Retool endpoints to replace / optimize workflows

Workflows
1

Right now I’m using the workflow endpoint to collect data from a third party and then process it right away. Basically to do some transformation and adding it to a database.

However the third party triggers multiple times for the same event. We filter that.
But this causes a lot of workflow runs that are not needed. Paying 75$ for another 5k runs isn’t suitable for us. It’s inefficient and lazy.

So I’m thinking to do some optimization soon.

I’m also considering to replace a simple workflow with just an api endpoint. This way we can stay below the 5k runs for a while. This means I have to program what I have now in a workflow.
We will create more workflows, until value/price gets better and then the 5k+ is justified.

Now I’m wondering.. has retool a hosted api+endpoint to connect to their apps? Or do only workflows have an endpoint that’s accessible for webhooks?
The information I can find it’s just to generate your own api but it’s for testing right? It’s not to create an app with or to use in production as far as I know.

Does anyone have any suggestions where you can host your api and where maintenance isn’t a hassle? I don’t want to run a server and I rather have everything with retool.

I wish we could prefilter workflow runs :joy:

2

Hi I don't think you do that with Retool.
I've used a javascript based low code tool called Node-RED for over 10 years.
It's flow based just like workflow it has 100s of custom nodes one of which is Postgres.
It also has a function node for pure JavaScript and you can include external libs.

With Node-RED you can create an API end point either REST/Web sockets/Raw TPC/UDP.
The way I currently bridge these platforms is via shared DB but equally it could be my own end-point.

I'm sure this isn't the answer your looking for but it's a low code approach and you should able to reuse a lot of you workflow code.