fix(automation,objectql): conditional & record-change flows silently skipping

[xuyushun441-sys]

Problem

Every flow with a start-node / edge condition silently skipped. Record-change triggers fired (engine.execute ran), but the flow body never executed — previous.* gates, budget > 100000, and status == "done" && previous.status != "done" all evaluated to false and the flow returned {skipped, condition_not_met}. Only condition-less flows (e.g. the interval schedule) worked.

Discovered while testing the showcase automation suite end-to-end in a browser.

Two independent root causes

1. service-automation — CEL engine unreachable in ESM (the universal blocker)

AutomationEngine.evaluateCondition loaded the formula engine lazily:

const { ExpressionEngine } = require('@objectstack/formula');

The package ships ESM ("type": "module"), where tsup compiles that require into a __require stub that throws Dynamic require of "..." is not supported. The surrounding catch { return false } swallowed it, so every CEL evaluation returned false — platform-wide, for all condition sites (start gates, decision nodes, edge predicates). Fixed with a static top-level import, which binds in both ESM and CJS builds.

2. objectql — prior record not exposed to update hooks

HookContext documents a previous snapshot "for update/delete", but engine.update never populated it — the row it fetched for validation (needsPriorRecord) stayed a local variable. So even once CEL worked, record-change conditions referencing previous.* had nothing to read. The engine now attaches the pre-update record to hookContext.previous for single-id updates whenever a validation rule needs it or an afterUpdate hook is registered.

Verification

End-to-end in the showcase (record-change triggers + capability tokens from #1426):

• reassign task → assigned_notify completed → task.assigned inbox row, keyed to the resolved admin user id (email→userId from feat(messaging,cli): messaging + triggers capability tokens; notify-by-email resolves to user id #1426).
• mark in_review → done → rest_ping (REST connector_action GET /api/v1/health), completed (email), and slack (connector_action) all completed.
• project budget → 250000 → budget_approval launched and paused at manager_review.
• state-machine rule still enforced (in_progress→done rejected; in_review→done allowed).

Tests

• @objectstack/objectql: 451 passed — new test asserts afterUpdate hooks receive ctx.previous, and that no prior-record fetch happens absent hooks/rules.
• @objectstack/service-automation: 105 passed — new test asserts the CEL path evaluates record-change conditions (previous.* + bare fields).

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[vercel]

The latest updates on your projects. Learn more about Vercel for GitHub.

Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
spec	Ready	Preview, Comment	Jun 1, 2026 1:40am