Namespace Management

Guidance for creating, configuring, and managing Temporal namespaces.

Namespace Concepts

Namespaces provide logical isolation for workflows:

Aspect	Isolation Level
Workflow IDs	Per namespace (can reuse IDs)
Task queues	Per namespace
Search attributes	Per namespace
Retention	Configurable per namespace
Security	Independent authorization
Nexus Endpoints	Cross-namespace routing (endpoint → target NS + TQ)

Creating Namespaces

Using CLI

# Basic creation
temporal operator namespace create --namespace orders

# With retention period
temporal operator namespace create \
  --namespace orders \
  --retention 168h

# With description
temporal operator namespace create \
  --namespace orders \
  --retention 168h \
  --description "Order processing workflows"

Using timelord-cli

timelord namespace create orders --retention 168h --description "Order processing"

Using SDK

import (
    "go.temporal.io/api/operatorservice/v1"
    "go.temporal.io/sdk/client"
)

func createNamespace(c client.Client) error {
    ctx := context.Background()

    _, err := c.OperatorService().CreateNamespace(ctx, &operatorservice.CreateNamespaceRequest{
        Namespace: "orders",
        WorkflowExecutionRetentionPeriod: &durationpb.Duration{
            Seconds: 604800, // 7 days
        },
        Description: "Order processing workflows",
    })
    return err
}

Namespace Configuration

Retention Period

How long completed workflow history is retained:

Environment	Recommended Retention
Development	1-3 days
Staging	3-7 days
Production	7-30 days
Compliance	Per requirements

Update retention:

temporal operator namespace update \
  --namespace orders \
  --retention 336h  # 14 days

Search Attributes

Custom searchable fields per namespace:

# Add search attribute
temporal operator search-attribute create \
  --namespace orders \
  --name CustomerId \
  --type Keyword

temporal operator search-attribute create \
  --namespace orders \
  --name OrderTotal \
  --type Double

temporal operator search-attribute create \
  --namespace orders \
  --name OrderDate \
  --type Datetime

Available types:

Type	Description	Example
Keyword	Exact match string	CustomerID, Status
Text	Full-text search	Description
Int	Integer values	Count, Attempts
Double	Floating point	Amount, Price
Bool	Boolean	IsActive, IsPriority
Datetime	Timestamps	CreatedAt, DueDate
KeywordList	Multiple keywords	Tags, Categories

Archival

Configure workflow archival:

# Enable archival
temporal operator namespace update \
  --namespace orders \
  --history-archival-state enabled \
  --history-archival-uri "s3://bucket/archival"

Multi-Tenancy Patterns

Namespace Per Team

├── team-a-dev
├── team-a-staging
├── team-a-prod
├── team-b-dev
├── team-b-staging
└── team-b-prod

Benefits:

• Clear ownership
• Independent configuration
• Separate quotas

Namespace Per Environment

├── development
├── staging
├── production
└── production-canary

Benefits:

• Consistent naming
• Environment isolation
• Simplified promotion

Namespace Per Service

├── orders
├── payments
├── inventory
├── shipping
└── notifications

Benefits:

• Service isolation
• Independent scaling
• Clear boundaries

Connecting Services with Nexus

When using namespace-per-service, Nexus endpoints connect them:

orders ──nexus: payments-ep──> payments
orders ──nexus: inventory-ep──> inventory
shipping ──nexus: inventory-ep──> inventory

Each endpoint routes to the handler namespace's task queue. Teams own their handler services independently.

Namespace Naming

Conventions

Pattern: {team}-{service}-{environment}

orders-processing-prod
payments-api-staging
inventory-sync-dev

Rules:

• Use lowercase
• Use hyphens as separators
• Keep names descriptive but concise
• Include environment suffix

Examples

Service	Dev	Staging	Prod
Orders	orders-dev	orders-staging	orders-prod
Payments	payments-dev	payments-staging	payments-prod
Shared	shared-dev	shared-staging	shared-prod

Access Control

Per-Namespace Authorization

Configure authorization per namespace:

# Namespace-specific permissions
namespaces:
  orders-prod:
    allowed_principals:
      - team-orders@example.com
      - platform-team@example.com
    permissions:
      - READ
      - WRITE
      - ADMIN
  orders-staging:
    allowed_principals:
      - team-orders@example.com
    permissions:
      - READ
      - WRITE

Certificate-Based Access

Map certificates to namespaces:

type ClaimMapper struct{}

func (c *ClaimMapper) GetClaims(authInfo *authorization.AuthInfo) (*authorization.Claims, error) {
    // Extract namespace from certificate CN
    cn := authInfo.TLSSubject.CommonName
    // CN format: service.namespace.example.com

    namespace := extractNamespace(cn)

    return &authorization.Claims{
        Namespaces: map[string]authorization.NamespaceClaims{
            namespace: {
                Permissions: []authorization.Permission{
                    authorization.PermissionRead,
                    authorization.PermissionWrite,
                },
            },
        },
    }, nil
}

Nexus Endpoint Management

Nexus endpoints route cross-namespace calls to handler task queues.

CLI Commands

# Create endpoint
temporal operator nexus endpoint create \
  --name payments-endpoint \
  --target-namespace payments-ns \
  --target-task-queue payments-tq

# List endpoints
temporal operator nexus endpoint list

# Describe endpoint
temporal operator nexus endpoint describe --name payments-endpoint

# Update endpoint
temporal operator nexus endpoint update \
  --name payments-endpoint \
  --target-task-queue new-payments-tq

# Delete endpoint
temporal operator nexus endpoint delete --name payments-endpoint

Endpoint Naming

Follow the namespace naming pattern: {service}-{target}-ep

Caller	Handler	Endpoint Name
orders	payments	payments-ep
orders	inventory	inventory-ep
shipping	notifications	notifications-ep

Topology

┌──────────────┐   payments-ep    ┌──────────────┐
│  orders-ns   │────────────────>│ payments-ns  │
│              │   inventory-ep   ┌──────────────┐
│              │────────────────>│ inventory-ns │
└──────────────┘                 └──────────────┘

Operations

List Namespaces

# CLI
temporal operator namespace list

# timelord
timelord namespace list --json

Describe Namespace

# CLI
temporal operator namespace describe --namespace orders

# timelord
timelord namespace describe orders --json

Update Namespace

temporal operator namespace update \
  --namespace orders \
  --retention 336h \
  --description "Updated description"

Delete Namespace

# Requires force flag - destructive!
temporal operator namespace delete --namespace orders-test

Migration Between Namespaces

Workflow Migration Strategy

1. Stop new workflows in source namespace
2. Wait for completion of running workflows
3. Start new workflows in target namespace
4. Verify functionality in target
5. Archive/delete source namespace

Data Migration

Export and replay approach:

# Export histories
temporal workflow list --namespace source-ns --query "ExecutionStatus='Completed'" | \
  while read wf; do
    temporal workflow show --namespace source-ns --workflow-id $wf --output json > histories/$wf.json
  done

# Replay in target (for verification)
# Run replay tests against new namespace

Monitoring

Namespace Metrics

# Workflows per namespace
sum by (namespace) (temporal_workflow_active_count)

# Task queue depth per namespace
sum by (namespace, task_queue) (temporal_task_queue_depth)

# Failures per namespace
rate(temporal_workflow_failed_total[5m]) by (namespace)

Alerts

groups:
  - name: namespace-alerts
    rules:
      - alert: NamespaceHighFailureRate
        expr: rate(temporal_workflow_failed_total[5m]) > 0.1
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: warning
        annotations:
          summary: "High failure rate in namespace {{ $labels.namespace }}"

Best Practices

Configuration

• Set appropriate retention (not too long, not too short)
• Define search attributes upfront
• Document namespace purpose
• Configure archival for compliance

Organization

• Use consistent naming conventions
• Document namespace ownership
• Plan namespace structure before creation
• Separate environments clearly

Security

• Apply least-privilege access
• Use namespace-level authorization
• Audit namespace access
• Rotate credentials regularly

Operations

• Monitor each namespace independently
• Set up alerts per namespace
• Plan capacity per namespace
• Document runbooks per namespace

Additional Resources

Reference Files

For detailed namespace patterns, consult:

• references/namespace-patterns.md - Advanced organization patterns
• references/migration-procedures.md - Namespace migration guides