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Protocol Reference

This section provides a deep dive into the internal workings of the Dapr runtime. It is intended for maintainers, contributors, and anyone interested in the low-level implementation details of Dapr’s building blocks.

Unlike the user-facing API reference, these documents focus on:

  • How the runtime processes requests.
  • Internal state transitions.
  • Interaction with component interfaces.
  • Protocol-level details (gRPC and HTTP).

Building Blocks

Select a building block to explore its internal protocol and mechanics:

Workflow Protocol

Low-level description of the Workflow building block internals.

Last modified February 1, 2026: Initial commit adding low-level workflow protocol information as derived via LLM (and heavily edited) from the dapr/dapr repository (favoring code implementation over available protobuf resources). (b6d1842ce)