Participants

A participant is a business role that can handle workflow action. Participants bridge external directory data and the actual responsibility needed by a workflow.

What Participants Contain

Participants can include:

• display name and description
• labels
• structured metadata
• direct directory user associations
• directory group associations
• org-unit or role associations
• external email associations

Participant names should describe responsibility, not one specific person:

• Helios Finance Approvers
• Supplier Onboarding Approval Reviewers
• EMEA Legal Reviewers

Labels

Labels are global routing tags. Use them for broad dimensions such as function, department, region, or review type:

• Finance
• Procurement
• Legal
• Renewal
• Vendor

The resolver uses exact labels returned from the label set. It should not invent new labels.

Metadata

Use metadata for structured constraints that need exact or ordered matching:

{
  "approval_limit_eur": 75000,
  "region": "EMEA",
  "review_after": "2026-06-01T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Metadata filters support eq, ne, gt, gte, lt, and lte.

Resolve also uses metadata during participant selection. For approval-limit metadata such as approval_limit_eur, Resolve should prefer the lowest-scope participant that covers the requested amount and avoid escalation participants unless they are required by the amount or explicitly requested.

Member Associations

Participants are associated with materialized directory users or groups. In the Platform admin UI, admins can browse supported connectors live, such as CSV files and Microsoft Entra ID through Microsoft Graph. When a user or group is selected, Roster caches that selected directory record and attaches it to the participant.

API and MCP callers use cached directory records. Use directory records search first, then attach the returned directory record ID.

Member listings return direct participant associations only. They do not expand users inside associated groups.