[Submission] AI enhanced e-commerce application

[cecilphillip]

Project link

https://github.com/temporal-community/withlove-giftshop-demo

Language

.NET

Short description (max 256 chars)

WithLove is a sample e-commerce application that show how AI can be integrated into a web application. It includes a curated gift shop with hybrid search (full-text + vector), and an AI-powered chat shopping assistant.

Long Description

The sample also uses OpenAI models for inference and embedding generation. The application uses Temporal for durable, long-lived operations such on customer onboarding, order processing, and chat assistant sessions.

Key Features

• Hybrid Search — Full-text search (SQL Server FTS) combined with vector similarity (OpenAI embeddings), merged via Reciprocal Rank Fusion
• Chat Assistant (LA) — Temporal-backed conversational shopping assistant using Microsoft.Extensions.AI with tool calling for product search, cart management, and recommendations
• Stripe Web elements — Server-side Checkout Sessions with the Payment and Address elements integrated
• FusionCache + Redis — Multi-layer caching with tag-based invalidation and Redis backplane for cross-instance sync
• Temporal Workflows — Durable database setup, Stripe order processing, customer onboarding, and long-lived chat sessions

Author(s)

@cecilphillip

[github-actions]

Hi, I'm ZiggyBot! 🤖 Here's my pre-evaluation of this submission:

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Criterion	Assessment
Useful to Temporal users	✅ Yes — Demonstrates real-world e-commerce patterns including long-lived chat sessions, order processing, and customer onboarding workflows that .NET developers can learn from.
Benefits clearly explained	✅ Yes — The README clearly describes the four workflows (ChatAgentWorkflow, DatabaseSetupWorkflow, StripeCheckoutOrderWorkflow, CustomerOnboardingWorkflow) with their purposes and key features in a helpful table.
OSI Approved License	✅ Yes — Licensed under MIT, which is OSI-approved and the recommended license.
README with working instructions	✅ Yes — Provides comprehensive setup instructions including prerequisites, secret configuration, Docker requirements, Stripe CLI setup, and clear build/run commands using .NET Aspire.

Overall: Looks good ✅

Notes:

• This is a well-structured, feature-rich sample application that showcases Temporal in a realistic e-commerce context with AI integration
• The use of .NET Aspire for orchestration is a nice modern touch that makes the multi-service setup approachable
• The activities demonstrate proper use of ActivityExecutionContext.Current.CancellationToken for cooperative cancellation
• Good use of ApplicationFailureException with nonRetryable: true for business logic failures that shouldn't be retried
• The project requires .NET 10 SDK (preview), which may limit some users but is appropriate for a forward-looking sample
• Zero stars is expected for a new submission in the temporal-community org

Suggested questions for submitter:

• Could you confirm whether the ChatAgentWorkflow source file exists in the repository? The README references it but it wasn't included in the fetched source files
• Is there any additional documentation or diagrams showing the workflow interactions that could be linked from the README?

Teaching moment:

The CustomerOnboardingActivities class demonstrates excellent use of ApplicationFailureException with the nonRetryable: true flag. When a user isn't found in the database, this is a business logic failure that retrying won't fix—so marking it non-retryable prevents wasted retry attempts and surfaces the real problem immediately. This is a pattern every Temporal developer should know: distinguish between transient failures (network issues, temporary unavailability) that benefit from retries versus permanent failures (missing data, invalid input) that should fail fast.
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Reviewer: Check the box below to generate a Contentful-ready long description for this submission.

• Generate long description if needed

[github-actions]

Hi, I'm ZiggyBot! 🤖 Here's my pre-evaluation of this submission:

---

Criterion	Assessment
Useful to Temporal users	✅ Yes — Demonstrates multiple real-world Temporal patterns (.NET SDK) including long-lived chat sessions, order processing, customer onboarding, and database setup workflows in a comprehensive e-commerce context.
Benefits clearly explained	✅ Yes — The README clearly documents four distinct workflows with their purposes and key features in a helpful table format, and the submission description explains how Temporal provides durability for long-lived operations.
OSI Approved License	✅ Yes — MIT License, which is OSI-approved and recommended.
README with working instructions	✅ Yes — Comprehensive setup instructions including prerequisites, configuration via .NET user secrets, Stripe CLI setup for webhooks, and clear build/run commands using Aspire.

Overall: Looks good ✅

Notes:

• This is a well-structured, full-stack sample application that showcases Temporal's .NET SDK in an AI-enhanced e-commerce scenario — a great combination of trending technologies!
• The project demonstrates sophisticated patterns: Update/Query/Signal for async message handling in the chat workflow, IdConflictPolicy.UseExisting for resumable sessions, and proper use of ApplicationFailureException with nonRetryable: true for non-retriable failures.
• The Aspire integration is a nice touch for .NET developers, providing a unified dashboard experience that includes Temporal UI alongside other observability tools.
• The ChatAgentWorkflow with 24-hour idle timeout shows thoughtful design for long-lived conversational sessions.
• Minor typo in README: "applicaiton" should be "application" 🐻‍❄️

Suggested questions for submitter:

• Would you consider adding a brief architecture diagram showing how the Temporal workflows interact with the other components (Stripe, OpenAI, Redis)?
• The ChatAgentActivities file appears truncated in the source — could you confirm the full implementation includes proper cancellation token handling throughout?

Teaching moment:

The CustomerOnboardingActivities class demonstrates excellent use of ApplicationFailureException with the nonRetryable: true parameter for cases where retrying would be pointless (e.g., when a user doesn't exist in the database). This is a crucial pattern — it tells Temporal "don't bother retrying this, it won't help" which prevents wasted retries and lets the workflow handle the failure appropriately. The code shows: throw new ApplicationFailureException($"ShopUser not found for email {input.CustomerEmail}", nonRetryable: true);
View in source ↗

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ZiggyBot is an AI pre-screener based on Temporal's community mascot Ziggy. Final decisions are made by the community team.

Reviewer: Check the box below to generate a Contentful-ready long description for this submission.

• Generate long description if needed