Flowable

Flowable is an open-source platform for business process management and decision automation. It provides a BPMN 2.0 engine for designing and executing workflows, along with support for case management (CMMN) and decision automation (DMN). Flowable enables automation of end-to-end processes, coordination of human tasks with system actions, and enforcement of business rules across integrations.

Flowable originated in 2016 as a fork of Activiti by the Flowable project team. It is developed by Flowable, a company offering both a community edition and an enterprise edition. The project emphasizes performance, scalability, modularity, and ease of embedding in Java applications.

Core components include the Flowable Engine, which executes BPMN, CMMN, and DMN models; Flowable Modeler, a web-based tool for authoring models; Flowable Admin for administration; and Flowable Task for human task management. The platform exposes REST and Java APIs, supports database persistence, clustering, timers, events, and external task workers for integration with external systems.

The core project is released under the Apache License 2.0. Flowable also offers an Enterprise Edition with additional features and professional support. It has a global community of contributors and is widely used across industries.

Common use cases include order processing, claim handling, HR onboarding, IT service management, and other automated workflows that combine processes, decisions, and case handling. Flowable integrates with Java/Spring applications and various data sources and messaging systems to automate operations.