Type System
Every port (input or output) in a GWE workflow has a type. The engine enforces type-checking at configuration time, ensuring that data passed between agents matches the expected format. This prevents runtime errors and provides intellisense-like support in the Workflow Builder.
Well-Known Types
GWE provides a set of built-in types that have special support across the platform and SDKs.
Primitive Types
| Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
STRING | Text values | "Hello, world" |
FLOAT | Floating-point numbers | 0.95 |
Integer (proto: INT) | Whole numbers | 42 |
Boolean (proto: BOOL) | True or false | true |
Struct (proto: STRUCT) | Structured key-value data | {"key": "value"} |
Framework Types
These types represent common data structures used across Ema's agent ecosystem. They receive special treatment in the engine and SDKs, including automatic formatting for LLM consumption.
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
Document | Document content with metadata (title, source, format) |
SearchResult | Web or knowledge-base search result with URL, snippet, and relevance score |
TextWithSources | Text content with inline source citations |
ChatConversation | Prior conversation history (message list with roles) |
ExtractionColumn | Defines column schema for entity extraction |
MatchedSegment | A chunk or segment matched from a larger document (defined in the Search service, not registered as a GWE well-known type) |
Ruleset | A set of business rules for validation agents |
Date | Calendar date value |
DateTime | Date and time value |
Any | Accepts any type (used for generic ports) |
Additional framework types (such as DatastoreConnection, FusionLlmConfig, DataProtectionConfig, and others) are used internally by the platform.
Framework types are automatically prepared for LLM consumption when passed to LLM-based agents. For example, a
SearchResultis formatted with its title, URL, and snippet in a way that the LLM can reference and cite.
Array Types
An array type represents an ordered list of a single element type. Array types use the syntax array { <element_type> }.
Examples:
array { STRING }: A list of strings (analogous to[]stringin Go).array { Document }: A list of documents.array { array { STRING } }: A nested array (analogous to[][]stringin Go).
Arrays are used heavily in multi-binding patterns where an agent consumes outputs from multiple upstream agents.
Array Type-Checking
When a multi-binding connects multiple upstream outputs to an array input:
- All bound values must match the array's element type.
- For nested arrays, the element type may itself be an array type.
Enumerations
User-defined enumerations represent a fixed set of possible values. Enumerations are particularly useful for classification tasks where an agent must select from predefined categories.
Example Ticket Priority Enum:
Enum: TicketPriority
Values: [LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH, CRITICAL]When an agent output is an enum type, it can be used in run-if conditions to drive branching logic:
CLASSIFY (output: priority, type: TicketPriority)
+-- [run-if priority == HIGH] --> Escalate
+-- [run-if priority == LOW] --> AutoResolveEnumerations are defined as part of the agent's output specification. The Workflow Builder displays the available values when configuring conditional branches.
Next: Workflow Validation