Workflow start information for auditing: who started this workflow?

Ingmar · September 22, 2025, 9:41am

Is there some information stored somewhere about who started a workflow? The workflows started by our services seem indistinguishable from workflows started from the web UI by users (at least we can’t find any information in the web UI).

We are trying to answer the question: who started this workflow? We’re using SSO to authenticate our web UI users.

tihomir · December 29, 2025, 1:46am

StartWorkflowExecutionRequest request includes identity of the client that requested the start

github.com/temporalio/api

temporal/api/workflowservice/v1/request_response.proto

e27f98ce4


      
          temporal.api.taskqueue.v1.TaskQueue task_queue = 4;
          // Serialized arguments to the workflow. These are passed as arguments to the workflow function.
          temporal.api.common.v1.Payloads input = 5;
          // Total workflow execution timeout including retries and continue as new.
          google.protobuf.Duration workflow_execution_timeout = 6;
          // Timeout of a single workflow run.
          google.protobuf.Duration workflow_run_timeout = 7;
          // Timeout of a single workflow task.
          google.protobuf.Duration workflow_task_timeout = 8;
          // The identity of the client who initiated this request
          string identity = 9;
          // A unique identifier for this start request. Typically UUIDv4.
          string request_id = 10;
          // Defines whether to allow re-using the workflow id from a previously *closed* workflow.
          // The default policy is WORKFLOW_ID_REUSE_POLICY_ALLOW_DUPLICATE.
          //
          // See `workflow_id_conflict_policy` for handling a workflow id duplication with a *running* workflow.
          temporal.api.enums.v1.WorkflowIdReusePolicy workflow_id_reuse_policy = 11;
          // Defines how to resolve a workflow id conflict with a *running* workflow.
          // The default policy is WORKFLOW_ID_CONFLICT_POLICY_FAIL.
          //

its exposed via WorkflowExecutionStarted event “identity

github.com/temporalio/api

temporal/api/history/v1/message.proto

e27f98ce4


      
          // Run id of the previous workflow which continued-as-new or retried or cron executed into this
          // workflow.
          string continued_execution_run_id = 10;
          temporal.api.enums.v1.ContinueAsNewInitiator initiator = 11;
          temporal.api.failure.v1.Failure continued_failure = 12;
          temporal.api.common.v1.Payloads last_completion_result = 13;
          // This is the run id when the WorkflowExecutionStarted event was written.
          // A workflow reset changes the execution run_id, but preserves this field.
          string original_execution_run_id = 14;
          // Identity of the client who requested this execution
          string identity = 15;
          // This is the very first runId along the chain of ContinueAsNew, Retry, Cron and Reset.
          // Used to identify a chain.
          string first_execution_run_id = 16;
          temporal.api.common.v1.RetryPolicy retry_policy = 17;
          // Starting at 1, the number of times we have tried to execute this workflow
          int32 attempt = 18;
          // The absolute time at which the workflow will be timed out.
          // This is passed without change to the next run/retry of a workflow.
          google.protobuf.Timestamp workflow_execution_expiration_time = 19;
          // If this workflow runs on a cron schedule, it will appear here

I don’t think the web ui sets this property explicitly, might be worth creating issue for it.

ahsieh · August 13, 2026, 3:54pm

was there an issue created for this? we’re also looking to add some auditing for execution off web UI, noticed identity was present for CLI executions but not web UI

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Workflow start information for auditing: who started this workflow?

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