Skip to content

Creating / Updating Task Definitions

A task definition specifies a task's general implementation details:

  • Timeout policy
  • Retry logic
  • Rate limit and execution limit
  • Input/output keys
  • Input template

This definition applies to all instances of the task across workflows.

You can create task definitions using the Conductor UI, CLI, or APIs for the following scenarios:

  • Worker tasks: all worker tasks (SIMPLE) must be registered to the Conductor server as a task definition before they can execute in a workflow.
  • System tasks: system tasks don't require a task definition, but you can create one with the same name to customize retry, timeout, and rate limit behavior.

Using Conductor UI

With the UI, you can create or update task definitions visually.

Creating task definitions

To create a task definition:

  1. In the left navigation, open Definitions and select Task.
  2. Select Define task.
  3. Configure the task in the Task form, or open the Code tab to edit the JSON directly. Refer to Task Definitions for the full parameters.
  4. Select Save.

Updating task definitions

To update a task definition:

  1. In the left navigation, open Definitions and select Task, then select the task definition to be updated.
  2. Modify the task in the Task form or the Code tab. Refer to Task Definitions for the full parameters.
  3. Select Save.

Using the CLI

Save your task definition to a JSON file and run:

conductor task create taskdef.json

The file can contain a single task definition object or an array of them. To update an existing definition, edit the file and run:

conductor task update taskdef.json

Refer to Task Definitions for a reference guide on the full parameters.

Using APIs

Refer to Task Definitions for a reference guide on the full parameters.

Creating task definitions

You can also create task definitions using the Create Task Definition API (POST /api/metadata/taskdefs). The API accepts an array of task definitions, allowing you to create them in bulk.

Example using cURL 
curl '<YOUR-CLUSTER-URL>/api/metadata/taskdefs' \
  -H 'accept: */*' \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  --data-raw '[{"name":"sample_task_name_1","description":"This is a sample task for demo","responseTimeoutSeconds":10,"timeoutSeconds":30,"inputKeys":[],"outputKeys":[],"timeoutPolicy":"TIME_OUT_WF","retryCount":3,"retryLogic":"FIXED","retryDelaySeconds":5,"inputTemplate":{},"rateLimitPerFrequency":0,"rateLimitFrequencyInSeconds":1}]'

Updating task definitions

You can update task definitions using the Update Task Definition API (PUT /api/metadata/taskdefs). This API can only be used to update a single task definition at a time.

Example using cURL 
curl '<YOUR-CLUSTER-URL>/api/metadata/taskdefs' \
  -X 'PUT' \
  -H 'accept: */*' \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  --data-raw '{"name":"sample_task_name_1","description":"This is a sample task for demo","responseTimeoutSeconds":10,"timeoutSeconds":30,"inputKeys":[],"outputKeys":[],"timeoutPolicy":"TIME_OUT_WF","retryCount":3,"retryLogic":"FIXED","retryDelaySeconds":5,"inputTemplate":{},"rateLimitPerFrequency":0,"rateLimitFrequencyInSeconds":1}'

Using SDKs

Every client SDK includes metadata-client methods that call the same create and update endpoints. Use them when task registration belongs in your application or deployment code rather than in a manual step.

Reusing tasks

Once a task is defined in Conductor, it can be reused numerous times:

  • In the same workflow — use the same task with different task reference names.
  • Across workflows — any workflow can reference any registered task definition.

When reusing tasks in a multi-tenant system, all work assigned to a task goes into the same queue by default. If a noisy neighbor causes polling delays, you can scale up the number of workers or use task-to-domain to route task load into separate queues.