Dapr Workflow Exploration

Small Aspire-based sample that reproduces a tracing/correlation question with Dapr.Workflow.

The sample shows that OpenTelemetry is configured and telemetry is emitted, but the workflow execution is not shown as one single end-to-end trace across:

• the workflow
• the workflow activities
• the downstream pub/sub processing

Projects

• DaprWorkflowExploration.AppHost: Aspire host that starts the app and Dapr sidecars
• DaprWorkflowExploration.ApiService: API + workflow orchestration
• DaprWorkflowExploration.AccountingService: subscriber that processes the payment request and publishes the result
• DaprWorkflowExploration.Web: simple frontend
• DaprWorkflowExploration.ServiceDefaults: shared Aspire/OpenTelemetry configuration

Prerequisites

• .NET 8 SDK
• Dapr CLI installed
• Docker running

Initialize Dapr locally if you have not done that already:

dapr init

Run

Start the Aspire app from the repository root:

dotnet run --project DaprWorkflowExploration.AppHost

This starts:

• apiservice on http://localhost:5497
• webfrontend on http://localhost:5498
• accountingservice on http://localhost:5499
• the Aspire dashboard

Reproduce With The HTTP File

Use OrderProcessing.http.

Suggested sequence:

1. Run POST /store
2. Run POST /order/process
3. Copy the workflowInstanceId from the response
4. Run GET /order/process/{workflowInstanceId} until the workflow completes

The HTTP file also includes requests for:

• getting a single store item
• listing all store items

Expected Behavior

The expectation is that the complete order flow is visible as one trace, including:

• the request that starts the workflow
• workflow execution
• workflow activities
• downstream pub/sub processing in AccountingService
• the event raised back to the workflow

Actual Behavior

Metrics, logs, and traces are emitted, but the spans are split across separate traces instead of appearing under a single end-to-end trace for the whole workflow process.

Screenshots

The Aspire dashboard makes the split visible:

Workflow trace

First tace POST /order/process together with the workflow orchestration and activity spans

Pub/sub and RaiseEvent trace split

Another trace shows the pub/sub flow for payment-requests and payment-results

These screenshots shows that telemetry exists, but trace continuity across the full workflow lifecycle is missing.

Relevant Files

• OrderProcessing.http
• DaprWorkflowExploration.AppHost/AppHost.cs
• DaprWorkflowExploration.ApiService/Program.cs
• DaprWorkflowExploration.AccountingService/Program.cs
• DaprWorkflowExploration.ServiceDefaults/Extensions.cs