External Storage - TypeScript SDK

Release, stability, and dependency info

External Storage is in Public Preview. APIs and configuration may change before General Availability. Join the #large-payloads Slack channel to provide feedback or ask for help.

The Temporal Service enforces a 2 MB per-payload limit by default. This limit is configurable on self-hosted deployments. When your Workflows or Activities handle data larger than the limit, you can offload payloads to external storage, such as Amazon S3, and pass a small reference token through the Event History instead. This page shows you how to set up External Storage with Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage, and how to implement a custom storage driver.

For a conceptual overview of External Storage and its use cases, see External Storage.

Store and retrieve large payloads with Amazon S3

The TypeScript SDK includes an S3 storage driver. Follow these steps to set it up:

Prerequisites

An Amazon S3 bucket that you have read and write access to. Refer to lifecycle management to ensure that your payloads remain available for the entire lifetime of the Workflow. For multi-region durability, see Durable External Storage.
The credentials used by your S3 client need s3:PutObject on components that store payloads and s3:GetObject on components that retrieve them.
Install the driver, the AWS client adapter, and the AWS SDK:
```
npm install @temporalio/external-storage-s3 \
  @temporalio/external-storage-s3-aws-sdk \
  @aws-sdk/client-s3
```
The @temporalio/external-storage-s3 package has no AWS dependency of its own. It defines the driver and an S3StorageDriverClient interface, and @temporalio/external-storage-s3-aws-sdk supplies an implementation backed by @aws-sdk/client-s3.

Procedure

Create an S3 client, wrap it in AwsSdkS3StorageDriverClient, and pass the result to the driver. The AWS client uses your standard AWS credentials from the environment (environment variables, IAM role, or AWS config file):

import { S3Client } from '@aws-sdk/client-s3';
import { S3StorageDriver } from '@temporalio/external-storage-s3';
import { AwsSdkS3StorageDriverClient } from '@temporalio/external-storage-s3-aws-sdk';

const s3Client = new S3Client({ region: 'us-east-2' });

const driver = new S3StorageDriver({
  client: new AwsSdkS3StorageDriverClient(s3Client),
  bucket: 'my-temporal-payloads',
});

To route payloads to different buckets at runtime, pass a function as bucket instead of a string. The function receives the store context and the payload, and returns a bucket name.

Build an ExternalStorage instance from the driver, set it on your Data Converter, and pass the converter to your Client and Worker. External Storage runs outside the Workflow sandbox, so you can pass the driver object directly rather than referencing it by path the way a custom Payload Converter requires:

import { Client, Connection } from '@temporalio/client';
import { ExternalStorage } from '@temporalio/common';
import { Worker } from '@temporalio/worker';

const dataConverter = {
  externalStorage: new ExternalStorage({ drivers: [driver] }),
};

const connection = await Connection.connect();
const client = new Client({ connection, dataConverter });

const worker = await Worker.create({
  workflowsPath: require.resolve('./workflows'),
  taskQueue: 'my-task-queue',
  dataConverter,
});

By default, payloads larger than 256 KiB are offloaded to external storage. You can adjust this with the payloadSizeThreshold option, even setting it to 0 to externalize all payloads regardless of size. Refer to Configure payload size threshold for more information.

All Workflows and Activities running on the Worker use the storage driver automatically without changes to your business logic. The driver uploads and downloads payloads concurrently, skips uploads for content already present in the bucket, and verifies a SHA-256 checksum on retrieve.

The S3 driver rejects any single payload larger than maxPayloadSize, which defaults to 50 MiB. The driver also includes diagnostic metadata, such as the AWS region, in error messages to help troubleshoot storage failures.

Store and retrieve large payloads with Google Cloud Storage

The TypeScript SDK also includes a Google Cloud Storage driver. The packages are split the same way as the S3 driver:

npm install @temporalio/external-storage-gcs \
  @temporalio/external-storage-gcs-google-sdk \
  @google-cloud/storage

Construct the driver from a Storage instance, then configure it on the Data Converter exactly as you would the S3 driver:

import { Storage } from '@google-cloud/storage';
import { GcsStorageDriver } from '@temporalio/external-storage-gcs';
import { GoogleCloudGcsStorageDriverClient } from '@temporalio/external-storage-gcs-google-sdk';

const storage = new Storage();

const driver = new GcsStorageDriver({
  client: new GoogleCloudGcsStorageDriverClient(storage),
  bucket: 'my-temporal-payloads',
});

Implement a custom storage driver

If you need a storage backend other than what the built-in drivers allow, you can implement your own storage driver. Refer to Choose a storage system for guidance on selecting a backing store and Lifecycle management for retention requirements.

The following example shows a custom driver that uses local disk as the backing store. This example is for local development and testing only. In production, use a durable storage system that is accessible to all Workers.

import { randomUUID } from 'node:crypto';
import { mkdir, readFile, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
import path from 'node:path';
import {
  StorageDriverClaim,
  type Payload,
  type StorageDriver,
  type StorageDriverRetrieveContext,
  type StorageDriverStoreContext,
} from '@temporalio/common';
import { temporal } from '@temporalio/proto';

const PayloadProto = temporal.api.common.v1.Payload;

export class LocalDiskStorageDriver implements StorageDriver {
  readonly name = 'my-local-disk';
  readonly type = 'local-disk';

  constructor(private readonly storeDir = '/tmp/temporal-payload-store') {}

  async store(context: StorageDriverStoreContext, payloads: Payload[]): Promise<StorageDriverClaim[]> {
    let dir = this.storeDir;
    const target = context.target;
    if (target?.id) {
      // `target.kind` is either 'workflow' or 'activity'. Including it in the path keeps a
      // Workflow Id from colliding with an Activity Id in the same Namespace.
      dir = path.join(this.storeDir, target.namespace, target.kind, target.id);
    }
    await mkdir(dir, { recursive: true });

    const claims: StorageDriverClaim[] = [];
    for (const payload of payloads) {
      const filePath = path.join(dir, `${randomUUID()}.bin`);
      await writeFile(filePath, PayloadProto.encode(payload).finish());
      claims.push(new StorageDriverClaim({ path: filePath }));
    }
    return claims;
  }

  async retrieve(_context: StorageDriverRetrieveContext, claims: StorageDriverClaim[]): Promise<Payload[]> {
    const payloads: Payload[] = [];
    for (const claim of claims) {
      const filePath = claim.claimData.path;
      if (!filePath) {
        throw new Error("claim is missing required 'path' data");
      }
      payloads.push(PayloadProto.decode(await readFile(filePath)));
    }
    return payloads;
  }
}

The following sections walk through the key parts of the driver implementation.

1. Implement the StorageDriver interface

A custom driver implements the StorageDriver interface, which has two readonly properties and two methods:

name is a unique string that identifies the driver instance. The SDK stores this name in the claim check reference so it can route retrieval requests to the correct driver. Changing the name after payloads have been stored breaks retrieval. For example, two S3 drivers could be named "s3-primary" and "s3-archive".
type is a string that identifies the driver implementation, and the Worker reports it in its heartbeat. Unlike name, type must be the same across all instances of the same driver type regardless of configuration. Two S3 drivers named "s3-primary" and "s3-archive" would both report "aws.s3driver" as their type, while the local disk driver in the preceding code sample reports "local-disk".
store() receives an array of payloads and returns one StorageDriverClaim per payload. A claim wraps a set of string key-value pairs that the driver uses to locate the payload later.
retrieve() receives the claims that store() produced and returns the original payloads.

2. Store payloads

In store(), serialize each Payload protobuf message to bytes and write the bytes to your storage system. The application data has already been serialized by the Payload Converter and Payload Codec before it reaches the driver. See the data conversion pipeline for more details.

Return a StorageDriverClaim for each payload with enough information to retrieve it later. The context.target provides identity information and is a discriminated union: check the kind property to distinguish "workflow" from "activity", then read namespace, id, runId, and type. Consider structuring your storage keys to include this information so that you can identify which Workflow owns each payload. Within that scope, content-addressable keys, such as a SHA-256 hash of the payload bytes, can help deduplicate identical payloads. The built-in S3 and GCS drivers use this approach.

3. Retrieve payloads

In retrieve(), download the bytes using the claim data, then reconstruct the Payload protobuf message. The Payload Converter handles deserializing the application data after the driver returns the payload.

4. Configure the Data Converter

Pass your driver to an ExternalStorage instance on the Data Converter, and use the converter when creating your Client and Worker. You can also package your driver as a plugin for easier reuse across services:

import { ExternalStorage } from '@temporalio/common';

const dataConverter = {
  externalStorage: new ExternalStorage({
    drivers: [new LocalDiskStorageDriver()],
  }),
};

Configure payload size threshold

You can configure the payload size threshold that triggers external storage. By default, payloads larger than 256 KiB are offloaded to external storage. You can adjust this with the payloadSizeThreshold option, or set it to 0 to externalize all payloads regardless of size. Payloads at or below the threshold stay inline in Event History.

const dataConverter = {
  externalStorage: new ExternalStorage({
    drivers: [driver],
    payloadSizeThreshold: 0,
  }),
};

Use multiple storage drivers

When you register multiple drivers, you must provide a driverSelector function that chooses which driver stores each payload. ExternalStorage throws if you register more than one driver without a selector. Any driver in the list that is not selected for storing is still available for retrieval, which is useful when migrating between storage backends. Return null from the selector to keep a specific payload inline in Event History.

Multiple drivers are useful in scenarios such as:

Driver migration. Your Worker needs to retrieve payloads created by clients that use a different driver than the one you prefer. Register both drivers and use the selector to always pick your preferred driver for new payloads. The old driver remains available for retrieving existing claims.
Multi-cloud storage. Route payloads to different storage backends based on your cloud environment. For example, use S3 for Workers running on AWS and GCS for Workers running on Google Cloud. The selector chooses the appropriate driver based on the runtime environment.

Every registered driver needs a distinct name. Because S3StorageDriver defaults its name to "aws.s3driver", registering two S3 drivers requires setting the driverName option on at least one of them.

The following example registers two drivers but always selects preferredDriver for new payloads. The legacyDriver is only registered so the Worker can retrieve payloads that were previously stored with it:

const preferredDriver = new S3StorageDriver({
  client: new AwsSdkS3StorageDriverClient(s3Client),
  bucket: 'my-bucket',
});
const legacyDriver = new LegacyStorageDriver();

const externalStorage = new ExternalStorage({
  drivers: [preferredDriver, legacyDriver],
  driverSelector: () => preferredDriver,
});

Multi-region durability

To make your S3-backed External Storage tolerant of regional failures, configure the AWS side with Cross-Region Replication (CRR) and an S3 Multi-Region Access Point (MRAP), then point the driver at the MRAP ARN instead of a bucket name. See Durable External Storage for the full pattern and trade-offs.

MRAP requests are signed with SigV4A. The AWS SDK for JavaScript does not bundle a SigV4A signer, so install one alongside your existing dependencies:

npm install @aws-sdk/signature-v4a

Import the signer once during application startup. The import registers the signer with the AWS SDK, so you do not reference it directly:

import '@aws-sdk/signature-v4a';

@aws-sdk/signature-v4-crt is an alternative implementation backed by the AWS Common Runtime. When both are installed, the AWS SDK prefers the CRT implementation.

With the signer registered, the only remaining change is the value you pass as bucket:

const driver = new S3StorageDriver({
  client: new AwsSdkS3StorageDriverClient(s3Client),
  bucket: 'arn:aws:s3::123456789012:accesspoint/mfzwi23gnjvgw.mrap',
});

Store and retrieve large payloads with Amazon S3​

Prerequisites​

Procedure​

Store and retrieve large payloads with Google Cloud Storage​

Implement a custom storage driver​

1. Implement the StorageDriver interface​

2. Store payloads​

3. Retrieve payloads​

4. Configure the Data Converter​

Configure payload size threshold​

Use multiple storage drivers​

Multi-region durability​