From 103ad7377504cde07c83f71eb11432b1efece1a4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ali jawwad <33836051+jawwad-ali@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2026 19:10:51 +0500
Subject: [PATCH] fix(workflows): guard non-mapping 'workflow:' block in
 WorkflowDefinition (#3694)
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* fix(workflows): guard non-mapping 'workflow:' block in WorkflowDefinition

A present-but-non-mapping top-level `workflow:` block (bare `workflow:` ->
YAML null, or `workflow: <str>` / `workflow: [..]`) crashed
WorkflowDefinition.__init__ with AttributeError: the `{}` default of
`data.get("workflow", {})` only applies when the key is ABSENT, so a non-dict
value reached `workflow.get("id", ...)`. This fires inside from_yaml/
from_string — before validate_workflow can report the malformed shape — and
in the CLI escapes as a raw traceback (load_workflow is wrapped to catch only
FileNotFoundError/ValueError).

Normalize the local `workflow` to {} when it is not a mapping (self.data keeps
the raw value so validate_workflow still reports it), mirroring the adjacent
default_options guard.

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* test(workflows): assert self.data preserves the raw non-mapping workflow value

Address review: the previous assertion only proved the key stayed present; it
would pass even if construction replaced the malformed value with {}. Assert
definition.data["workflow"] equals the original parsed value and is still a
non-mapping, proving the guard normalizes only the local variable.

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 src/specify_cli/workflows/engine.py | 11 +++++++++++
 tests/test_workflows.py             | 25 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 36 insertions(+)

diff --git a/src/specify_cli/workflows/engine.py b/src/specify_cli/workflows/engine.py
index 03afaee74..13fd63333 100644
--- a/src/specify_cli/workflows/engine.py
+++ b/src/specify_cli/workflows/engine.py
@@ -42,6 +42,17 @@ class WorkflowDefinition:
         self.source_path = source_path
 
         workflow = data.get("workflow", {})
+        # A present-but-non-mapping ``workflow:`` block (bare ``workflow:`` ->
+        # None, or ``workflow: <str/list>``) would crash the following
+        # ``workflow.get(...)`` calls with AttributeError, so construction fails
+        # before any validation can run. Normalize the local to {} instead: the
+        # header fields fall back to their defaults and ``validate_workflow``
+        # (which reads those parsed attributes) reports the missing
+        # ``workflow.id``/``workflow.name``. ``self.data`` is deliberately left
+        # holding the raw value, since it is what gets written back out when a
+        # definition is serialized. Mirrors the default_options guard below.
+        if not isinstance(workflow, dict):
+            workflow = {}
         self.id: str = workflow.get("id", "")
         self.name: str = workflow.get("name", "")
         self.version: str = workflow.get("version", "0.0.0")
diff --git a/tests/test_workflows.py b/tests/test_workflows.py
index 54cea4d77..61575d71d 100644
--- a/tests/test_workflows.py
+++ b/tests/test_workflows.py
@@ -3629,6 +3629,31 @@ class TestWorkflowDefinition:
         resolved = WorkflowEngine()._resolve_inputs(definition, {})  # must not raise
         assert resolved == {}
 
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize(
+        "block", ["workflow:\nsteps: []\n", "workflow: hi\nsteps: []\n", "workflow: [a]\nsteps: []\n"]
+    )
+    def test_non_mapping_workflow_block_parses_then_validates(self, block):
+        # A present-but-non-mapping `workflow:` block must not crash construction
+        # with AttributeError; it should parse to an empty header so
+        # validate_workflow reports the missing id/name (it reads the parsed
+        # attributes, not the raw block).
+        from specify_cli.workflows.engine import WorkflowDefinition, validate_workflow
+
+        definition = WorkflowDefinition.from_string(block)  # must not raise
+        assert definition.id == ""
+        errors = validate_workflow(definition)
+        assert any("workflow.id" in e for e in errors)
+        # The RAW malformed value is preserved on .data (the guard only
+        # normalizes the local var, not self.data) — .data is what gets written
+        # back out when a definition is serialized. Assert it was NOT replaced
+        # with {} by comparing against the original parse and confirming it is
+        # still a non-mapping.
+        import yaml
+
+        raw_workflow = yaml.safe_load(block).get("workflow")
+        assert definition.data["workflow"] == raw_workflow
+        assert not isinstance(definition.data["workflow"], dict)
+
     def test_from_string_invalid(self):
         from specify_cli.workflows.engine import WorkflowDefinition