workflow/docs/api-reference/workflow-nest/is-workflow-request.mdx

Workflow SDK - Build durable, resilient, and observable workflows

---
title: isWorkflowRequest
description: Recognise a Workflow SDK request inside a NestJS guard or interceptor.
type: reference
summary: Let queue deliveries and webhooks past an application guard.
prerequisites:
  - /docs/getting-started/nestjs
---

Returns `true` when NestJS routed the request an `ExecutionContext` is handling to [`WorkflowController`](/docs/api-reference/workflow-nest/workflow-controller), which serves the Workflow SDK's protocol routes under `.well-known/workflow/v1`. The check is on the selected controller rather than the URL, so an application route that can be reached through a URL containing `.well-known/workflow/v1` (a wildcard such as `files/*path`) is still treated as your route.

[`WorkflowController`](/docs/api-reference/workflow-nest/workflow-controller) is a controller inside your application, so a global guard runs for it too. A guard that rejects unauthenticated requests rejects every queue delivery and webhook with `403`, and runs stop making progress with no other symptom. Use this helper to exempt them.

The workflow routes authenticate their own callers — queue deliveries are signed and webhook tokens are single-use secrets — so letting them past an application guard exposes nothing.

## Usage

{/* @skip-typecheck - NestJS decorators require special TypeScript config */}

```typescript title="src/auth.guard.ts" lineNumbers
import {
  Injectable,
  type CanActivate,
  type ExecutionContext,
} from "@nestjs/common";
import { isWorkflowRequest } from "workflow/nest"; // [!code highlight]

@Injectable()
export class AuthGuard implements CanActivate {
  canActivate(context: ExecutionContext) {
    if (isWorkflowRequest(context)) return true; // [!code highlight]
    return this.authenticate(context);
  }
}
```

## API signature

### Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `context` | `ExecutionContext` | The execution context NestJS passes to a guard or interceptor. |

### Returns

`boolean`. `false` for a request to any other route, and for non-HTTP execution contexts (RPC, WebSockets), where there is no workflow route to match.

## Related exports

| Export | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `isWorkflowRoutePath(path, globalPrefix?)` | Whether a raw URL or path addresses a workflow route, for middleware that has a request rather than an `ExecutionContext`. The match is anchored to `globalPrefix` (default `''`), so pass the prefix given to `app.setGlobalPrefix()` unless it excludes the workflow routes. |
| `WORKFLOW_ROUTE_PREFIX` | `'.well-known/workflow/v1'`, the path the controller is mounted at. |

<Callout type="info">
Interceptors and exception filters need no exemption. The workflow handlers write through `@Res()`, so the exact status and body the workflow runtime produced reach the caller, which is what the queue and third-party webhook senders key off.
</Callout>