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Namespace management - Temporal Cloud feature guide

A Namespace is a unit of isolation within the Temporal Platform.

What is a Cloud Namespace Name?​

A Cloud Namespace Name is a customer-supplied name for a Namespace in Temporal Cloud. Each Namespace Name, such as accounting-production, is unique within the scope of a customer's account. It cannot be changed after the Namespace is provisioned.

Each Namespace Name must conform to the following rules:

  • A Namespace Name must contain at least 2 characters and no more than 39 characters.
  • A Namespace Name must begin with a letter, end with a letter or number, and contain only letters, numbers, and the hyphen (-) character.
  • Each hyphen (-) character must be immediately preceded and followed by a letter or number; consecutive hyphens are not permitted.
  • All letters in a Namespace Name must be lowercase.

What is a Temporal Cloud Account Id?​

A Temporal Cloud Account Id is a unique customer identifier assigned by Temporal Technologies. Each Id is a short string of numbers and letters like f45a2, at least five characters long. This account identifier is retained throughout the time each customer uses Temporal Cloud.

At times you may need to know a customer Account Id. Accessing the account's Namespaces provides an easy way to capture this information. Each Temporal Namespace use an Account Id suffix. This is the alphanumeric character string found after the period in any Temporal Cloud Namespace name.

You can retrieve an Account Id from the Temporal Cloud Web UI or by using the tcld utility at a command line interface (CLI). Follow these steps.

From the Temporal Cloud Web UI:

  1. Log into Temporal Cloud.
  2. Navigate to the Namespace list page from the left-side vertical navigation.
  3. View the Namespaces listed for the user. Each Namespace includes several details:
    • Status: the Namespace's current state within the Temporal Cloud system, such as Active, Updating, or Deprecated.
    • Name: a customer-supplied identifier. It is unique within the scope of a customer's account.
    • Region: corresponds to the Namespace's hosting region.
    • Retention: a period during which completed workflows can be recovered and analyzed.
    • APS Limit: the maximum number of actions per second that a namespace supports.

Each Namespace automatically appends an Account Id suffix to its customer-supplied identifier. This five-character-or-longer string appears after the name, separated by a period.

StatusNameRegionRetentionAPS LimitExport
Activeyour-namespace.123defus-west-230 Days400--
Activeanother-namespace.123defus-west-230 Days400--

In this Namespace listing sample, the Account Id is 123def.

From the Command Line:

  1. Use the tcld utility to log into an account.

    tcld login

    The tcld output presents a URL with an activation code at the end. Take note of this code. The utility blocks until the login/activation process completes.

    Login via this url: https://login.tmprl.cloud/activate?user_code=KTGC-ZPWQ

    A Web page automatically opens for authentication in your default browser.

  2. Visit the browser. Ensure the user code shown by the CLI utility matches the code shown in the Web browser. Then, click Confirm in the browser to continue.

    After confirmation, Web feedback lets you know that the CLI "device" is now connected.

  3. Return to the command line. Issue the following command.

    tcld namespace list

    The CLI tool returns a short JSON packet with your namespace information. This is the same list found in the Temporal Cloud Web UI Namespaces list. Like the browser version, each Namespace uses an Account Id suffix.

    {
      "namespaces": [
        "your-namespace.123def",
        "another-namespace.123def"
      ],
      "nextPageToken": ""
    }

In this example, the Account Id is 123def.

What is a Cloud Namespace Id?​

A Cloud Namespace Id is a globally unique identifier for a Namespace in Temporal Cloud. A Namespace Id is formed by concatenating the following:

  1. A Namespace Name
  2. A period (.)
  3. The Account Id to which the Namespace belongs

For example, for the Account Id f45a2 and Namespace Name accounting-production, the Namespace Id is accounting-production.f45a2.

What is a Cloud gRPC Endpoint?​

Temporal Clients communicate between application code and a Temporal Server by sending and receiving messages via the gRPC protocol. gRPC is a Remote Procedure Call framework featuring low latency and high performance. gRPC provides Temporal with an efficient, language-agnostic communication framework.

Every Temporal Namespace uses a gRPC endpoint for communication. When migrating to Temporal Cloud, you'll need to switch the gRPC endpoint in your code from your current hosting, whether self-hosted or locally-hosted, to Temporal Cloud.

A Namespace-specific gRPC endpoint is found on the detail page for each Cloud Namespace. Follow these steps to find it:

  1. Log into your account on cloud.temporal.io.
  2. Navigate to the Namespace list page from the left-side vertical navigation.
  3. Tap or click on the Namespace Name to select and open the page for the Namespace whose endpoint you want to retrieve.
  4. On the Namespace detail page, locate the Namespace name. Just below that is a row of information including the completed Workflow retention policy, the Namespace region, the Actions-Per-Second limit, and the gRPC endpoint.
  5. Click the copy icon next to the gRPC address to copy it to your clipboard.

gRPC endpoint

gRPC endpoint

How to create a Namespace in Temporal Cloud​

info

The user who creates a Namespace is automatically granted Namespace Admin permission for that Namespace.

To create a Namespace, a user must have the Developer or Global Admin account-level Role.

tip

By default, each account is provisioned with ten Namespaces. As you start using Namespaces by scheduling Workflows, Temporal Cloud automatically raises your allowance. This automatic adjustment happens whenever all your Namespaces are in use, up to a maximum of 100 Namespaces. You can request further increases beyond the 100 Namespace limit by opening a support ticket.

Information needed to create a Namespace​

To create a Namespace in Temporal Cloud, gather the following information:

Create a Namespace using Temporal Cloud UI​

  1. Gather the information listed earlier in Information needed to create a Namespace.
  2. Go to the Temporal Cloud UI and log in.
  3. On the left side of the window, click Namespaces.
  4. On the Namespaces page, click Create Namespace in the upper-right portion of the window.
  5. On the Create Namespace page in Name, enter the Namespace Name.
  6. In Cloud Provider, select the cloud provider in which to host this Namespace.
  7. In Region, select the region in which to host this Namespace.
  8. In Retention Period, specify a value from 1 to 90 days. When choosing this value, consider your needs for Event History versus the cost of maintaining that Event History. Typically, a development Namespace has a short retention period and a production Namespace has a longer retention period. (If you need to change this value later, contact Temporal Support.)
  9. In Certificate, paste the CA certificate for this Namespace.
  10. Optional: In Codec Server, enter the HTTPS URL (including the port number) of your Codec Server endpoint. You may also enable "Pass the user access token with your endpoint" and "Include cross-origin credentials." For details, see Hosting your Codec Server.
  11. Click Create Namespace.

Create a Namespace using tcld​

See the tcld namespace create command reference for details.

What are some Namespace best practices?​

This section provides general guidance for organizing Namespaces across use cases, services, applications, or domains. Temporal Cloud provides Namespace–as-a-service, so the Namespace is the endpoint. Customers should consider not only a Namespace naming convention but also how to group or isolate workloads using the Namespace as a boundary.

Constraints and limitations​

Before considering an appropriate Namespace configuration, you should be aware of the following constraints:

  • By default, each account is provisioned with ten Namespaces. As you create and use your Namespaces, for example by scheduling Workflows, Temporal Cloud automatically raises your limit. Our service identifies your usage patterns. It responds by slowly increasing your allowance, up to 100 Namespaces. You can request further increases beyond the 100 Namespace limit by opening a support ticket.
  • Cross-Namespace communications between Workflows is not yet supported. For now, you can use the SDK client from within an Activity as a workaround.
  • Each Namespace has a rate limit, which is measured in Actions per second (APS). A namespace may be throttled when its throughput becomes too high. Throttling means limiting the rate at which actions are performed to prevent overloading the system. A Namespace's default limit is set at 400 APS and automatically adjusts based on recent usage (over the prior 7 days). Your APS limit will never fall below this default value.
  • Each Namespace has a service-level agreement (SLA) of 99.9% uptime.
  • For now, Namespaces are single-region only.
  • A Namespace is a security isolation boundary. Access to Temporal by Worker Processes is permitted at the Namespace level. Isolating applications or environments (development, test, staging, production) should take this into consideration.
  • A Namespace is an endpoint. To access a Namespace from a Temporal Client requires mTLS authorization, which requires CA certificates.
  • Workflow Id uniqueness is per Namespace.
  • Task Queue names are unique per Namespace.
  • Closed Workflow retention is per Namespace.
  • RBAC permissions are implemented at the Namespace level.

General guidance​

Namespace configuration requires some consideration. Following are some general guidelines to consider.

  • Namespaces are usually defined per use case. A use case can encompass a broad range of Workflow types and a nearly unlimited scale of concurrent Workflow Executions.
  • Namespaces can be split along additional boundaries such as service, application, domain or even sub-domain.
  • Environments such as production and development usually have requirements for isolation. We recommend that each environment has its own Namespace.
  • Namespaces should be used to reduce the "blast radius" for mission-critical applications.
  • Workflows that need to communicate with each other should (for now) be in the same Namespace.
  • If you need to share Namespaces across team or domain boundaries, be sure to ensure the uniqueness of Workflow Ids.

Examples​

Following are some ideas about how to organize Namespaces.

Example 1: Namespace per use case and environment​

We recommend using one Namespace for each use case and environment combination for simple configurations in which multiple services and team or domain boundaries don't exist.

Sample naming convention:

<use-case>_<environment>

Example 2: Namespace per use case, service, and environment​

We recommend using one Namespace for each use case, service, and environment combination when multiple services that are part of same use case communicate externally to Temporal via API (HTTP/gRPC).

Sample naming convention:

<use-case><service><environment>

Example 3: Namespace per use case, domain, and environment​

We recommend using one namespace per use case, domain, and environment combination when multiple services that are part of the same use case need to communicate with each another via Signals or by starting Child Workflows. In this case, though, you must be mindful about Workflow Id uniqueness by prefixing each Workflow Id with a service-specific string. The name of each Task Queue must also be unique. If multiple teams are involved, the domain could also represent a team boundary.

Sample naming convention:

<use-case><domain><environment>

Sample workflowId convention:

<service-string>_<workflow-id>

How to access a Namespace in Temporal Cloud​

Each Namespace in Temporal Cloud has two unique endpoints, both of which include the Namespace Id.

  • For programmatic access, a gRPC endpoint in the form <NamespaceId>.tmprl.cloud; for example, accounting-production.f45a2.tmprl.cloud:7233.
  • For accessing Temporal Web UI, an HTTPS endpoint in the form https://cloud.temporal.io/namespaces/<namespaceId>; for example, https://cloud.temporal.io/namespaces/accounting-production.f45a2.

To ensure the security of your data, all traffic to and from your Namespace is encrypted. However, for enhanced protection, you have additional options:

How to manage Namespaces in Temporal Cloud​

Manage Namespaces in Temporal Cloud using Temporal Cloud UI​

To list Namespaces:

  • On the left side of the window, select Namespaces.

To edit a Namespace (including custom Search Attributes, certificates, certificate filters, Codec Server endpoint, permissions, and users), find the Namespace and do either of the following:

  • On the right end of the Namespace row, select the three vertical dots (⋮). Click Edit.
  • Select the Namespace name. In the top-right portion of the page, select Edit.

On the Edit page, you can do the following:

To add a user to a Namespace, scroll to the bottom of the page and select Add User.

After you make changes, select Save in the top-right or bottom-left portion of the page.

Manage Namespaces in Temporal Cloud using tcld​

To list Namespaces and get information about them, use the following tcld commands:

To manage certificates, use the tcld namespace accepted-client-ca commands. For more information, see How to manage certificates in Temporal Cloud.

To manage certificate filters, use the tcld namespace certificate-filters commands. For more information, see How to manage certificate filters in Temporal Cloud.

How to delete a Namespace in Temporal Cloud​

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To delete a Namespace, a user must have Namespace Admin permission for that Namespace.

Delete a Namespace using Temporal Cloud UI​

  1. Go to the Temporal Cloud UI and log in.
  2. On the left side of the window, select Namespaces.
  3. On the Namespaces page, select a Namespace Name.
  4. On the Namespace page, select Edit in the upper-right portion of the window.
  5. On the Edit Namespace page, select Delete Namespace in the upper-right portion of the window.
  6. In the Delete Namespace dialog, type DELETE to confirm the deletion of that Namespace.
  7. Select Delete.

Delete a Namespace using tcld​

See the tcld namespace delete command reference for details.