[Hackathon] feat: Publish Workflow as REST API

[EmilySun621]

The Problem

You built an amazing diabetes prediction workflow. It works perfectly. But now your hospital's patient intake system needs to call it in real-time — and there's no way to expose your workflow as an API.

Texera workflows are locked inside the browser. No external system can call them.

The Solution

One click turns any workflow into a REST endpoint.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Workflow Editor                                        │
│                                                         │
│  [CSV] → [Clean] → [Split] → [Model] → [Eval]         │
│                                                         │
│                              Click: 🌐 Publish as API  │
└──────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
                               │
                               ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Published API                                          │
│                                                         │
│  POST /api/published/7/run                              │
│  X-API-Key: tex_bbfe69fb...                             │
│                                                         │
│  → Returns cached execution results as JSON             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

How It Works

1. Run your workflow — execute it once to cache results
2. Click 🌐 Publish as API — generates endpoint URL + API key
3. Share the curl command — any external system can fetch your results

bash

curl -X POST 'http://localhost:4200/api/published/7/run' \
  -H 'X-API-Key: tex_bbfe69fb...' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json'

Response:

json

{
  "workflowId": 7,
  "workflowName": "[Example] Data Exploration on Movies Dataset",
  "executedAt": "2026-05-17T05:47:29.799Z",
  "results": { ... }
}

Key Design Decisions

Decision | Choice | Why -- | -- | -- Execution model | Return cached results | No long-running HTTP requests; instant response Auth | Per-workflow API key | Simple, stateless, no OAuth complexity Storage | In-memory + localStorage | Hackathon speed; production would use DB Scope | Read-only | Safe — external clients can't modify workflows

What's Included

Backend (agent-service):

• published-workflow-api.ts — POST /register + POST /:workflowId/run
• API key validation (401 missing / 403 mismatch / 404 unpublished)
• 5 unit tests, all passing

Frontend:

• 🌐 icon button in workflow editor toolbar
• Publish dialog: endpoint URL, masked API key (show/hide + copy), sample curl
• Refuses to publish if no cached results exist

Use Cases

• 🏥 Hospital system calls your prediction workflow for real-time patient risk scoring
• 📱 Mobile app calls your NLP workflow to analyze user-reported symptoms
• 🔄 Another team's pipeline calls your data cleaning workflow
• ⏰ Cron job curls your workflow daily for automated reporting

Any workflow becomes a microservice.

Demo

1. Open a workflow that has been executed → toolbar shows 🌐 button
2. Click 🌐 → dialog with endpoint, API key, curl command
3. Copy curl → run in terminal → JSON results returned instantly