Add Answer Node in Workflow for Progressive Response

[shanpf]

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1. Is this request related to a challenge you're experiencing? Tell me about your story.

Description

I need to implement progressive responses in complex workflows to improve user experience. Currently, for complex workflows with long execution times, users have to wait until the entire process is complete before seeing any response.

Use Case

• I have complex workflows that take considerable time to execute
• Users need to see intermediate thinking progress/responses during workflow execution
• I want to publish these complex workflows as tools, so I cannot use chatflow directly
• Need a way to send partial responses back to the frontend during workflow execution

Proposed Solution

Add a new "Answer" node type in the workflow that would:

• Allow sending intermediate responses back to the frontend while the workflow continues executing
• Enable progressive updates to show the system's thinking process
• Support both text and structured data responses
• Not terminate the workflow execution (unlike the current final response node)

Benefits

1. Better user experience by providing real-time feedback
2. Reduced perceived waiting time for users
3. More flexibility in building complex tool-oriented workflows
4. Ability to show step-by-step reasoning process

Technical Considerations

• The Answer node should be different from the final response node
• Multiple Answer nodes should be allowed in a single workflow
• The frontend needs to handle progressive response updates
• Should maintain workflow execution context after sending intermediate responses

Additional Context

This feature is particularly important for:

• Complex reasoning chains
• Multi-step processing workflows
• AI tool development
• Long-running data analysis tasks

Would love to discuss this further and hear the team's thoughts on implementation approaches.

2. Additional context or comments

No response

3. Can you help us with this feature?

• I am interested in contributing to this feature.