Compound Action Patterns

This document's purpose is to accelerate your development process by providing a collection of reusable patterns for common tasks.

Instead of showcasing entire** end-to-end** use cases, this guide focuses on individual, common "steps" you'll encounter while building. For each pattern, we recommend the most efficient method, whether it's an LLM action, a Moveworks Data Mapper expression, a DSL query, or a Python Script.

Let's dive into the patterns.

Performing Actions in Batch

Problem: You want to perform a series of actions repetitively for a list elements. For example, sending a notification to a group of users.

List of users

{
  "data": {
    "email_list": [
      "[email protected]",
      "[email protected]",
      "[email protected]",
      "[email protected]",
      "[email protected]",
      "[email protected]"
    ]
  }
}

Usage Compound Action

steps:
  - action:
      action_name: mw.batch_get_users_by_email
      output_key: list_of_users
      input_args:
        user_emails: data.email_list
  - for:
      output_key: list_of_notifications
      each: record
      in: data.list_of_users.user_records
      index: idx
      steps:
        - notify:
            output_key: notification_output
            recipient_id: record.lookup_id
            message:
              RENDER():
                args:
                  user_name: record.user.full_name
                template: Hi {{user_name}}, you have not submitted your project update this week. Please do before the end of the day!
        - action:
            action_name: do_some_action_for_user
            output_key: action_result
            input_args:
              user: record.user
...

Deduplicating a List

Problem: You have a list that contains duplicate values, and you need a list with only unique elements.

Deduplicating a list of scalars

Input

{
  "data": {
    "duplicated_fruit_list": ["apple", "banana", "cherry", "apple", "banana", "date"]
  }
}

seen = set()
unique = []
for x in elements:
    if x in seen:
        continue
    seen.add(x)
    unique.append(x)
return unique

Usage in Compound Action

steps:
  - action:
		  name: deduplicate_list
			output_key: deduplicate_list_result
      input_args:
        elements: data.duplicated_fruit_list
  - return:
      output_mapper:
        unique_list: steps.deduplicate_list

Result

{
	"duplicated_fruit_list": ["apple", "banana", "cherry", "date"]
}

Deduplicating a list of objects

In this case we will deduplicating a list of objects that have the same email key

seen = set()
out = []
for obj in elements:
    if not isinstance(obj, dict) or key_field not in obj:
        continue
    k = obj[key_field]
    if k in seen:
        continue
    seen.add(k)
    out.append(obj)
return out

Usage in Compound Action

steps:
  - action:
		  name: deduplicate_object_list
			output_key: deduplicate_list_result
      input_args:
      elements: data.input_list
			key_field: '''email'''
  - return:
      output_mapper:
        unique_list: steps.deduplicate_list

Sort Alphabetically

Problem: You need to provide a list of elements sorted alphabetically

Input Arguments

{
  "data":{
  "fruits": ["red", "green", "blue", "yellow", "purple"]
  }
}

Compound Action

steps:
  - action:
      name: enter_fruits_into_system
      ouput_key: fruits_result
      inputs_args:
        sorted_fruits:
          SORT():
            items: data.fruits
            key: item

Result

{
  "sorted_fruits": [
    "blue",
    "green",
    "purple",
    "red",
    "yellow"
  ]
}

Sort Timestamps

Problem: You want to sort a list of based on the timestamp

Sorting a list of timestamps

input

{
  "data": {
    "ts": [
      "Monday, Sep 22, 2025 at 8:15 AM MDT",
      "Saturday, Sep 20, 2025 at 10:30 AM MDT",
      "Friday, Sep 19, 2025 at 5:07 PM MDT",
      "Friday, Sep 19, 2025 at 9:00 PM MDT"
    ]
  }
}

Compound Action

steps:
  - action:
      name: enter_timestamps
      ouput_key: timestamps_result
      inputs_args:
        sorted_timestamps:
          SORT():
            items: data.ts
            key: item.$PARSE_TIME()

Result

{
  "sorted_timestamps": [
    "Friday, Sep 19, 2025 at 5:07 PM MDT",
    "Friday, Sep 19, 2025 at 9:00 PM MDT",
    "Saturday, Sep 20, 2025 at 10:30 AM MDT",
    "Monday, Sep 22, 2025 at 8:15 AM MDT"
  ]
}

Sorting a list of objects by timestamp

Input

{
  "data": {
    "finances": [
      {
        "id": "txn_k5p1",
        "ts": "2025-09-20T10:30:00-06:00",
        "amount": 2500.0
      },
      {
        "id": "txn_z7h3",
        "ts": "2025-09-22T08:15:00-06:00",
        "amount": -29.99
      },
      {
        "id": "txn_8x4f",
        "ts": "2025-09-19T17:14:04-06:00",
        "amount": -8.5
      },
      {
        "id": "txn_a2d9",
        "ts": "2025-09-19T21:00:00-06:00",
        "amount": 150.75
      }
    ]
  }
}

Compound Action

steps:
  - action:
      name: enter_finances
      ouput_key: finances_result
      inputs_args:
        sorted_financials:
          SORT():
            items: data.finances
            key: item.ts.$PARSE_TIME()

Result

{
  "sorted_financials": [
    {
      "amount": -8.5,
      "id": "txn_8x4f",
      "ts": "2025-09-19T17:14:04-06:00"
    },
    {
      "amount": 150.75,
      "id": "txn_a2d9",
      "ts": "2025-09-19T21:00:00-06:00"
    },
    {
      "amount": 2500,
      "id": "txn_k5p1",
      "ts": "2025-09-20T10:30:00-06:00"
    },
    {
      "amount": -29.99,
      "id": "txn_z7h3",
      "ts": "2025-09-22T08:15:00-06:00"
    }
  ]
}

Updated about 3 hours ago