IMIXS-WORKFLOW Blog

Enterprise workflow automation rarely lives in isolation. Every business process needs to talk to external systems. With Imixs-Connect we provide a new workflow integration layer to define stable contracts between different IT systems.

The Problem with Traditional Integration Approaches

The classic answer is to build a dedicated client inside the workflow engine. You write the code, you manage the API keys, you handle the error cases — and suddenly you own the integration. When the ERP changes its API, when the CRM goes down, when the data doesn’t synchronize correctly — the workflow team gets the call. But this is not a technical problem. It is an architectural one.

Building system-specific clients inside a workflow engine moves responsibility in the wrong direction. The team that knows the external system best — the ERP developer, the CRM administrator, the integration specialist — is not involved. The workflow team, which knows the process best, ends up owning business logic that belongs elsewhere.

Continue reading “Imixs-Connect: The new Workflow Integration Layer”

With the latest version of Imixs-AI we just shipped a new feature extending BPMN with AI: Tool Calling support for the OpenAI API. This is a powerfull new feature introducing a fundamental shift in what an LLM can do inside a workflow application.

From answering questions to starting business processes

Until now, an LLM integrated into Imixs could analyze data, generate text, evaluate conditions, and assist users with information. All of that is great. But the LLM was always just talking. It could tell you “you should start a vacation request” — but it couldn’t actually do it. Tool Calling changes this completely.

With Tool Calling, the LLM no longer just responds with text. It can respond with a structured request to execute a function in your application. Consider this scenario:

A user types into the workflow application:

"I need next week off."

Imixs-AI now doesn’t explain how to submit a vacation request. It doesn’t ask for clarification. It fires a tool call:

{
  "finish_reason": "tool_calls",
  "tool_calls": [{
    "function": {
      "name": "load_skill",
      "arguments": "{\"process_id\": \"urlaubsantrag\"}"
    }
  }]
}

Now a business application based on Imixs-AI is able to handle this respons and start the correct BPMN process — all from a single natural language sentence. No menus, no navigation, no searching. Just say what you want and it happens.

Continue reading “Imixs-AI – LLM Tool Calling”

Theia IDE is a modern, AI-native IDE which can be run on Desktop as also in a Docker container as a Web app. With the Docker image you can deploy Theia IDE in a Kubernetes cluster. The deployment is straightforward — until you try to use extensions that open embedded browser windows. This post explains the problem and how to solve it using wildcard certificates with DNS-01 challenges.

Continue reading “Running Theia IDE in Kubernetes”

If you work on modern enterprise IT systems, “AI Agents” are the new elephant in the room. Every day, new YouTube videos appear where someone talks enthusiastically about AI Agents and Agentic AI. The base line – software systems not using AI Agents are outdated and behind the times. But what does it really mean to integrate an AI agent into critical business applications?

Imixs-Workflow is an open-source project for building transactional, secure, and transparent business applications based on the BPMN 2.0 modeling standard. The idea is simple: you describe a business process in a model, then use a workflow engine to execute that model. The concept of a workflow engine is not new, but it remains a well-grounded approach to executing predefined business processes in a transparent, comprehensible, and transactional context. This simply means that the workflow engine guarantees a task is carried out exactly as previously defined. Execution can be performed by both IT systems and humans.

Let’s have a look how this concept is related to AI Agents.

Continue reading “AI Agents vs. AI-Augmented Workflows”