SDK Comparison

SDK Comparison Matrix

This document shows which capabilities are supported by each Ironflow SDK. Use this to understand SDK capabilities when deciding which SDK to use for your project.

Legend

✅ Supported — SDK provides full support for this capability
❌ Not supported — SDK does not support this capability
N/A Not applicable — Intentionally excluded (e.g., browser SDKs don’t handle secrets for security)
Server-only Capability requires server-side execution (Go SDK and Node SDK only)

SDK Overview

Go SDK (github.com/sahina/ironflow/sdk/go/ironflow) — Native Go client for servers and workers
Node SDK (@ironflow/node) — TypeScript/JavaScript for Node.js servers, workers, and handlers
Browser SDK (@ironflow/browser) — TypeScript/JavaScript for browser and real-time client interactions
Python SDK (ironflow) — Python client API (client methods only, no worker runtime yet)

Events

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Emit events	✅	✅	✅	✅
Trigger workflows	✅	✅	✅	✅
TriggerSync (blocking)	✅	✅	✅	❌

Functions

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Define functions	✅	✅	N/A	❌
Register functions	✅	✅	❌	❌
List functions	✅	✅	✅	✅
Invoke function directly	❌	❌	❌	✅

Runs

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Get run details	✅	✅	✅	✅
List runs	✅	✅	✅	✅
Cancel run	✅	✅	✅	✅
Retry run	✅	✅	✅	❌
Resume run	✅	✅	✅	✅
Get audit trail (run events)	✅	✅	✅	✅

Scoped Injection (Hot Patching & History Editing)

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Pause run	✅	✅	✅	❌
Get paused state	✅	✅	✅	❌
Inject step output	✅	✅	✅	❌
Patch step (modify outputs)	✅	✅	✅	✅

Time Travel Debugging

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Get run state at timestamp	✅	✅	✅	❌
Get run timeline	✅	✅	✅	❌
Get step output at timestamp	✅	✅	✅	❌

Entity Streams (Event Sourcing)

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Append event to stream	✅	✅	✅	✅
Read stream events	✅	✅	✅	✅
Get stream info	✅	✅	✅	✅
Create snapshot	✅	✅	✅	✅
Get snapshot	✅	✅	✅	✅
List all streams	✅	✅	❌	✅
Get entity event history	✅	✅	❌	✅

Projections

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
List projections	✅	✅	✅	✅
Get projection	✅	✅	✅	✅
Get projection status	✅	✅	✅	✅
Create projection	✅	✅	N/A	❌
Rebuild projection	✅	✅	✅	✅
Get rebuild job status	✅	✅	❌	✅
Query SQL projection	❌	✅	✅	❌
Execute raw SQL	✅	❌	❌	✅
Pause projection	✅	✅	❌	✅
Resume projection	✅	✅	❌	✅
Cancel rebuild	✅	✅	❌	✅
Delete projection	✅	✅	❌	✅

Pub/Sub (Developer Topics)

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Publish to topic	✅	✅	❌	✅
List topics	✅	✅	❌	❌
Get topic statistics	✅	✅	❌	❌

KV Store (Key-Value Storage)

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Create bucket	✅	✅	✅	✅
List buckets	✅	✅	✅	✅
Get bucket	✅	✅	✅	✅
Delete bucket	✅	✅	✅	✅
Get key	✅	✅	✅	✅
Put key	✅	✅	✅	✅
Delete key	✅	✅	✅	✅
List keys	✅	✅	✅	✅
Watch keys	✅	❌	✅	❌

Config Management

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Get config (read)	✅	✅	✅	✅
List configs	✅	✅	✅	✅
Set config (full replacement)	✅	✅	N/A	✅
Patch config (shallow merge)	✅	✅	N/A	✅
Delete config	✅	✅	N/A	✅
Watch config (real-time)	✅	✅	✅	❌

Secrets Management

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Get secret	✅	✅	N/A	✅
Set secret	✅	✅	N/A	✅
Update secret	✅	✅	N/A	✅
Delete secret	✅	✅	N/A	✅
List secrets	✅	✅	N/A	✅

Event Schema Registry

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Register schema	✅	✅	✅	✅
List schemas	✅	✅	✅	✅
Get schema (latest)	✅	✅	✅	✅
Get schema version	✅	✅	✅	✅
Delete schema version	✅	✅	✅	✅
Test upcast	✅	✅	✅	✅

Webhooks

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Create webhook source	✅	✅	✅	❌
List webhook sources	✅	✅	✅	❌
Delete webhook source	✅	✅	✅	❌
List webhook deliveries	✅	✅	✅	❌

API Keys

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Create API key	✅	✅	✅	✅
List API keys	✅	✅	✅	✅
Get API key	✅	✅	✅	✅
Delete API key	✅	✅	✅	✅
Rotate API key	✅	✅	✅	✅

Enterprise: Organizations

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Create org	✅	✅	✅	✅
List orgs	✅	✅	✅	✅
Get org	✅	✅	✅	✅
Update org	✅	✅	✅	✅
Delete org	✅	✅	✅	✅

Enterprise: Roles & Policies

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Create role	✅	✅	✅	✅
List roles	✅	✅	✅	✅
Get role	✅	✅	✅	✅
Update role	✅	✅	✅	✅
Delete role	✅	✅	✅	✅
Assign policy to role	✅	✅	✅	✅
Remove policy from role	✅	✅	✅	✅
Create policy	✅	✅	✅	✅
List policies	✅	✅	✅	✅
Get policy	✅	✅	✅	✅
Update policy	✅	✅	✅	✅
Delete policy	✅	✅	✅	✅

Admin Management (Server-Only)

Capability	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Manage projects	✅	✅	N/A	✅
Manage environments	✅	✅	N/A	✅
Manage users	✅	✅	✅	✅
List workers	✅	✅	✅	✅
List tenants	✅	✅	✅	✅

Execution Modes

Feature	Go SDK	Node SDK	Browser SDK	Python SDK
Push mode (serverless functions)	✅	✅	N/A	❌
Pull mode (long-running workers)	✅	✅	N/A	❌
Subscriptions (real-time events)	✅	✅	✅	❌
WebSocket support	✅	✅	✅	❌
ConnectRPC support	✅	✅	✅	❌
HTTP/REST support	✅	✅	✅	✅

Recommendations

Use Go SDK when:

Building high-performance backend services
Implementing complex state machines or sagas
Integrating with existing Go applications
Need maximum feature parity across all domains

Use Node SDK when:

Building serverless functions (AWS Lambda, Vercel)
Using JavaScript/TypeScript throughout your stack
Need full control over step execution and error handling
Prefer working in TypeScript for type safety

Use Browser SDK when:

Building real-time frontends with live event subscriptions
Implementing interactive dashboards or monitoring tools
Need lightweight client-side integrations
Want to display projection data and KV store values in UI

Use Python SDK when:

Building data pipelines or scripts that interact with Ironflow
Integrating Ironflow with Python-based AI/ML workflows
Need a lightweight client for admin operations or event emission
Want to manage Ironflow resources from Jupyter notebooks or CLI tools

Note: The Python SDK provides client API methods only (no worker runtime). For durable step execution, use the Go or Node SDK.

Feature Parity Status

This comparison is maintained alongside the sdk-parity.yaml manifest at the repository root and the SDK generation pipeline (make sdk-health). Features are implemented incrementally, and this table reflects the current state.

The Python SDK is auto-generated from the server’s route manifest using cmd/sdk-gen. See the SDK Generation Guide for details.

To track parity progress or request missing features, refer to the project roadmap and GitHub issues.