About Workflow Analyzer

Workflow Analyzer is a static code analysis tool that helps ensure your automation projects meet quality and development standards. Unlike runtime validation, Workflow Analyzer analyzes workflows without executing them.

Workflow Analyzer uses a set of rules to check for various inconsistencies unrelated to project execution. The rules are based on Automation Best Practices and take into consideration variable and argument naming, empty sequences or workflows, package restrictions, and so on.

The Analyze commands are located on the Design ribbon tab.

The following commands are available:

• Analyze File – Analyzes the workflow currently open in the Designer.
• Analyze Project – Analyzes all workflows in the current automation project.
• Analyze Settings – Opens the Settings window, where you can configure Workflow Analyzer rules and their settings.

Key Concepts

The following concepts help you understand how Workflow Analyzer validates automation projects.

Rules Naming Convention

Each Workflow Analyzer rule is identified by a unique rule code. A rule code consists of three components:

• ST (Studio) – Indicates the rule belongs to akaBot Studio.
• NMG (Naming) – Indicates the rule category.
• 001 – The unique rule identifier.

For example:

ST-NMG-001

Rule codes are displayed throughout Workflow Analyzer, making it easier to identify, search for, and reference specific rules.

Rule Categories

Workflow Analyzer groups rules into categories based on the aspect of the project they validate. Rule categories make it easier to browse, configure, and manage related rules.

The available rule categories include:

• Naming Rules (ST-NMG-...)
• Design Best Practices (ST-DBP-...)
• Maintainability Rules (ST-MRD-...)
• Performance Rules (ST-PRR-...)
• Security Rules (ST-SEC-...)
• Usage Rules (ST-USG-...)
• Project Anatomy Rules (ST-ANA-...)

Rule Scope

Each rule has a scope that defines the level at which it is evaluated.

Scope	Description
Activity	The rules are enforced at activity level, checking variables and their properties.
Workflow	Rules perform checks in a single project file.
Project	Checks are performed at project level.

You can filter rules by scope in the Analyzer window.

Severity Levels

Each rule is assigned a severity level that indicates the importance of a detected issue.

Severity	Description
Error	Indicates an issue that should be resolved before running, publishing, or deploying the project.
Warning	Indicates a recommended improvement to code quality or maintainability.
Info	Provides informational guidance and development recommendations.

Analysis Scope

Workflow Analyzer supports two analysis scopes:

• Current Workflow – Analyzes only the active workflow.
• Entire Project – Analyzes all workflows in the current project.

Running analysis on the entire project is recommended before publishing.

Managing Rules

Workflow Analyzer uses configurable rules to validate automation projects. Rules can be enabled, disabled, or customized to meet your organization's development standards.

Configure Rules

Rules are configured in the Settings window. You can enable/disable a rule using the checkbox on its left, or change the securities using the dropdown on its right.

Some rules require no additional configuration, while others contain parameters that you can configure, such as thresholds not to be exceeded, or lists of specific items that are allowed or prohibited. Please note that when you configure rules that contain text fields (for example SecureString Misusage or Package Restrictions), text shouldn't be entered between quotes.

Reset to Default

If a rule's default values, such as Regex or threshold values, have been modified, you can restore the original settings by right-clicking the rule and selecting Reset to Default.

Validation

Before running Workflow Analyzer, validate your project to ensure there are no activity validation errors. Workflow Analyzer can analyze only valid workflows, so any validation issues (displayed as red validation indicators) must be resolved first.

Important

Confirm that the project contains no validation errors before starting Workflow Analyzer. This validation step checks that the workflow is structurally valid. Workflow Analyzer performs static code analysis only—it does not execute workflows or validate runtime behavior.

Managing Errors

After Workflow Analyzer completes the analysis, the detected issues are displayed in the Analysis Results window. You can review each issue's severity, error code, description, recommendation, and affected workflow.

Use the available Search box and filter options (such as Scope, Severity, and Error Code) to quickly locate specific issues and focus on the results that are most relevant to your review. You can also export the analysis report for further review or sharing.

This version shifts the focus from simply viewing errors to interacting with the final analysis results.

Exporting Workflow Analyzer Results

You can export your analysis results to facilitate documentation, project reviews, or integration into your existing development workflows.

The Workflow Analyzer supports exporting reports in the following formats:

• HTML Report: Generates a structured, easy-to-read web page ideal for sharing analysis summaries, complete with project details, dependency information, and a comprehensive breakdown of issues by severity, error code, and file location.

• CSV: Provides a raw, data-focused format suitable for importing into spreadsheets or external tracking tools for deeper analysis and custom reporting.

To export, simply click the Export Report button within the analysis interface and select your preferred format.

The result should look like this

Command-Line Support

The Aka.RPA.Analyzer.CLI.exe command-line user interface contains a set of parameters for checking files or projects against certain rules. Aka.RPA.Analyzer.CLI.exe is available in the installation folder:

C:\Program Files\FPT Software\akaBot Platform\WorkflowAnalyzer\Aka.RPA.Analyzer.CLI.exe

Configure Rules

By default, all Workflow Analyzer rules are enabled when Studio is installed, except for a few rules that are disabled by default.

You can configure rules from the Workflow Analyzer Settings window, enable or disable rules by clicking the checkbox next to each one of them. Or from the RuleConfig.json file

You can also configure rules by editing the RuleConfig.json file. The configuration file can be found in one of the following locations:

• Application default location

  C:\Program Files\FPT Software\akaBot Platform\WorkflowAnalyzer\RuleConfig.json

• Project-specific location (used when analyzing a project)

  <project-path>\.rules\RuleConfig.json

Find a specific rule, modify its parameter, change the IsEnabled parameter to false to disable the rule. Optionally, if the path is not accessible, you can place the RuleConfig.json file in a custom location and include the path to the file in the command.

For more information, see Analyze Files and Projects. Rules are organized according to their unique ID, visible in the Workflow Analyzer Settings also. For example, in the image below only the SecureString for Sensitive Arguments rule was enabled and received the Keywords parameter. This means that argument with that key words must be SecureString type.

Rule Configuration Properties

Each rule in RuleConfig.json contains the following properties:

Property	Description
RuleId	Unique identifier of the rule.
IsEnabled	Indicates whether the rule is enabled. If set to null, the value of DefaultIsEnabled is used.
DefaultIsEnabled	Specifies whether the rule is enabled by default.
ErrorLevel	Severity level reported when the rule is violated. If set to null, the value of DefaultErrorLevel is used.
DefaultErrorLevel	Default severity level for the rule (Error, Warning, or Info).
Parameters	Additional rule-specific parameters, such as Name and Value.

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Analyze Files and Projects

After configuring the rules, run the Workflow Analyzer CLI (Aka.RPA.Analyzer.CLI.exe) to analyze workflows or projects.

Available Commands

Command	Description
analyze	Analyzes an entire project. Requires the path to the project.json or project.v1.json file.
analyze-file	Analyzes a single workflow file. Requires the path to a .xaml file.

Command-Line Arguments

Argument	Description
-p, --project-path	Path to the file to analyze. For analyze-file, specify a .xaml file. For analyze, specify the project's project.json or project.v1.json file.
-c, --config-path	Optional path to a custom RuleConfig.json file. Use this only when the configuration file is not located in the default location.
-h, --help	Displays the available commands and arguments.
-v, --version	Displays the version of Aka.RPA.Analyzer.CLI.exe.

Example

The following command analyzes the Main.xaml workflow:

Aka.RPA.Analyzer.CLI.exe analyze-file -p:"C:\Users\datba\Documents\akaBot\RPA00301-1\Main.xaml"

Output

The command returns a JSON-formatted list of rule violations. Each violation contains the following information:

Field	Description
FilePath	Path to the analyzed workflow file.
ErrorCode	Identifier of the violated rule.
ActivityDisplayName	Display name of the activity or workflow.
Item	Name and type of the item (for example, an activity or variable) where the violation occurred.
ErrorLevel	Severity level of the violation (Error, Warning, or Info).
Description	Description of the rule violation.
RuleName	Name of the violated rule.
Recommendation	Suggested actions to resolve the issue.
URL	Link to the documentation with additional information.

Example output: