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Configure Governance Workflow Triggers and Conditions

Governance workflows can respond to changes on specific data assets and route an entity based on its metadata. OpenMetadata 2.1 adds entity-specific trigger fields, support for column custom-property changes, and Data Product count conditions. You need permission to create or edit a Workflow Definition. You also need the Deploy operation to deploy the completed workflow.

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Choose Which Changes Trigger a Workflow

For an event-based start node, the Include Fields and Exclude Fields lists contain only fields that apply to the selected data asset types. The lists combine:
  • Common fields, such as description, owners, and tags.
  • Fields for the selected entity type, such as columns for a Table or outputPorts for a Data Product.
  • Custom properties defined for the selected entity type. The selector marks these entries as Custom Property.
This keeps a workflow from offering fields that cannot change on the selected entity type. Include Fields list showing the columns field for a Table workflow trigger
If Include Fields is empty, any supported common or entity-specific field can trigger the workflow. Use Include Fields when the workflow should respond only to a smaller set of changes.

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Trigger a Workflow When a Column Custom Property Changes

Use the Table columns field to respond when a custom property on any column changes.
  1. Go to Govern > Workflows, create or edit a workflow, and select the start node.
  2. Under Data Asset, select Table. Select Dashboard Data Model instead when the custom property belongs to a dashboard data model column.
  3. Set Trigger Type to Event Based.
  4. Under Include Fields, select columns.
  5. Complete the workflow, save it, and deploy it.
Start node configured to monitor the columns field on Tables Changing a column custom property now creates a column change on the parent entity and starts the workflow. One update to a table starts the workflow at most once, even when the update changes multiple columns.
The trigger watches the columns field as a whole. It cannot be limited to one column or one column custom property. The condition builder does not offer columns because it is an array of column objects and cannot be compared as a single value.

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Route Data Products by Asset or Output Port Count

The Check Condition node provides two numeric fields when the workflow evaluates a Data Product: For example, use Asset Count > 0 to continue only when the Data Product contains an asset, or Output Port Count > 0 to require at least one output port.
  1. Configure the start node with Data Product selected under Data Asset. The count fields are not available when the start node processes Tables or another entity type.
  2. Add a Check Condition node. If you changed the start node after adding this node, close and reopen its configuration so the field list refreshes.
  3. In the condition builder’s Field list, select Asset Count or Output Port Count. Do not select Data Product. That option represents an entity relationship and provides operators such as Is and Is Not.
  4. Select > and enter 0 to require at least one item.
  5. Connect the true and false branches to the appropriate next steps.
  6. Save and deploy the workflow.
Check Condition configured with Asset Count greater than zero Check Condition configured with Output Port Count greater than zero OpenMetadata calculates these counts when the condition runs. They are available for workflow evaluation but are not stored as fields on the Data Product.
To validate both requirements, add conditions for assetsCount > 0 and outputPortsCount > 0, then use the branch that matches your approval process.

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Verify the Workflow

Test the deployed workflow with a non-production entity:
  1. Change a selected trigger field on the entity.
  2. Confirm that a workflow instance starts.
  3. For a Data Product condition, test once with an empty collection and once after adding an asset or output port.
  4. Confirm that each instance follows the expected true or false branch.