/6669_2.png) [@nickm](https://community.temporal.io/u/nickm)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 10:09am UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/how-to-cascade-workflow-cancellation-to-related-workflows-in-golang/16021/3 "2025-01-13T10:09:38Z")

</div>

it’s a different workflow (not a child). Although, I’m considering switching to child workflows if this is not achievable. I would be OK with _calling_ an activity that triggers the cascade. My issue with [the documentation](https://docs.temporal.io/develop/go/cancellation) is that it talks about canceling an activity that is already running.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![maxim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/maxim/32/8_2.png) [@maxim](https://community.temporal.io/u/maxim)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 7:56pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/how-to-cascade-workflow-cancellation-to-related-workflows-in-golang/16021/4 "2025-01-13T19:56:45Z")

</div>

For unrelated workflow use [RequestCancelExternalWorkflow](https://github.com/temporalio/sdk-go/blob/b4e934e78096efef7f02f6cf1bea8d149818562d/workflow/workflow.go#L311).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nickm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/nickm/32/6669_2.png) [@nickm](https://community.temporal.io/u/nickm)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 9:15pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/how-to-cascade-workflow-cancellation-to-related-workflows-in-golang/16021/5 "2025-01-14T21:15:12Z")

</div>

Thank you. But my main issue was how to capture the cancellation event. My pseudo code doesn’t work. Can you show a working example?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![maxim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/maxim/32/8_2.png) [@maxim](https://community.temporal.io/u/maxim)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/how-to-cascade-workflow-cancellation-to-related-workflows-in-golang/16021/6 "2025-01-14T21:18:30Z")

</div>

The pseudo code idea is fine. But workflow context.Done is a Channel. Use Selector instead of native select to wait on multiple channels.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nickm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/nickm/32/6669_2.png) [@nickm](https://community.temporal.io/u/nickm)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 9:37pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/how-to-cascade-workflow-cancellation-to-related-workflows-in-golang/16021/7 "2025-01-14T21:37:14Z")

</div>

sorry, I’m a bit of a golang newbie. I’m reading the [docs](https://docs.temporal.io/develop/go/selectors) on selectors but I can’t see how this can be used to capture a cancellation anywhere in the workflow to then trigger the cascade activity.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nickm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/nickm/32/6669_2.png) [@nickm](https://community.temporal.io/u/nickm)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 3:38pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/how-to-cascade-workflow-cancellation-to-related-workflows-in-golang/16021/8 "2025-01-16T15:38:06Z")

</div>

I couldn’t figure out how to do the Selector way but was able to get it working based on the example in the docs by moving my timer (expire) inside the activity.

```go
func MyWorkflow(ctx workflow.Context, request MyWorkflowRequest) error {
	// Register signal channels
	// ...

	// Related workflows
	relatedWorkflowIds := []string{
		//...
	}

	// Handle cancellation from this point forward, anywhere in the workflow
	completionHandlerOptions := workflow.ActivityOptions{
		StartToCloseTimeout: expireTime.Sub(currentTime),
		HeartbeatTimeout: 5 * time.Second,
		WaitForCancellation: true,
	}
	defer func() {
		// This is executed at the very end of the workflow
		logger.Info("Beginning cleanup")
		cancelled := false
		newCtx := ctx

		if errors.Is(ctx.Err(), workflow.ErrCanceled) {
			cancelled = true
			// get a new disconnected context
			newCtx, _ = workflow.NewDisconnectedContext(ctx)
			logger.Debug("Created a new disconnected context")
		}

		// Send signal
		err := workflow.SignalExternalWorkflow(newCtx, SomeWorkflowId, "", SomeWorkflowSignal, data).Get(ctx, nil)
		if err != nil {
			logger.Error("Failed to trigger signal", "error", err)
		}

		// if the workflow was not actually cancelled, we don't need to do anything else
		if !cancelled {
			logger.Debug("Workflow was not cancelled")
			return
		}

		if len(relatedWorkflowIds) == 0 {
			logger.Debug("No related workflows to cancel")
			return
		}

		// Cascade the cancellation to any related workflows
		logger.Debug("Cascading cancellation to related workflows", "relatedWorkflowIds", relatedWorkflowIds)
		for _, relatedWorkflowId := range relatedWorkflowIds {
			err := workflow.RequestCancelExternalWorkflow(newCtx, relatedWorkflowId, "").Get(ctx, nil)
			if err != nil {
				logger.Error("Failed to cancel related workflow", "relatedWorkflowId", relatedWorkflowId, "error", err)
			}
			logger.Info("Related workflow cancelled", "relatedWorkflowId", relatedWorkflowId)
		}
	}()

	// Completion handler activity
	ctx = workflow.WithActivityOptions(ctx, completionHandlerOptions)
	var result string
	err = workflow.ExecuteActivity(ctx, CompletionHanlder, currentTime, expireTime).Get(ctx, &result)
	if err != nil {
		logger.Error("MyWorkflow Completion Activity failed", "Error", err)
		return err
	}
	logger.Info("MyWorkflow Completion Activity completed", "result", result)
	return nil
}

```

Then I created a new activity which just does this:

```go
func CompletionHanlder(ctx context.Context, startTime time.Time, expireTime time.Time) (string, error) {
	for {
		select {
		case <-time.After(1 * time.Second):
			activity.RecordHeartbeat(ctx, "")
		case <-time.After(expireTime.Sub(startTime)):
			log.Println("This Activity is completed!")
			return "I expired", nil
		case <-ctx.Done():
			log.Println("This Activity is canceled!")
			return "I was canceled", nil
		}
	}
}

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nickm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/nickm/32/6669_2.png) [@nickm](https://community.temporal.io/u/nickm)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 10:00am UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/how-to-cascade-workflow-cancellation-to-related-workflows-in-golang/16021/9 "2025-01-21T10:00:01Z")

</div>

@maxim after some time with this, we’ve identified that this requires an active worker to continually process the activity until either the expiration time or the cancellation. I would guess that using a selector in the workflow would also do this. Is there any other way to put a workflow to sleep (to free up the worker) and then “catch” a cancel to perform cleanup in Go-lang?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nickm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/nickm/32/6669_2.png) [@nickm](https://community.temporal.io/u/nickm)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2025, 10:35am UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/how-to-cascade-workflow-cancellation-to-related-workflows-in-golang/16021/10 "2025-01-21T10:35:59Z")

</div>

Okay. I figured out and I feel pretty dumb. I didn’t realize the `defer func()` in the example was associated to the end of the workflow. Based on the syntax, I thought it was a deferred till the end of the activity. So the solution is much much simpler than I had originally plan:

```go
func MyWorkflow(ctx workflow.Context, request MyWorkflowRequest) error {
	// Register signal channels
	// ...

	// Related workflows
	relatedWorkflowIds := []string{
		//...
	}

	// Handle cancellation at the end of the workflow
	defer func() {
		// This is executed at the very end of the workflow
		logger.Info("Beginning cleanup")
		cancelled := false
		newCtx := ctx

		if errors.Is(ctx.Err(), workflow.ErrCanceled) {
			cancelled = true
			// get a new disconnected context
			newCtx, _ = workflow.NewDisconnectedContext(ctx)
			logger.Debug("Created a new disconnected context")
		}

		// Send signal
		err := workflow.SignalExternalWorkflow(newCtx, SomeWorkflowId, "", SomeWorkflowSignal, data).Get(ctx, nil)
		if err != nil {
			logger.Error("Failed to trigger signal", "error", err)
		}

		// if the workflow was not actually cancelled, we don't need to do anything else
		if !cancelled {
			logger.Debug("Workflow was not cancelled")
			return
		}

		if len(relatedWorkflowIds) == 0 {
			logger.Debug("No related workflows to cancel")
			return
		}

		// Cascade the cancellation to any related workflows
		logger.Debug("Cascading cancellation to related workflows", "relatedWorkflowIds", relatedWorkflowIds)
		for _, relatedWorkflowId := range relatedWorkflowIds {
			err := workflow.RequestCancelExternalWorkflow(newCtx, relatedWorkflowId, "").Get(ctx, nil)
			if err != nil {
				logger.Error("Failed to cancel related workflow", "relatedWorkflowId", relatedWorkflowId, "error", err)
			}
			logger.Info("Related workflow cancelled", "relatedWorkflowId", relatedWorkflowId)
		}
	}()

	// Go to sleep until it's time to close the workflow
	workflow.Sleep(ctx, crawler.ArchiveTime.Sub(currentTime))

	return nil
}

```