Workflow ID Collision Errors

I’m currently referencing the workflow id section of the docs and it states that attempting to spawn a second workflow with the same workflow ID will result in an error. I am attempting to extract that error, but I’m not actually receiving it.

This is the exact code I’m using:

we, err := temporalClient.ExecuteWorkflow(context.Background(), workflowOptions, temporal.CompleteAssetDrop, params)
if err != nil {
	c.AbortWithStatusJSON(http.StatusConflict, err.Error())
	return
}

The workflow isn’t spawning a second time and the original isn’t being disrupted, but I’m also not hitting the error block.

Am I missing something and is this the intended behavior? Also how should I be checking for ID collision if this is not a valid strategy?

Thanks in advance!

Look at the error from we.Get(...).

I’d like to run the workflow asynchronously, so calling we.Get() would block program execution.

Would calling QueryWorkflow(…) let me check if that particular execution attempt worked?

I read a little further into the docs, and I believe that my best bet here is to call DescribeWorkflowExecution(…) prior to executing the workflow. Here I can check if the ID is attached to a running workflow. This does introduce a very tiny race condition, but I believe I’m willing to live with it.

If there is a better solution here, I would love to hear it though!

No, calling DescribeWorkflowExecution is not going to help as it decreases performance and has an inherent race condition with the start call.

The solution is to set StartWorkflowOptions.WorkflowExecutionErrorWhenAlreadyStarted to true.

Wow, can’t believe I overlooked this! Thank you!