--- title: How we use Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs) to turn... description: Cloudflare Workflows now generates visual step diagrams in the dashboard. Since workflows are written as TypeScript code (not declarative YAML/JSON), the team... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-use-abstract-syntax-trees-asts-to-turn-workflows-code-into-visual-diagrams-2krwcierj twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How we use Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs) to turn Workflows code into visual diagrams | daily.dev og:description: Cloudflare Workflows now generates visual step diagrams in the dashboard. Since workflows are written as TypeScript code (not declarative YAML/JSON), the team... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-use-abstract-syntax-trees-asts-to-turn-workflows-code-into-visual-diagrams-2krwcierj og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/2kRwcIErj.png og:image:alt: How we use Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs) to turn Workflows code into visual diagrams og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How we use Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs) to turn Workflows code into visual diagrams **[Cloudflare](https://daily.dev/sources/cloudflare)** · 13 min read · 20 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Cloudflare Workflows now generates visual step diagrams in the dashboard. Since workflows are written as TypeScript code (not declarative YAML/JSON), the team built an AST-based pipeline to statically derive the execution graph. After bundling and minification, the code is parsed using oxc-parser from the JavaScript Oxidation Compiler, running inside a Rust-based Cloudflare Worker via WebAssembly. The parser tracks Promise/await relationships to determine parallel vs. sequential execution, handles patterns like loops, branches, try/catch, and ternary operators, and maps everything to a set of predefined node types (StepDo, LoopNode, IfNode, ParallelNode, etc.). Each node carries starts/resolves indices to capture timing relationships for vertical positioning in the diagram. The goal is to evolve these diagrams into a full debugging tool with real-time execution tracing, error discovery, and local dev support. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [On the way to step functions: the two worlds](https://daily.dev/posts/on-the-way-to-step-functions-the-two-worlds-anlwzk3po) · RUBYLAND · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#typescript](https://daily.dev/tags/typescript), [#cloudflare](https://daily.dev/tags/cloudflare) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-use-abstract-syntax-trees-asts-to-turn-workflows-code-into-visual-diagrams-2krwcierj) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"How we use Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs) to turn Workflows code into visual diagrams","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-use-abstract-syntax-trees-asts-to-turn-workflows-code-into-visual-diagrams-2krwcierj","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-we-use-abstract-syntax-trees-asts-to-turn-workflows-code-into-visual-diagrams-2krwcierj"},"datePublished":"2026-03-27T13:42:05.761Z","dateModified":"2026-03-27T13:42:32.680Z","description":"Cloudflare Workflows now generates visual step diagrams in the dashboard. 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