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Version: v2 ⚡

Roadmap and Product Ethos

Introduction

This page details the planned roadmaps for the key products in the OpenFn product suite, including Lightning, Adaptors, and this Docs site. While this page will be updated periodically, you can track our realtime roadmap and progress here.

Our approach to product development

At OpenFn, we follow the Shape Up approach to help our small engineering team build meaningul products and features faster without compomising on quality. With Shape Up in place, we typcially commit to projects that can be delivered in a 4-6 week period with multiple releases based on QA approval within the building cycle. We also proiritize feedback and feature requests from our users over features in the backlog.

Transparency and building what matters

Note that it's fairly rare for us to commit to delivering a specific feature more than 2 or 3 months in the future. We are committed to constantly evluating what our user base needs most and spending the few resources we have to deliver value to them—we simply can't guarantee that what sounds like the "7th most important feature to build" now will still be on our list in 6 months.

At the same time, we strive to be as transparent and inclusive as we can in our planning processes. We have a big backlog of feature requests and GitHub issues (bug reports, stubs, even partially shaped epics or projects) that are getting voted up, commented on, and used as inspiration when we're deciding what to prioritize next.

Read on to learn more about how we work, how you can see what's coming, and how you can get involved!

What are we currently working on?

All of our team's work is tracked publicly using a GitHub Project. Three key views give you up-to-the-minute insights on what we're doing and what's on our immediate roadmap.

See Now 🚧 for what's been funded and is currently being built

See Next 📝 for what's being shaped and may be funded in the next cycle

See Epics 🤔 for a list of projects that we're considering, roughly-prioritized

See Bugs 🐞 for reported bugs

We will update this site periodically (ideally after each cycle, typically lasting between 2-6 weeks) to reflect our progress on major items. You can also keep track of all new features, changes, and bug fixes in our Changelog.

How to get involved

We use Canny to receive, track, engage and manage new feature requests from the community of users of OpenFn globally whilst giving users the ability to the upvote their favoritie and mission critical feature request.

Upvote features 👍

  1. Go to openfn.canny.io
  2. Scroll down or use the filter and search features to see existing feature requests
  3. Click on the (^) beside the request to upvote
  4. If you want more upvotes for this feature request, share a link to the feature with your network

Request a new feature 💡

  1. Go to openfn.canny.io
  2. Provide a very clear, concise and descriptive title for the feature (e.g., "Make the new workflow button green")
  3. Describe the feature request in detail and why it's important to you
  4. Share the feature request on the OpenFn community and across your professional network for upvotes
Tip

When describing the feature, it is very helpful to help us understand the problem, proposed solution (if any) and similar solutions we might glean insights from if they exist.

Open an issue or bug directly

If you prefer the direct approach, you can search across all tracked issues in OpenFn's GitHub org here, comment on them, or even pick them up to work on yourself. If you don't find what you're looking for, please go ahead an create an issue in the relevant repo. We'll do our best to respond promptly!

Summary Roadmaps

How to interpret Status values in the roadmap

  • Tracked means we're thinking about this, but it hasn't been designed/scoped/shaped
  • Shaped means it's been scoped and ready to be picked up by an engineer
  • In dev means it's currently being worked on by an engineer (see NOW)
  • Delivered means it's been released (see Changelog)

Lightning Roadmap

OpenFn/Lightning is the fully open-source workflow automation platform at the core of the OpenFn Digital Public Good (learn more about the product here).

FeatureStatusTarget TimelineRelated LinksDescription
1. Enable workflow snapshottingDeliveredQ3 '24Issue 1680Keep a snapshot of a snapshot based on a run or saved changes of the workflow. Allow users to be able to view snapshot and switch to the latest version of the workflow from a snapshot mode.
2. Enable configurable concurrency by workflowDeliveredQ3 '24Issue 2002Allow users to control the limit of concurrent runs per workflow in a project.
3. New workflow triggers (Kafka)DeliveredQ3 '24Issue 1801Enable a new trigger type that allows users to run workflows based on messages from a Kafka cluster.
4. AI-enabled assitantsDeliveredQ3 '24Issue 2193LLM based AI assitant that supports users with job writing, debugging and co-piloting their workflow design process.
5. Invite new users as collaboratorsDeliveredQ3 '24Issue 1835Invite users who do not have OpenFn accounts to projects as collaborators.
6. Allow users to create projectsDeliveredQ3 '24Issue 1700All users to create new projects from their dashboard.
7. Allow users to export workorder historyDeliveredQ3 '24Issue 1698Allow project users to be able to export workorder history. The workorder history contains ALL logs and data clips (Input and Output) associated with runs in a workorder.
8. Project datastores and buffersShapedQ4 '24Issue 2190Allow users to configure a data store or buffer that allows temporary of storage of data that can be used in a workflow.
9. Make User Onboarding betterShapedQ4 '24Issue 2523Control what is printed in run logs by specifying log levels and allow users to disable printing console.logs, for data privacy once workflows are handling production data.
10. Snapshots and Audit TrailShapedQ4 '24Issue 2526Control what is printed in run logs by specifying log levels and allow users to disable printing console.logs, for data privacy once workflows are handling production data.
11. Implement Monaco EditorTrackedQ4 '24Issue 2126Implement monaco editor for code editor or log viewing across the platform
12. Allow users to switch between sandbox and production modesTrackedQ4 '24Issue 2524 and Issue 2525Allow users to be able to switch between sandbox and production modes in their projects.
13. Control log outputsTrackedQ4 '24Issue 1755Control what is printed in run logs by specifying log levels and allow users to disable printing console.logs, for data privacy once workflows are handling production data.
14. Enable manual workflow triggersTrackedQ1 '25Issue 2155Add funtionality that allows users to manually trigger workflow with JSON/CSV data as input data clip
15. Redesign workflow canvas and inspector interfaceTrackedQ1 '25Issue 2021Redesign the workflow canvas and inspector interface to make workflow design better to help user build workflow faster and easier.
16. Improved History page filterTrackedQ1 '25Issue 1791Extend workorder history page and enable cascading filtering. This is useful for debuging, failure recovery and auditability of the workflow.
17. Enhanced websocket worker MonitoringTrackedQ1 '25Issue 608Give users better visibility of what's happening on inside the worker, especially when an error occurs during run execution.
18. Expanded Audit Trail and Node Authentication (ATNA) functionalityTrackedQ1 '25Issue 271Extend audit trail functionality to cover more aspects of ATNA, reference OpenHIE IOL requirement IOLWF-1.

You can follow Lightning's progress and track delivered features in the Changelog.

Adaptors Roadmap

OpenFn's open-source adaptors can connect any application, including web APIs, databases, and even raw data files, enabling interoperability with any information system (read more). Adaptors, alongside OpenFn's workflow engine, enable automated workflows that cut across digital systems.

FeatureStatusTarget TimelineRelated LinksDescription
1. Add "magic" functions to existing, in-demand adaptorsDeliveredQ1 2024Issue 243Add functions, dynamic lists, and shortcuts to fast-track workflow configuration for key adaptors including HTTP, DHIS2, CommCare, & OpenMRS
2. New OpenMRS adaptor versionDeliveredQ2 2024See existing adaptor docsTo ensure compliance with OpenMRS v3
3. Enhancements to FHIR & OpenHIM adaptorsDeliveredQ3 2024See existing adaptors for FHIR and OpenHIMTo rebuild the existing 2021 OpenFn Instant-OpenHIE reference demo to highlight the exchange of data between existing non-FHIR digital health tools and a HAPI FHIR server. (OpenFn Lightning is OpenHIE-compliant and can be used as a workflow engine for the OpenHIE Interoperability layer - learn more here.) We also want to demonstrate data exchange between existing non-FHIR digital health tools and key components of Google’s Open Health Stack and Cloud Healthcare API
4. Enhancements to the OCL adaptorTrackedQ4 2024See existing adaptor docsTo ensure that mappings stored in OCLs can be more easily access and processed as inputs in OpenFn/Lightning workflows
5. Implement MOSIP AdaptorTrackedQ1 2025Issue 737Enable OpenFn workflows to integrate with the MOSIP platform for identity management use cases across countries.
6. Implement OpenCRVS AdaptorTrackedQ1 2025Issue 736Enable OpenFn workflows to integrate with OpenCRVS for CRVS workflows.
7. Implement ArcGIS AdaptorTrackedQ1 2025Issue 738Enable Geospatial data management in OpenFn Workflows.
8. Support Personal Access Tokens in DHIS2TrackedQ1 2025Issue 697Extend the DHIS2 Adaptor to support Personal Access Tokens (PAT).

Docs Roadmap

FeatureStatusTarget TimelineRelated LinksDescription
1. OpenFn and the OpenHIE architectureDelivered2024See current docsNew page dedicated to how OpenHIE aligns with OpenHIE architecture; expansion of the existing small section on standards
2. New Lightning User GuidanceIn Progress2024To be hosted on docs.openfn.orgNew documentation, videos, and other user guidance on how to use OpenFn/Lightning and how to migrate existing OpenFn/platform projects to Lightning (the new OpenFn "v2")

Have questions, feedback or found a bug?

We encourage users to post their questions on the OpenFn Community at community.openfn.org, or consider creating issues for bugs via product repository. You can also independetly start contributing to the OpenFn software, adaptors, or documentation by getting started here.