n8n · API orchestration
Resumable acquisition workflow.
Batch research with checkpoints, budget controls and human review.
Workflow architecture
Validate · budget · restore state
APIs · bounded polling · rate control
Review queue · checkpoint · resume
Simplified workflow. Private data is omitted.
01 / Context
The project and my contribution
Batch discovery can waste API allowance, repeat completed work, and overwrite human review notes if it runs without a clear state model. The workflow addresses those problems with preflight checks, controlled execution, and verified persistence.
I built this workflow to coordinate discovery, website checks, and a human review queue. The implementation uses a parent orchestration workflow and reusable acquisition logic, with explicit validation and stop conditions.
02 / Functionality
Key Features
Preflight and budget checks
Validate batch configuration, application readiness, API allowance, and actor pricing before requesting acquisition work.
Resume completed work
Read durable checkpoints and deterministic run labels to skip completed batches and recover the exact acquisition run.
Controlled audit processing
Process candidates sequentially, respect rate budgets, and use bounded polling for asynchronous website checks.
Protect the review queue
Match records by stable IDs, update factual fields selectively, preserve manual review fields, and read back persisted rows.
03 / Implementation
Technical decisions
- 01Manual start
- 02Validate & check allowance
- 03Acquire & import
- 04Audit candidates
- 05Upsert review queue
- 06Verify & checkpoint
Separate orchestration from acquisition
The parent coordinates campaign state while reusable acquisition logic handles the discovery run, import, audits, and review-sheet writes.
Avoid blind retries on chargeable actions
The actor-start request is not automatically retried. Start intent and the exact run ID are recorded so an uncertain response does not silently launch another paid run.
Distinguish record failures from system failures
An unreachable website is recorded as an observation. Persistence, credentials, duplicate-ID, or lock problems stop further batches rather than being treated as successful work.
Verify before advancing
The workflow checks checkpoint signatures, sheet headers, duplicate IDs, lock release and human review fields before moving to another batch.
04 / Delivery
Result
The workflow is configured to resume batches, control paid acquisition requests and keep a human review queue up to date without overwriting review notes.
05 / Evidence
Scope & Review
The parent workflow, acquisition subworkflow, connections and JavaScript were inspected read-only on September 28, 2026. Both workflows were inactive; no campaign was run for this review and no lead-volume or time-saving result was measured. Diagrams simplify the architecture and omit private endpoints, identifiers, records and authentication details.