---
id: STORE-2
family: GR-STORE
level: core
profiles: [storage-api]
posture: normative-target
added: "1.0"
changed: "1.0"
source: https://flowdrop.io/spec/rules/gr-store/store-2
specification: FlowDrop Workflow Specification 1.0-draft
licence: CC BY 4.0
---

# STORE-2 — A workflow must be named

*GR-STORE (Part I) · level: core · profiles: storage-api · added in 1.0*

Every workflow carries a name, on creation and on every update. The name is what a person uses to find it again, so the system refuses to store one without it.

## The rule

> **Normative.** This is the rule.
>
> 1. A workflow's `name` is required when it is created and when it is updated, and must be a non-empty string.
>
> 2. An implementation must accept a name of at least 255 Unicode code points, and may accept longer.
>
> 3. A request that omits the name, sends an empty one, or exceeds the implementation's limit is refused with 400, and nothing is stored.


## What it means

The name is the only field a workflow cannot be stored without. Everything else
either defaults or is optional: STORE-4 lets `nodes`, `edges` and `metadata`
default to empty on create, and leaves them untouched on a partial update. The
name is the exception; it is required on update too, so there is no
name-omitted `PUT`.

The refusal happens at the boundary, before the workflow is written, so a
rejected update leaves the stored workflow exactly as it was.

## Example

```http title="Creating a workflow with no name" verdict="400 refused"
POST /api/flowdrop/workflows

{ "nodes": [], "edges": [] }
```

```http title="A name that is a single zero: a string, so a name" verdict="201 stored"
POST /api/flowdrop/workflows

{ "name": "0" }
```

## Why

Three details here were once specified differently, each because a host
language's idiom was mistaken for a decision.

**A name of `"0"` is a name.** Nothing about a workflow makes a single zero
unsuitable, so the rule tests for a non-empty string and nothing else.

**Length counts code points, not bytes.** Counting bytes makes the limit depend
on which alphabet the name is written in. Saying "characters" would only move the
ambiguity.

**255 is a floor, not a ceiling.** The number was borrowed from a database
convention no implementation here runs. A floor gives the guarantee that
matters (a name within 255 code points is accepted everywhere) without freezing one
system's limit into every other.

Recorded under OPEN-19, which covers seven such corrections.

## Why

Recorded under OPEN-19.

## References

**Normative** — incorporated into this rule:

- The Unicode Standard, Definition of code point (https://www.unicode.org/versions/latest/) — The unit this rule counts.

**Further reading:**

- Unicode UAX, Unicode Text Segmentation (https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr29/) — Why the limit counts code points and not grapheme clusters, which are closer to what a person calls a character and much harder for two implementations to agree on.

## Related rules

- Referenced by: STORE-4

---

Rule identifiers are permanent and are never renumbered. This specification carries
no implementation status: each implementation publishes its own standing against
these rules. Licensed CC BY 4.0.