Announcing Flows for APEX v26.1

We are excited to announce Flows for APEX v26.1 - the most significant release of the Flows for APEX BPMN-based business process modeling and workflow project. This release brings autonomous agentic AI directly into your Oracle APEX workflow processes, introduces flexible case management for knowledge workers, adds asynchronous task execution, and deepens support for AI-assisted development.

Flows for APEX v26.1 ships in May 2026 in two editions: a free Community Edition and a commercially supported Enterprise Edition. Read on for the full picture.

Two Editions. One Major Leap Forward.

Community Edition - Free, MIT Licence

The Community Edition continues to be available at no cost under the MIT licence. v26.1 is a maintenance release for Community users, delivering:

Task Parameters - pass structured data into tasks at runtime
Task List Subject Definition - richer, more informative task lists for end users
A range of bug fixes and stability improvements

Enterprise Edition - Major Release, Commercial Licence

The Enterprise Edition is a major release, adding capabilities that fundamentally extend what is possible with process automation in Oracle APEX. Available with full support from Flowquest on a commercial licence, the Enterprise Edition introduces:

Simple Case Management for knowledge workers using BPMN Adhoc Sub Processes
Fully autonomous AI-controlled workflow execution
Human-AI collaboration modes - from AI recommendations through to full autonomy
Asynchronous task execution for long-running scripts and services
Full AI development support - XSD, MCP access, and skills files

What's New in Enterprise Edition

Simple Case Management with Adhoc Sub Processes

Not every business process follows a fixed sequence. Knowledge workers

claims handlers, support agents, case managers - need the freedom to respond to situations as they unfold. Flows for APEX v26.1 introduces BPMN Adhoc Sub Processes to support exactly this kind of flexible, human-driven work.

Within an Adhoc Sub Process, a set of activities is defined in the BPMN model. The knowledge worker sees these as options in an APEX-based Case Workbench, choosing which activities to perform, in what order, based on the specifics of each case. The system handles input parameter collection, layout, completion conditions, and a full log of completed tasks - giving structure without rigidity.

Autonomous AI Workflow Execution

This is the headline feature of v26.1. Flows for APEX can now run Adhoc Sub Processes under AI control - with the AI engine selecting activities, monitoring results, and driving task execution from start to finish.

Three operating modes give you full control over the human-AI boundary:

Fully Autonomous - the AI runs the process end to end
Human with AI Recommendations - the AI advises, a human decides
AI On Demand - human-led, with AI available to assist when called upon

Critically, AI-controlled Adhoc Sub Processes can include human tasks, approval tasks, and deterministic business rules tasks - so AI autonomy integrates with your existing BPMN guardrails rather than bypassing them. All AI decisions are logged with a full rationale, giving supervisors complete visibility into why the AI acted as it did.

Turn Management ensures AI is invoked only where appropriate, preventing runaway automation and keeping humans in control of the overall process.

Asynchronous Task Execution

Long-running script and service tasks have historically created friction in Flows for APEX applications - blocking user sessions and degrading the user experience. v26.1 addresses this directly by allowing these tasks to be moved into a background session, keeping the UI responsive while heavy processing continues independently.

AI-Assisted Development Support

Flows for APEX v26.1 is built to work with modern AI development tooling:

A full XSD definition of all Flows for APEX extensions to BPMN, giving AI coding assistants a precise understanding of the domain-specific modeling language
Scripts to create read-only MCP access to Flows for APEX metadata, enabling AI tools to inspect and reason about live process definitions
Skills files for rapid onboarding of AI development tools to the Flows for APEX environment

Availability

Both Community and Enterprise editions of Flows for APEX v26.1 will ship in May 2026.