* Require explicit CrewAI project definitions
JSON crews and declarative flows now resolve from `[tool.crewai]`
metadata instead of implicit filename discovery. This makes project type
selection deterministic, prevents stray `crew.json(c)` files from changing
CLI behavior, and centralizes definition path validation for run, install,
deploy validation, plotting, and memory reset paths.
`[tool.crewai].definition` must be a project-local file path. Absolute
paths, `~`, missing files, directories, and paths escaping the project root
are rejected so deploy and runtime commands use the same contract.
Breaking changes and migration paths:
* JSON crew projects are no longer discovered from `crew.json` or
`crew.jsonc` alone. Add explicit metadata:
```toml
[tool.crewai]
type = "crew"
definition = "crew.jsonc"
```
* Declarative flow projects must use a valid project-local definition path:
```toml
[tool.crewai]
type = "flow"
definition = "flows/research.yaml"
```
* `Flow.from_definition(definition)` is removed. Use:
```python
Flow.from_declaration(contents=definition)
```
* `FlowDefinition.to_json()` and `FlowDefinition.to_yaml()` are removed.
Use `FlowDefinition.to_dict()` and serialize with the caller's JSON or
YAML library.
* `FlowDefinition.from_dict()` is removed. Use:
```python
FlowDefinition.from_declaration(contents=data)
```
* `FlowDefinition.json_schema()` is removed. Use Pydantic's schema API only
where schema generation is intentionally needed:
```python
FlowDefinition.model_json_schema(by_alias=True)
```
* `crewai_cli.run_crew.find_crew_json_file()` and `_has_json_crew()` are
removed. Use `configured_project_json_crew()` or the shared
`crewai_core.project.configured_project_definition("crew")` helper.
* `crewai reset-memories` now only loads JSON crews declared through
`[tool.crewai].definition`, and invalid declared JSON crew definitions
fail instead of silently falling back to classic crew discovery.
* Address code review comments
Add a single declaration loader shared by API and CLI callers.
- Add FlowDefinition.from_declaration for FlowDefinition instances, dictionaries, YAML/JSON strings, and file paths
- Add Flow.from_declaration to build runnable flows directly from the same inputs
- Route declarative flow CLI loading through Flow.from_declaration so path handling and validation stay centralized
```
# Load just the serializable definition when you do not need to run it yet.
definition = FlowDefinition.from_declaration(path="flows/research.crewai")
definition = FlowDefinition.from_declaration(contents=flow_yaml)
definition = FlowDefinition.from_declaration(contents=flow_dict)
# Build a runnable flow directly from the same declaration inputs.
flow = Flow.from_declaration(path="flows/research.crewai")
flow = Flow.from_declaration(contents=flow_yaml)
flow = Flow.from_declaration(contents=flow_dict)
flow = Flow.from_declaration(contents=definition)
# Run it like any other flow.
result = flow.kickoff(inputs={"topic": "AI agents"})
# The CLI now goes through the same path-based loader.
# crewai run --definition flows/research.crewai
```
This commit fixes a bug where a router method could not be the start
method of a flow.
This is useful when you want to route against the initial state, or even
stack two routers.
* Add single agent action to Flow definitions
Lets a flow method build and run a single CrewAI agent directly, without
wrapping it in a crew. Same idea as the existing `crew` action, but for
one agent.
methods:
answer:
do:
call: agent
with:
role: Analyst
goal: Answer questions
backstory: Knows things.
input: "${state.question}"
start: true
* `input` is required and interpolated from flow state, like
`${state.question}` or `${item}` inside an `each` loop
* optional `response_format` points at a Pydantic model (`{"python":
"models.AnswerModel"}`) to get structured output
* `input` must be a string and its CEL is validated at load time, so bad
expressions like `${state.}` fail early
* Simplify test code
* Use explicit name/action shape for each.do steps
* Add optional `if` expression to `each.do` steps
Lets a step inside an `each` action run conditionally based on a CEL
expression evaluated against `item` and prior step `outputs`.
Add a description and examples to every FlowDefinition field and
standardize on `typing.Literal`, so the generated JSON schema documents
itself — each action discriminator, state branch, and config option
explains what it is and shows a realistic value.
Examples live on individual fields only, never at the model level, which
keeps the schema readable for tooling that renders field-level help.
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
* Add script/code blocks to FlowDefinition
Let a Flow method run trusted inline Python with `call: script`. The code
is compiled once into a generated function and receives the runtime
values as arguments.
```yaml
methods:
normalize:
start: true
do:
call: script
code: |
import math
state["rounded"] = math.ceil(state["raw_score"])
return f"rounded:{state['rounded']}"
```
Even though this shares the same surface of tools (custom code), I
decided to make it opt-in for now, using
`CREWAI_ALLOW_FLOW_SCRIPT_EXECUTION=1`.
* Address code review comments
Replace the single FlowStateDefinition model with a `type`-discriminated
union of FlowDictStateDefinition, FlowPydanticStateDefinition,
FlowJsonSchemaStateDefinition, and FlowUnknownStateDefinition.
Each branch only carries the fields it actually uses and forbids extras,
so an invalid combination like a `dict` state with a `ref` now fails
validation instead of being silently accepted. The runtime reads `ref`
and `json_schema` defensively since they no longer exist on every branch.
```yaml
state:
type: json_schema
json_schema:
type: object
properties:
topic:
type: string
```
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
A `do:` step can now say `call: tool` and name a CrewAI tool to run,
passing its inputs under `with:`. Before this, a definition could only
point at Python code to run.
```yaml
methods:
search:
start: true
do:
call: tool
ref: crewai_tools:ExaSearchTool
with:
search_query: ai agents
```
* Read flow dispatch from FlowDefinition
Store the definition in a `_definition` PrivateAttr at post-init and
convert the dispatch helpers (`_start_method_names`, `_listener_methods`,
`_start_condition`, `_listen_condition`, `_is_router`) from classmethods
to instance methods that read it. Event names now fall back to
`self._definition.name` instead of `self.__class__.__name__`.
Behavior is identical for decorator subclasses, but the engine no longer
assumes the definition comes from the class. This is the seam for
`Flow.from_definition`, where an instance runs a definition that was
loaded rather than built from a Python subclass.
* Add Flow.from_definition to run flows without a subclass
A FlowDefinition (e.g. loaded from YAML) was only usable for dispatch on
decorator-authored subclasses. Now each method definition records an
importable `module:qualname` handler ref, and `Flow.from_definition`
resolves and binds those handlers to build a runnable flow directly.
* Build flow state from FlowDefinition
Definition-driven flows previously always started with a bare dict
state.
* Replace handler string with structured FlowActionDefinition
`handler: str | None` was optional and opaque — missing handlers only
surfaced at kickoff time. `do: FlowActionDefinition` is required, so
Pydantic rejects invalid definitions at parse time.
The `call: "code"` discriminator prepares the schema for future
non-Python action types (e.g. MCP tool, crew) without touching
`FlowMethodDefinition`. Resolution logic is extracted to
`runtime/_action_resolvers.py` to keep the dispatch point isolated.
* Fix conversational start router missing required do field
FlowMethodDefinition.do became required when the handler string was
replaced with FlowActionDefinition, but _conversation_start_router still
built its fragment without it, breaking crewai import entirely.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* Add event scoping to flow test
* Change lib/crewai/tests/test_flow_from_definition.py
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* improve one less route
* flows in flows, new agent executor causing early trace batch finalization
* addressing comments
* addressing comments pt2
* lint and typecheck fix
* decouple convo logic from runtime and added a conversational_definition
* type check fix
* always defer traces for convo and so fix tests to reflect that
* Migrate @listen/@router runtime to read from FlowDefinition
The runtime now resolves listener conditions, router status, and emit
values from `FlowMethodDefinition` instead of legacy method metadata and
the `_listeners`/`_routers`/`_router_emit` registries.
* Evaluate AND/OR listener conditions over the definition shape via
`_evaluate_definition_condition`
* Drop the class registries and the `FlowMeta` extraction that built
them; stop stamping `__trigger_methods__`, `__is_router__`,
`__router_emit__`, and friends
* `@human_feedback` emit now lives only on its config
* Simplify conditionals DSL
* Remove `_start_methods` and `__is_start_method__` stamping
* Add helpers to read start info from the definition
* Scan `__dict__` instead of `dir()` to find flow methods
Centralize FlowTrigger and FlowMethodDecorator so start/listen/router and the boolean trigger helpers share one authoring contract. This preserves decorated method signatures for static checking while allowing route-label strings in nested FlowCondition data.
Export the shared typing helpers for static analyzers, use an explicit Protocol body, align condition validation with Sequence-backed condition data, and drop the stale call-arg ignore exposed by the signature-preserving decorators.
Update the flow guide to use or_(...) for multi-label listeners.
The Flow DSL lived in one 1033-line `dsl.py` that mixed every decorator
(`@start`/`@listen`/`@router`), the `human_feedback` decorator,
condition combinators, and FlowDefinition extraction helpers in a single
file.
Split it into a `dsl/` package where each decorator gets its own module
(`start.py` 68 lines, `listen.py` 55, `router.py` 164,
`human_feedback.py` 98) and the shared extraction/condition helpers stay
in `utils.py`. The public API is re-exported from `dsl/__init__.py`, so
import paths are unchanged.
This is simpler because each decorator is now read and changed in
isolation instead of scanning a 1000-line file to find one of them, and
router-specific annotation parsing no longer sits next to unrelated
start/listen logic.
* Build FlowDefinition from Flow DSL metadata
Introduce `FlowDefinition`, a serializable model built from the Flow
DSL's runtime metadata. It becomes the structural contract for Flow
methods, triggers, routers, state, and configuration.
The visualization layer is the first consumer: `flow_structure` and
`build_flow_structure` now project from the definition instead of
re-introspecting the class. The runner still executes from live
registries, but the definition gives future runners a single static
contract to read.
This replaces AST source parsing for router return values, crew
references, and state schema with runtime metadata plus explicit
`@router(paths=...)` or `Literal`/`Enum` return hints. AST parsing was
fragile and could silently fail for dynamic or non-inspectable methods.
The refactor removes obsolete introspection and serializer code:
* Delete `flow_serializer.py`, `flow/utils.py`, and
`visualization/schema.py`
* Move flow structure modeling into `flow_definition.py`
* Simplify visualization building around the static definition contract
* Format files
